Nadal Champion Again, Wins 5th

This morning Rafeal Nadal returned in excellent form  reclaimed his French Open title as the King of clay by defeating Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.  Nadal is far and beyond the best clay court player the game has today with few who can rival him.   Not even the great Roger Federer has been successful in dethroning Rafa on clay when its mattered. He’s 38-1 at Roland Garros and is only the second man to win five titles.  He’ll have the opportunity to tie Bjorn Borg’s record of six titles next year.

By returning to the finals and winning Rafa has surpassed Federer to regain the worlds #1 ranking.  If he continues to play the way he has in this tournament I don’t believe the aging Federer will ever take that title from Nadal again.  Not to say Fed isn’t still great, but Nadal is young and has a lot more years in him.

Robin Soderling has been a force to be reckoned with the past two French Open Finals.  Last year he defeated Nadal on his way to  the Finals only to lose to Roger and this year he defeated Roger only to lose to Nadal.  Soderling is still yet to win a major title but you’d have to imagine it’s in his near future.

Unfortunately today he proved to have an off day and his biggest weapon was no where to be found only landing seven aces.   Nadal’s game plan is to typically run down his opponents and keep them moving through long drawn out points until he either forces them into an error or he puts the hammer down to finish them.  This proved to be too much for Soderling as his game is best served through quick fast points.

The champ never dropped a set winning all 21.  He’ll look ahead now to Wimbledon and the chance to win his second major title on grass.