Rafael Nadal and Justine
Henin refuse to lose in Paris. The opposition is of no
concern. The state of their games outside the confines of
Stade Roland Garros is of no concern. Tennis fans that crave
the challenges and dogfights that clay courts traditionally
provide are of no concern. Perhaps most importantly,
doubters who predict their eventual downfall each year are
of no concern. Nadal and Henin - the long-reigning king and
queen of clay - are unstoppable.
Both players won a third consecutive Roland Garros title in
Paris this year. For 2003 champion Henin, it is a fourth
French Open crown overall, and for Nadal the title caps an
amazing three years on the terre battue that have seen him
post a whopping 21-0 career record at the French Open. If
Nadal plays the French Open, Nadal wins the French Open. The
intimidating Majorcan and talented Belgian were barely
threatened throughout seven matches. As a result, their
stranglehold over all others on the red clay reduced the
once-gripping major tournament into a predictable snoozefest.
For the second consecutive year, Nadal’s opponent in the
championship match was Roger Federer. Federer, the otherwise
dominant world number one, has now succumbed to Nadal at the
French three years running. Nadal dropped his only set of
the event against Federer, but quelled any hopes of a mutiny
by snapping Federer's serve early in the next two sets and
never looking back. Federer went 0-for-10 on break point
opportunities in the first set alone and converted only once
in seventeen chances overall. Simultaneously, Nadal's
tenacious defense and pounding offense broke the Federer
serve; broke the Federer spirit; and, eventually, broke
Federer's heart. Roger seemed desperate midway through the
final set. He slashed at shots in an athletically rushed
kamikaze mission that revealed no glory before ending in
demise. Nadal once again thwarted the Swiss super talent's
quest to obtain the only prize in tennis that has eluded
him.
Federer is not alone, of course. Rafael Nadal does this to
everyone he plays throughout the event. Nadal most likely
intimidates opponents he never even faces via the sheer
terror that comes with the imagined possibility of taking
court against Rafael's brutal topspin assault. Nonetheless,
Federer has more at stake than most and is additionally the
man most unaccustomed to losing. It is an ironic reversal of
fortune for Federer to be so dominated by Nadal, as
countless players have lost their shot at a greater place in
tennis history while competing in the shadow of the mighty
Fed. American Andy Roddick, the U.S. Open champion in 2003,
is looking more and more like a "one-slam wonder" with each
season; however, Andy would most certainly have bagged a
trophy or two at Wimbledon were it not for Federer. Former
number one Lleyton Hewitt claimed two Slams before Federer
rose to prominence, but he has been humbled in attempts to
hold court with Roger at majors since, his periodic
resurgences always mocked by the all-court game of the
reigning world number one.
Solidly sitting in second place on the ATP Tour rankings,
Nadal has little fear of Federer on any surface and none
whatsoever of Roger in Paris. In France, Federer is given a
dose of his own medicine when he plays Rafael Nadal, and it
is the world number one who searches for miracles that do
not come against a seemingly unbeatable rival.
It is a welcome change for fans of the sport to see Federer
face some sort of challenge, yet his frustrations and lack
of fight in the past two French Open finals leaves much to
be desired. It will be interesting in the next few years to
see how Roger Federer responds to this annual defiance of
his legacy. Will he become consumed with winning in Paris?
Ivan Lendl was maddeningly fixated with victory on the lawns
of Wimbledon; Bjorn Borg's failure to win in New York
ultimately sent him into early retirement; and Pete Sampras
too pined for a title run on the red clay.
Each of these greats tried
and each of these great failed. It's hard to say whether
Lendl was more naturally uncomfortable on grass than Pete
Sampras was on clay or vice versa, and the chaos of New York
was ever an affront on the stoic Borg's personality, but
Federer has the tools to succeed where his fellow greats
have faltered. Federer was raised playing on red clay and
has won his fair share of big titles on the surface. Perhaps
this reason to hope, however, is all the more cause for
pain. He can foreseeably contend for the French Open title
for the next few years and – no matter the surface – Roger
Federer is too good a player to let any one opponent
dominate him so thoroughly. Still, it continues to happen
and will thusly continue to haunt a man who has the
potential to end his career being widely considered the
greatest player ever to hold a racquet. A French Open title
would further solidify that designation; a title which,
after the most disappointing dismissal from Nadal yet, may
seem to Federer a lot further away than the 351 days he must
wait to try again.
