It seemed that the Spaniard coped best with the hot conditions in Paris as he won 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4 in three hours and 31 minutes.
Nadal has become the first man in history to win a major nine times, taking his grand slam total to 14.
His victory at Roland Garros also means that he remains world number one ahead of Djokovic.
"In matches like this every moment is crucial. Playing against Novak is always a big challenge, I had lost against him the last four times," Nadal said on court.
"I feel sorry for him today, he deserves to win this tournament."
The French Open is one grand slam that Djokovic has never won, and Nadal put an end to his dreams for a third year in a row.
''Congratulations to Rafa and his team, it is incredible to win this tournament nine times," Djokovic said.
"It was an emotional day. I have tried with all my power, my strength, my capacities but Rafa was the strongest on court."
Nadal has a glorious track record at Roland Garros. He's won 66 games and has only been defeated once. No wonder why then any opponent of the Spaniard may weep slightly when the tournament draw is revealed.
In the first set it looked like Nadal's impeccable record would be under threat after his forehand let him down and he let Djokovic take the set.
Nadal made his move in the second set when he broke 4-2, only to then lose the advantage straight away as the nervous errors returned in the following game.
The Serb faltered badly with a tie-break in sight, leading to a double fault and a forehand error before Nadal smashed a forehand winner to level the score.
From then on Djokovic's momentum was damaged and the Serbs ambitions of winning the grand slam appeared to fade thereafter.
The second set dumped a straightforward volley into the net in the third set. Djokovic then took some tablets to improve his condition.
Could Nadal smell victory, it appeared that way. The world number one broke twice on his way to taking the set which left Djokovic in disbelief.
Djokovic hit another poor volley and a wild backhand into the tramlines saw him fall 4-2 behind in the fourth set, but Nadal was now having issues, bending over in some discomfort and badly timing a smash to give the break straight back.
Has the sun faded in Paris, it was quite the opposite for Djokovic's performance, he appeared to launch a fresh assault for the title.
A super backhand pass helped Nadal to match point. Djokovic fired his second serve long handing the French Open title to Nadal for the ninth time.
No comments:
Post a Comment