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Nadal Captures His Eighth French Open Title Nadal Captures His Eighth French Open Title
(about 4 hours later)
PARIS — David Ferrer never looked overwhelmed by the occasion in his first Grand Slam singles final, only overwhelmed by the opponent. PARIS — David Ferrer did not look overwhelmed by the occasion in his first Grand Slam singles final, only overwhelmed by the opponent.
“Nadal, always Nadal,” Ferrer said before Sunday’s match.“Nadal, always Nadal,” Ferrer said before Sunday’s match.
So it seems at Roland Garros, the world’s most prestigious tournament on clay. Rafael Nadal already had set the all-time men’s record last year by winning his seventh French Open singles title. On Sunday, he has put more space between himself and Bjorn Borg by winning his eighth. So it must seem at the French Open, the world’s most prestigious claycourt tournament. Rafael Nadal already had set a men’s record last year by winning his seventh singles title at Roland Garros. On Sunday, he created even more space between himself and Bjorn Borg, the great Swedish champion, by winning his eighth.
He did it on a dreary, drizzly afternoon in Paris by defeating Ferrer, his Spanish friend and compatriot, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. He also became the first man in history to win eight singles titles at the same Grand Slam tournament.
As feared, Sunday’s match was an anticlimax after the emotional and tactical heights scaled in the semifinals when Nadal had to rally in the final set to defeat Novak Djokovic 9-7 in the fifth. Nadal did all that by gathering strength on a dreary, drizzly afternoon in Paris and beating Ferrer, his 31-year-old friend and Spanish compatriot, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Ferrer, a 31-year-old seeded No. 4, had not lost a set on his way to the final, but he could not come close to winning a set against Nadal, who has dominated their head-to-head rivalry. In terms of the forehands and backhands, it was one of the more straightforward of Nadal’s eight finals in Paris. The only time he looked genuinely rattled was when he dropped his serve late in the second set after a bare-chested protester wearing a white mask and carrying a flare managed to leap a barrier and get onto the court.
There is no indignity in that, of course. Nadal is the only member of the so-called Big Four to have a head-to-head edge over all the other members of the club: Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. But the path to this suspense-free Sunday had more than its customary share of uncertainty. There were the knee problems that kept Nadal off tour for seven months until February. And there was the brilliance and ambition of Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 player, who beat Nadal on clay in Monte Carlo in April and came within a few points of knocking him out of this tournament in the semifinals on Friday.
At 27, he has more years of potential excellence ahead, and the riddle of Nadal’s game on red clay — whether rain-soaked or sun-soaked — is one of the great conundrums of contemporary sport. “It’s clear this year means something very special to me,” Nadal said. “Five months ago nobody in my team dreamed of a comeback like this, because we thought it would be impossible. But here we are today, and that’s really fantastic and incredible.”
His record at Roland Garros is a very-near-perfect 59-1, with the only loss coming in the fourth round in 2009 against Robin Soderling. Sunday’s match with Ferrer was indeed an anticlimax after the emotional and tactical heights scaled in that semifinal in which Nadal had to rally to win, 9-7, in the fifth.
“I never realized something like this would be able to happen, but now here we are,” Nadal said in his postmatch remarks to the crowd, many of whom listened under the cover of umbrellas and ponchos. A lesser champion might have suffered a letdown, but Nadal — a world-class worrier who has yet to strike an overconfident note in his career — kept his eye on the usual prize and kept delivering lengthy, even impassioned, rebuttals to anyone who had the temerity to suggest that Ferrer might not pose much of a threat.
It was a full-wardrobe French Open, with the necessary gear ranging from winter jackets to linen shirts; from watchman’s caps to Panama hats. And on Sunday the tournament returned to its first-week habits with chill, gloom and ultimately rain that sometimes resembled a downpour. “If I don’t play perfect, I’m going to have a big chance to lose,” Nadal said before the match. “It’s impossible to arrive in the final of Roland Garros without losing a set if your game is not at a very high level.”
At one stage early in the third set, Ferrer, warm-up jacket zipped up and racket safely stowed away in his bag, looked reluctant to return to the court after a changeover. But after a discussion with a chair umpire, Cedric Mourier, he trotted back to the baseline and resumed fighting against a force majeure. It was true that Ferrer, seeded No. 4, had not lost a set on his way to the final, but despite all his hustle and exquisite timing close to the baseline, he could not come close to winning a set against Nadal, who has dominated their head-to-head rivalry, winning 20 of their 24 matches.
