By Chris Oddo | Sunday, June 8, 2014

 

Rafael Nadal flipped the script in Paris, turning his worst clay season in a decade into one of his most satisfying Roland Garros conquests.

Photo Source: Peter Staples

His latest French Open masterpiece was, more than anything, about resilience. And in the end—yet again—invincibility. Rafael Nadal’s breathtaking march to his record ninth Roland Garros title concluded on Sunday with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic, and all that is left to do is genuflect and break out the thesaurus to look for ways to describe Nadal’s unfathomable greatness at the French Open.

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That is a task that becomes more difficult each year. Having shattered most of the tournament’s records long ago (most career wins, most career titles, most consecutive titles), one would think that the 28-year-old Spaniard would start to lose interest in maintaining his dominance in Paris. But au contraire: his craven hunger to dominate the French Open only seemed to grow in 2014.

“You know how hard is all the things that I am doing here,” Nadal said as he reflected on his long, winding road to his 14th Grand Slam title, which ties him with Pete Sampras for second all-time. “You want to enjoy the moment. You feel your emotions when you are there and you did it, because you know how much you worked to be there. But at the same time, it's not forever. You have a few more opportunities, yes, but you don't know if you're going to win it again.”

This spring, after losing three matches on clay before the French Open for the first time in more than ten years, Nadal seemed to summon new zeal from his misfortunes. Maybe this was the crack in the armor that would lead to the crumbling of the invincible image that lingered in the rest of the tour’s collective mind? Far from it. Where others saw desperation and fading glory, Nadal saw a challenge that he could resonate with, and a source of perpetual motivation that he could use as fuel.

“You find solution because you really want to do it,” Nadal would say after his hard-fought victory, his 23rd against Djokovic in 42 career matches, “because you really want to fight, you really want to find it, you play with the right motivation all the time. And that's why Novak, me, Roger [Federer], last eight years we were there so many times. It's obvious that we are not playing at our best every day, but when we are not playing at our best, we are able to keep believing in the victory, keep fighting for the victory, and keep trying different ways to win the match, no?”

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On Sunday Nadal found the solutions to power himself past Djokovic, a player who has become known to many as Nadal’s own personal kryptonite and the owner of more wins on clay (4) over Nadal than any other player in history, with his trademark aggression, psychological balance and dogged determination.

Dropping a crisp, well-played first set 6-3 only seemed to create in Nadal a sharper focus.

“I think in the second set that the dynamic of the match changed,” he said. “I was able to play more aggressive. I did better things. And even if I was 4-all [in the second set], the real thing was that the match really changed before."

Even as he struggled to get through the seesaw 60-minute second set, played in humid, sunny conditions, he found the answers to Djokovic’s early effrontery, thwarting the Serb in the 12th game with a break of serve that leveled the match.

It would be the first and final big momentum swing in a match that was expected to have more.

“It was very important for me to win that second set,” Nadal told a room full of reporters after the match. “Without that second set, I don't know if I have this trophy with me now.”

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The stark contrast in spirit of the two players became apparent in the following set, as Nadal nestled in comfortably to his role as the confident aggressor in the match. Djokovic, meanwhile, became harried and haggard, gesticulating repeatedly to his coaching box in a confused state of agitation. Nadal, unflustered, pressed all the right buttons and dialed up his focus to run away with the set, 6-2.

“I started, you know, playing quite bad and didn't move as well. Struggled a little bit physically throughout that third set,” Djokovic said. “Then in the fourth started to feel a little bit better, but then just crucial points he played better.”

After falling behind 4-2 in the fourth set, Djokovic rallied to break back in the next game, stoking belief that the pair might be about to play a five-setter in Paris for the second consecutive year. But after Djokovic held for 4-all, Nadal would run off the final two games, including a rally from 0-30 down in the tenth and final game that finished anticlimactically when Djokovic tossed in a double-fault long on Nadal’s first match point.

For a player who has prided himself on comebacks from match point down in Paris and abroad over the years, the final point had to be terribly disappointing for the Serb. After missing his first serve, Djokovic tossed the ball for his second serve then decided against hitting it. When the Parisian crowd booed and hissed at what they perceived to be gamesmanship, they were silenced by umpire Pascal Maria, but the silence in Djokovic’s head never went dead.

“I wasn't playing at the level that I wanted, especially in the second part of the match,” Djokovic said. “You know, that's sport. He was a better player in the crucial moments. Of course it's disappointing for me, but life goes on. It's not the first time or last time that I will lose a match.”

Nadal’s career record of 66-1 at Roland Garros combined with his 90-1 record in best-of-five matches on clay paint a picture of extreme physical domination, but what makes the puzzle of Nadal so difficult for players—even great ones like Djokovic—to solve is that he comes with a multi-pronged arsenal of mental and physical attributes that make him virtually impenetrable. When he is tired, he wins with heart. When he is behind he relies on belief to reel his opponent back to him. When he is off-kilter his calm kicks in. And, of course, when he is firing on all cylinders, his movement and heavy topspin drives have the ability to render any opponent muted.

“Obviously his records speak for themselves,” said Djokovic. “He has won this tournament now nine times. It's very impressive what he's playing on this court. He has lost only once in his career on center court. It's definitely not easy best of five to play against him in these conditions.”

The gaping chasm that now stands between what Nadal has done and what others can only dream of doing has expanded again, and while the Spaniard may be the finest, most athletic specimen to ever step foot on a clay court, he believes that his success correlates directly to his inexhaustible will to win.

“I have won it nine times. That's because I really wanted this,” Nadal said. “You do your best to attain your objective. Where there is a will, there is a way. You do your best to meet your objective.”