The 'King of Clay' makes it 10!

[JohnS]

Rafael Nadal made it 10 French Open titles on Sunday when he defeated Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in a little over 2 hours. Wawrinka had won all his previous 3 major titles (French, Australian and U.S. Opens) but he had no answer for the 'King of Clay' who has now won 79 matches at Roland Garros and lost only two. Only Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2015 have defeated Nadal at Roland Garros. 2017 is a remarkable comeback for Nadal (and Federer) after injury. This win takes his career Garand Slam Singles titles to 15 overall, going past Pete Sampras' 14 and 3 behind Roger Federer's total of 18 career titles. Nadal won all his games this year at the French Open in straight sets, Robin Haase in the second round won 8 games in his match, the most of all Nadal's opponents.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/06/11/the-king-of-clay-rafael-nadal-rolls-to-his-10th-french-open-championship/?utm_term=.e3319037167f

The 10th title also represents the last time his Uncle Toni will coach him prior to his retirement.

http://au.eurosport.com/tennis/french-open-men/2017/french-open-2017-king-of-clay-rafael-nadal-hails-uncle-toni-after-10th-title_sto6211642/story.shtml

Players who have won five or more singles titles at one Grand Slam tournament:

Titles     Player              Grand Slam

10    Rafael Nadal         French Open

7     Richard Sears        U.S. Championships

       William Renshaw   Wimbledon Championships

       William Larned      U.S. Championships

       Bill Tilden              U.S. Championships

       Pete Sampras       Wimbledon

       Roger Federer      Wimbledon

6     Roy Emerson        Australian Championships

       Björn Borg             French Open

       Novak Djokovic     Australian Open

5     Laurie Doherty      Wimbledon

       Björn Borg            Wimbledon

       Jimmy Connors    US Open

       Pete Sampras      US Open

       Roger Federer     US Open

       Roger Federer     Australian Open

[Cep]

Yep. Unreal!  (But only on clay ;))

[JohnS]

3 minutes ago, Cep said:

Yep. Unreal!  (But only on clay ;))

Yes, agreed. I watched the coverage on EuroSport last night and the commentators remarked that only Novak Djokovic at his very best could have been competitive with 'Rafa'. The spin he gets on his groundstrokes is the reason for his great success on clay, but this is nullified on the other grand slam court surfaces of course.

[Cmelle]

What a great tournament he played. Only conceded 35 games. Almost a record.

Bjorn Borg won the French Open in 1978 only conceding 32 games. Nadal is right behind him.

I thought I'd never see him win another grand slam with all his injuries. And to come back from injury and win with the second least amount of games lost, is just remarkable. 

I'm a big fan of Rafa. 

I'm hoping for another Federer v Nadal final at Wimbledon. That would truly be epic. 

[Cep]

True, but Nadal could not win that final.....