It was yet another sensational final that took place at the French Open today. As was expected, he masters met again to fight it out for the supremacy over clay. With the win over Federer here, Nadal equalled the record of Bjorn Borg for the most number of consecutive French Open titles won by an individual – four.

Nadal began the match with an aggressive stance which he held onto throughout the entire match. I’ve always known Nadal’s best strength as his backhand return across the court. I was pretty much impressed with his forehand shots as well. He restrained from getting to the nets – he did so on only three or four occasions. As usual, he was his athletic best; running all over the court and springing onto the ball and firing strong returns at Federer. He won comprehensively in 3 straight sets (6-1 6-3 6-0) never giving Federer an upper hand all through the game. By equaling the world record, Rafael Nadal yet again proclaimed himself as the King of Clay.

As for Roger Federer, it was definitely not the day he would have ever dreamed on waking up to. Everything went against him today. He had a massive 40+ unforced errors by the end of the match as compared to Nadal’s 5 or 6. I have never seen Roger Federer being vanquished at tennis in straight sets, without winning a single break point. For all the Federer fans (including me) this was an extraordinarily disappointing performance by a man who is always expected to win! He seemed stumped, sluggish and his shots lacked the intensity with which he always played. His strategy of playing closer to the nets proved costly, not-to-mention a lot of unlucky net shots landing outside the court. He plunged into pressure from the beginning of set two, and never looked like winning. From then on, it was Nadal’s show.

The match got over in less than two hours and Nadal winning in straight sets, dampened the much awaited fight between the masters. Not much to say about the match; but for Federer the defeats at clay will haunt him for years to come.