Prior to the start of the women's event, Justine Henin
suffered the perceived misfortune of a terrible draw, as she
was slated to play what most observers considered a de facto
final against Australian Open champion Serena Williams in
the quarterfinals. A focused and ferocious Serena had won
every significant match she played in 2007. The 2002 Roland
Garros champion, Williams has a history of success in Paris
and had openly spoken of her intention to go for a calendar
year Grand Slam by winning a second title on the red dirt.
If anyone could challenge Henin's reign, certainly it would
be Serena Williams. With the tournament all but on the line,
however, Serena Williams succumbed meekly to Henin's
superior mobility and greater understanding of the Parisian
courts.
Henin's defeat of Serena and unhindered run to the title was
significant. The victory marks Justine's sixth overall Grand
Slam championship, surpassing contemporaries such as Venus
Williams and Martina Hingis. More intriguingly, it puts her
within spitting distance of Serena's total of eight majors,
particularly given Henin's consistency in Grand Slams over
the course of the past two seasons. She has reached the
final of the last five major events she's entered and – if
she continues that pace – will have many more opportunities
to advance her tally than the equally dangerous but far less
reliable Serena.
There was cause for the tiny country of Serbia to be proud,
as up-and-coming players Novak Djokovic, Jelena Jankovic,
and Ana Ivanovic enjoyed long-awaited breakthroughs in a
major event. Djokovic is a Grand Slam champion in waiting
who used his smooth, all-court game to reach the semifinals
of a major for the first time. Jankovic advanced to her
second Slam semifinal and thereby ascended to a career-high
number three in the world. Ivanovic - the 19-year-old vision
whose groundstokes are as powerful as her face is beautiful
- did Novak and Jelena one better by advancing to the
championship match before being overwhelmed by the occasion
and Henin. The likeable Serbian threesome gleaned the only
joy out of the tournament that wasn't collected by Nadal or
Henin, as it seemingly took an entire country to divert even
the slightest bit of attention from the eventual champions.
The United States also used its collective power to gain
headlines earlier in the event, although for all the wrong
reasons: no American man survived the tournament's first
round for the first time in Open Era history.
So crushing on the red clay are Nadal and Henin that the
weight of their dominance could easily pulverize the red
bricks that compose terre battue all by itself. As Nadal
holds back history and Henin creates it, they are sometimes
cast as villains against more popular would-be champions.
This is a disservice to the game of tennis. Their
achievement should not be overlooked or discredited in any
way. Nadal is a gracious, affable young man who is living up
to his athletic gifts and fulfilling his promise in ways
that few could have imagined; how often do tennis fans and
prognosticators lament a player's inability to live up to
expectations? Yet here is Nadal creating his own impressive
legacy within the Federer era and many choose to revile
rather than celebrate him. Henin, who is admittedly less
warm of a personality than Nadal, is equally deserving of
unabashed praise. In a women's game that has evolved to
reward Amazonian statures and unrelenting power, the 5' 5"
tall Belgian sits stylishly atop the WTA rankings via
unsurpassed versatility, shot making, and a fighting heart
that towers above the will of much more physically imposing
women.
Nadal is now the second man since 1914 to win three
consecutive French Open titles alongside the legendary Bjorn
Borg, who won four in a row from 1978-1981, while Henin is
the first woman to three-peat in Paris since Monica Seles in
1992. Borg holds the men's record for most French wins at
six and tennis icon Chris Evert holds the all-time record at
seven. With no apparent clay-court capable challengers on
the horizon, suddenly both of those records appear within
reach for Rafa and Justine. The clay-stained duo of
dictators seems poised to continue their dominance, because
they allow their fellow players no room to breathe. Nadal
and Henin’s grip on the French Open cuts off their peers’
competitive oxygen supply; deprived of air and deprived of
hope, they fall to sleep in a bed of crimson dust and wallow
resigned to the fate of being nothing more than mere
dreamers who occasionally wake to see the championship
trophies sparkling in the grasp of more capable hands.