There is no indignity in that, of course. Nadal is also the only member of the so-called Big Four to have a head-to-head edge over all the other members of that club: Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.
“In his era, he’s dominating the very best competition,” said Jim Courier, the two-time French Open champion. “It’s going to take something really marvelous for any of those players to get back on even terms.”
With 12 Grand Slam singles titles, Nadal is now tied for third on the career list with Roy Emerson behind Federer’s 17 and Pete Sampras’s 14.
Nadal, 27, has more years of potential excellence ahead and solving the riddle of his game on red clay — whether rain-soaked or sunbaked — remains one of the great conundrums in modern sport.
His record at Roland Garros is 59-1 with the only loss coming in the fourth round in 2009 against Robin Soderling.
That is the kind of big-moment dominance that the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, a six-time Olympic gold medalist, could certainly relate to as he watched from the front row on the Philippe Chatrier Court.
“This is my first time seeing tennis live,” Bolt said. “For me, it’s outstanding to see a champion like that.”
As Bolt handed over the trophy, much of the crowd watched under the cover of umbrellas and ponchos.
It was a full-wardrobe French Open with the necessary gear ranging from winter jackets to linen shirts; from watchman’s caps to Panama hats.
“I don’t like to play in these conditions, probably my opponent neither,” Nadal said.
At one stage early in the third set, Ferrer, warmup jacket zipped up and racket safely stowed away in his bag, looked reluctant to return to the court after a changeover. But after a discussion with the chair umpire Cedric Mourier, he trotted back to the baseline and resumed fighting against a force majeure.
“Rafael, I think he has the best mentality I ever seen in my career,” Ferrer said. “He has everything, no?”
Ferrer then went on to cite everything from Nadal’s touch around the net to his powers of recovery. In truth, it looked for much of the match as if Ferrer understood perfectly well what patterns were needed to beat Nadal. The problem, as ever, was in the sewing and even when it appeared that all the stitches were in place, Nadal often ripped them up with an off-balance forehand winner out of the blue (or the gray in the case of Sunday’s weather).
While Ferrer had to throw everything he had into his shots to make a breach in Nadal’s defenses, Nadal possesss the power and one-off technique to produce big trouble from less obvious positions of strength.
Consider what happened with Ferrer serving at 0-1, 30-15 in the second set and Nadal ripped six winners in a row — two off deep and seemingly worthy shots from Ferrer — on his way to a 3-0 lead. Or consider what happened with Nadal serving at 3-1, when Ferrer had four break points and made so many of the supposedly right choices and was still unable to prevent Nadal from holding.
It would take outsiders to shake Nadal’s concentration. With Nadal leading by 5-1, the intruder with the flare — a protester, according to the French police — came onto the clay and was quickly captured by security guards and taken off court.
It was not the first such incursion during a men’s final. In 2009, an intruder lept on the court and tried to put a cap on Federer in the midst of his match against Robin Soderling.
“I felt a little bit scared at the first moment, because I didn’t’ see what was going on,” Nadal said. “I got a bit scared the first second but then I see it’s one of these things that nobody can prevent and just can say thank you very much to all the security guys. They did just amazing work.”
French Open tournament officials later announced that there were multiple arrests in all at Roland Garros on Sunday with protesters also lighting flares and displaying banners criticizing the French president, Francois Hollande, in the upper reaches of the Suzanne Lenglen Court.
France has experienced a series of recent protests against Mr. Hollande’s successful legislation to legalize same-sex marriages and give same-sex couples the same right to adopt children. The protest movement, which included religious leaders and social conservatives, argued that all children should have a mother and a father and should not be in ignorance of their real parentage. The protesters adopted pink as their color. The protests broadened to include those generally opposed to Hollande and were marred by small groups of radical protesters who clashed with police. The law went into effect last month.
Nadal did not address the source of Sunday’s protests. He had other questions to answer: including some about his troublesome left knee, which is obviously much improved even if he will skip the grass-court event this week in Halle, Germany, and return to Spain to recover before Wimbledon.
He will try to win a third title there, but the bigger question for the chattering tennis classes on Sunday was how many French Opens he will ultimately win.
Nadal, true to what has brought him this far, was in no mood to speculate.

Steven Erlanger contributed reporting.