Monday, June 9, 2008

sorry

after 2 weeks of ruthless display of claycourt prowess, finesse, muscle, grit and all-around mastery, rafa won the french open... now 4 years in the running! true to what zel has alwasy told me, i didn't watch the live match. instead, i kept myself glued to other channels, waiting patiently. i checked the score after seeing the sisterhood of traveling pants, and saw 5-0... that was my cue! he won in 3 straight sets, 6-0 in the 3rd set... complete waxing of the great federer! roger only won 4 games, in a final touted to be roger's chance of unseating nadal. cnn immediately flashed the breaking news with the headline, "nadal humiliates federer in french open final".


rafa was even embarrassed to celebrate when roger's final shot sailed long. in the awarding ceremony, the gracious rafa said, "I'm sorry for that final, but you played well." overall, this year's french open was really a good one... ana ivanovic won her first grand slam, while also ascending to the top of the women's game; virginia ruano pascual won her fifth roland garros crown with doubles partner, anabel medina garrigues; first time partners, cuevas and horna took home the men's doubles titles; and bob bryan and victoria azarenka won the mixed.

some great pointers on roland garros men's final:

The men's singles final in figures
Sunday, June 8, 2008
By Guillaume Baraise

2 Rafael Nadal is the second ever champion to have won four consecutive
titles in the French Open’s history. Björn Borg accomplished the same feat
between 1978 and 1981.

2 It is only the second time in the history of the open era that a
singles Grand Slam final line up was identical for three years running. Boris
Becker and Stefan Edberg went head-to-head at Wimbledon in 1988, 1989 and
1990.

3 Roger Federer has notched up three finals so far at Roland
Garros and has lost them all. He has won all twelve other Grand Slam finals he
has played in.

4 It is only the fourth time in the Open era that a men’s singles champion has won without dropping a single set. Before Rafa, only Ilie Nastase in 1973, and Björn Borg in 1978 and 1980 managed this feat.

4 With four victories under his belt, Rafael Nadal has equaled Henri Cochet’s record, who won in 1926, 1928, 1930 and 1932. Only Björn Borg, with six titles, beats the Spaniard in his number of wins at Roland Garros

5 This was the fifth consecutive Grand Slam final to be fought between two Europeans. Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, finalist in the 2007 Australian Open, was the last non-European to play in a major tournament final.

15 This was Roger Federer’s fifteenth Grand Slam final. Only ten players have ever equalled this in the history of the Open. The record is held by Ivan Lendl, who notched up 19 finals.

17 This was Nadal and Federer’s seventeenth head-to-head, and takes the Spaniard’s lead to 11-6.

28 Rafa has won all 28 matches he has played at Roland Garros. He now holds the position of fifth best winning streak in a Grand Slam tournament. The record is 41 consecutive victories, held by Björn Borg at Wimbledon between 1976
and 1981.

44 Rafael Nadal has chalked up his 44th win on the ATP tour this year. He overtakes Novak Djokovic, who has won 37 times so far.

149 Roger Federer’s Grand Slam victory tally stalls at 149. He has now lost a total of 24 times.

2001 The last number one seed to win the men’s singles final was Gustavo Kuerten in 2001.

1.000,000 Nadal takes away a cool one million euros for his win today.

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