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Roger:”Can i have this trophy in this plate?”

The king of clay, Rafael Nadal defeated the world number one & top seed Roger Federer to clinch his fourth consecutive title at Roland Garros from 2005-’08. But Rafa had his name in record books for more reasons than one. He became only the second person after legendary Bjorn Borg to achieve this feat of four consecutive French Open titles. He now has 28 matches winning streak at Roland Garros and has a 100% record i.e. he has not loast a match yet at French Open. that shows just how dominant Nadal is on clay!

He defeated Federer easily(or was it Federer’s bad luck+ bad play+ low confidence) 6-1 6-3 6-0 in a one sided, low quality final. One expects a better fight at least if not a great fight from the world number one, some one hailed as probably the greatest player this sport has ever seen! Federer won just four games in total and the match itself lasted some 1 Hr 48 Mins which is lowest in terms of duration in French Open history in some 20 odd years.

Taking nothing away from Nadal (i though he played awesome,just seven unforced error,hitting the ball in the part of court he wanted. He dint put a foot wrong) Federer dint play upto his reputation barring a few bright “patches” of play.

While everything was going right for Rafa, nothing seemed to be working for the Swiss. it was not that he dint try,he tried but things were just not falling in place for him. He came to the net acknowledging the fact that he cant go pass Nadal by playing from baseline in Nadal’s own den. But Federer who is so good at volleys just could not help the ball crtoss over to the Nadal’s part of court. He hit many balls in the net and those which he managed to get past the net were so accurately (sarcasm) hit behind the Nadal’s service box that he was actually taking advantage of the short ball and hitting it past Roger who was standing at net,watching the ball go pass him,helplessly.

Other disappointment was that he dint play enough drop shots which my god,i think every one will agree too, he plays so precisely that the opponent doesnt get a chance to return it. He dint use it to break those long rallies and kept waiting for Nadal to commit an error while he(Nadal) just played one ruthless shot each time in midst of defensive play and got away with it. Federer eventually lost most of the long rallies .

He also lost at crucial points where it was important for him to hold his serve or break Nadal’s.

Final nail in the coffin was Federer’s second serve which was so horrible that he only managed to win only about 1/5th (5/24) points off his 2nd serves. That helped Nadal win crucial break points.

Was he unsure himself or low on confidence? Well i cant imagine a player as complete as Roger unsure about winning on any surface. But it looked as if he was not getting the feel of his shots enough to make him feel,”yes i can do it”.

As a side note,if you are a Roger fan,before you jump to any conclusion about my views, first note that im a huge huge Federer fan myself. This write up is a result of my expectations which were not fulfilled. I was upset and that shows. Im being no critic of the great guy, and of course i can not be,i am no one but his fan. Im sure he will come back next year. I hope he wins Wimbledon.

If you are a Nadal fan, he played awesome,nobody doubts that. Its just match could/should have been better has Federer played he way he plays.

Roger says he will try again next year.

~AMEN