Roland Garros Part 10.3: 7th heaven and the cruel twist of fate

Wellllllllllllllllllllllll that's the men's final at the French Open finally over with, as the world's two greatest players went at it for the right to make history on both sides, Novak going for the career slam, and Rafa for the record breaking 7th Roland Garros title.

Soooo I'll continue from where the match left off, with the state of play being Rafa with a 2 sets to 1 lead, but Djokovic had the ascendency at this stage with a break up in the 4th at 2-1.  However when play resumed, Djokovic was unable to consolidate his break as Rafa broke back to level the scores 2-2, play from here went on serve until 6-5 (Djokovic servicing at 5 games) Djokovic was handed the cruellest of fates, in that Rafa having dealt a break point opportunity for championship point at 30-40, Djoko doubled faulted to hand the match and championship to Rafa.  With that Rafa had made history winning his 7th Roland Garros title, after a hard fought 3 hours and 49 minutes, with the scoreline reading 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

This was an extraordinary end to what has been a terrific tournament, and thankfully we were given a great finale between the two best players in the world.  Rafa had been in scarily good form throughout the tournament, crushing opponents left, right and centre to reach the final, and it was credit to Djokovic that he was able to push Rafa that far for nearly four hours.  But clearly Djokovic for half the match didn't play his best, as he struggled on serve and made a host of unforced errors, which in the end tallied up to over 50.  And with that loss it saw Djokovic's grand slam winning streak of 27 matches come to an end, and his chance for a career slam, and to hold all four majors at the same time come to an end as well.

And I have to say I felt sorry for Djokovic that he double faulted on such a crucial point to hand the title over to Rafa, and I'm sure that point will haunt him for quite a while, as his shoulders slumped in defeat as he went over to congratulate his opponent, and it was the cruellest way possible to end such a great effort.  It also happened to Djokovic as well when he played in the final of the Rome Masters, but for it to happen in a slam is even more cruel.  And another slightly troubling thing we have seen more of from Djokovic this year, is that his old negative habits have started to resurface, especially as we have seen in the French Open final, with his berating himself and smashing his racquets.  Its a sign that he is going back to the Djokovic of old, and let's face it, we hardly saw that last year, because he did so much winning, but this year with six losses already, we can see that Djokovic is getting more frustrated.   And I think the pendulum has swung for Rafa as that is now three matches he has won against Djokovic, so it looks like he could go a winning streak against the Serb, just like Djokovic did last year, but we will see. 

But this really does show that Rafa is the greatest clay court player of all time and that no matter what that he was going to win the title and make history, and this is undoubtedly his finest clay court season of his career, with 4 titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Roland Garros.  And on this form, there is a chance that Rafa can even wrestle that No.1 slot back from Djokovic come Wimbledon and points wise he can't be that far off the No.1 slot now, so it could be safe to say that Djokovic could lose his title defence at Wimbledon, but we can save that for another day.

Anyway that's the French Open finally over, after three rain delays, and an extra day required to finish the men's title, it has a great tournament, which has seen much controversy on the ladies side, and history on both sides with Rafa win his 7 titles, and Maria Sharapova completing her career slam.

So with that its time for the grass court season to begin, which begins today funnily enough with the AEGON Championships at the Queens club in London today, so more will follow on that.  Andy Murray is the defending champion there, so we will see if he can hold onto his title, and he is highest ranked player in the draw, as Rafa is playing in Halle due to the British tax laws costing him money (its not like he has enough money as it is!) and Djokovic a week off to prep for Wimbledon.

So we will soon find out, and I've always enjoyed watching Queens club tennis, so I look forward to it this week, but they have been hampered by rain delays today as well, so it will be a while before play can commence.

OK that's it for now.