Rafael Nadal of Spain was set to face the World No.1 Serbia's Novak Djokovic for the Roland Garros 2012 crown.But it wasn't just the French Open title at the stake ; there was history associated with the match.The match was a record in itself even before it had started because Nadal and Djokovic were facing each other in the final of a grandslam for the fourth consecutive time ; a feat that had never been accomplished before.If Rafa could win the match, he would've established his supremacy on clay and beat Bjorn Borg's record of six French Open titles and if Djokovic could somehow manage to beat Nadal in the final , he would've become the third player ever to win all four grandslams consecutively and the first player since Road Laver ,who did so 43 years ago.
The weather of Paris was totally overcast and it was being predicted that the match couldn't be started or even if it was started, it would've to be postponed till Monday or even Tuesday. But both the players came out on court and the match was begun with Novak Djokovic serving first. Nadal's intentions became very clear when he broke Djokovic in the first game of the match and then took a 3-0 lead before Nole finally won his first service game. But Rafa's advantage of break didn't last too long and he was broken by Djokovic in the fifth game of the match which was followed by Nole holding his serve to equalize 3-3. Both the men then held their sevice games before Nadal again dominated Djokovic to go 5-4 up in the first set. Nadal then closed out the first set with ease in 58 mins. with a score of 6-4.
Everyone expected Djokovic to make a strong and immediate comeback in the second set but unfortunately for Nole, that wasn't the case.The second set started off in much similar fashion with Djokovic falling behind initially but then recovering to take a brief 3-2 lead. Rafa,however, remained on the same path of destruction and grasped the break yet again to get the lead 4-3.After a brief weather interruption, Rafa again took the court with Djokovic serving on 5-3 in Nadal's favour. The Mallorcan again broke the Serbian to pocket the second set 6-3.
At this stage,it was becoming clear that Rafa wouldn't be facing any resistance at all against Djoker but then the match had an odd twist. In the third set , Rafa raced to a 2-0 lead but then shockingly began to drop games one after the other and ended up losing the third set 6-2. During the third set , it was evident that Nadal was clearly unhappy with the wet and rainy conditions which was making the balls heavy and smeared with clay.At one point during the match , Rafael even threw a rain-sogged ball at the chair umpire.The fourth set again proved out to be lucky for Djoker who broke Rafa and took the lead of 2-0.But then Nadal,who had lost eight straight games at that point, was finally able to break the jinx and win a service game.At this point, the tournament organizers decided to stop the match for the second time because of the heavy rainfall that had started to pour down.After an hour or so , it was announced that match had been postponed till 1pm local time Monday. Definitely the advantage of postponement of the match laid with Rafa whose title reign was put in jeapordy by the form that Nole had found late in the match.
With overcast conditions still on ,both the players came out on the court and the match was resumed.Rafa,clearly, was the more fresher of the two men and got the break back immediately to level the fourth set 2-2.Nadal then held on to his service games tightly and so did Djokovic. At 5-4 when Djokovic was about to serve to level 5-5, rain started to shower once again but this downpour was just brief as both the players were on the court again after a few minutes with Rafa looking to break Djokovic to make history. But Djokovic definitely wasn't going down witout a fight and he held on to level the score 5-5. Rafa survived a scare in his next service game but managed to hold on and make the score 6-5. Djokovic now served to remain in the championship.Both the players fought hard to make the score 30-30 on Nole's serve. But then to the utmost amazement of everyone, Rafa made a strong return to set the championship point for himself. Nole,who was under a lot of pressure now, faulted and the double-faulted to give Nadal his 7th Roland Garros title. Nadal fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands, then clambered into the stands to hug his family. He had accomplished what he had been chasing since the start of his career. Rafael had now become the real 'King of Clay' and the' King of Roland Garros'. He had registered his name as the greatest player ever to play on clay by surpassing Bjorn Borg who had won six titles in his career.Nadal just dropped one set in the entire red clay court saeson en route to his historic win.
Windy conditions,wet clay,soggy balls, play suspension or sunlight ; nothing could stop the King of Clay from reaching his record 7th Roland Garros title and his fourth title of the season.Nadal had lost the three previous grandslam final meetings between the two players.By claiming this win, Rafa now has a 52-1 career record on clay(with his only loss coming against Robin Soderling in 2009).“This tournament is, for me, the most special tournament of the world.It was a very difficult match against the best player in the world,” Nadal said. “I lost three Grand Slam finals — Wimbledon, the U.S. Open last year, and the Australian Open this year. I’m very happy, very emotional.”
Here are the highlights of the last game of the historic match :
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