While Mexico won a crucial game 3-1 versus Iran which should take them to round 2 on Day 3 of the WC, I will take a moment to focus on Nadal and his French triumph. Nadal has dominated like few have in tennis history this clay court season. Indeed, it can be seen as he has notched up the consecutive victories on clay record while remaining unbeaten through the season. Despite Nadal being the favourite to win the match versus Federer, a lot of people, including me backed Federer to win the the tournament. Perhaps there was a feeling that Federer would have the last laugh. After all, Federer does know a trick or two about tennis!

It looked like Federer could for a few moments as Federer took the first set 6-1. That would be all though, as Nadal claimed the French Open for the second consecutive time. No one will grudge Nadal as it would be a pity from the Nadal viewpoint if after such a fabulous season, he would have failed to win what really mattered. For Federer, it is his bad luck that he lives in the era of Nadal. Similarly, he is lucky he doesn’t live in the era of Sampras. Also, earlier eras have season superb clay court players as well - Muster and Kuerten most notably from the recent past. A champion has to stride over adversity and opponents and Federer knows that.

What will be interesting now - can Nadal up his game on other surfaces? The test will come as the grass court season starts. The tennis focus shifts to Wimbledon now. Don’t know how many of you will care though in the world cup madness!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Tennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.