Rafael Nadal vs Robin Soderling in French Open final
Rafael Nadal will make his return to the French Open final this weekend, after the four-time champion defeated Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(6) in the semis.
Melzer, who has recorded his best results at a Grand Slam at Roland Garros this year, and who staged a comeback from a two set deficit against Novak Djokovic in his quarter-final match, couldn’t pull enough rabbits out of his backwards facing cap to prevent the King of Clay advancing to the final.
While the Austrian journeyman displayed more than a few flashes of brilliance and plenty of fight – in the second set he matched Nadal for winners – the second seed’s superior command of the clay court ultimately proved too much for Melzer to overcome.
Not without a few wobbles as he sought to close out the match though. Serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, Melzer constructed a triple break point opportunity before Nadal gifted him the game with a double fault and the third set headed into a tiebreak.
Melzer took the mini-break and a 2-0 lead before Nadal levelled. Another double-fault handed Melzer the 4-3 advantage; a masterful Nadal lob again levelled the scores at 4-4. Two consecutive mistakes from the 29-year-old handed Nadal two match points; an unreachable dropshot by Melzer drew them level again at 6-6, before Nadal took the tiebreak 8-6 to clinch the victory.
Nadal’s win sets up a final against Robin Soderling, who earlier in the day defeated Tomas Berdych to book his place in the decider.
Perhaps it’s not the final tennis fans were eagerly anticipating at the beginning of the French Open, but it’s the one that after Soderling knocked Roger Federer out of the tournament in the quarter-finals became the next best thing.
And there are plenty of reasons to get excited about this match-up.
Nadal now has his chance to extract revenge over the only man who has ever defeated him at Roland Garros on the biggest stage of all – Philippe Chatrier Court on men’s singles final day – while Soderling now has the opportunity to prove that result wasn’t just a one off occurrence.
Yes, the Swede followed that fourth found victory in Paris with a round robin win over the world No. 2 at the World Tour Finals late last year, but the Nadal who turned up to London’s O2 arena was a shadow of the player he’d been at the start of 2009. After an injury interrupted year, Nadal looked tired and appeared to have shed some muscle mass in the later months of the year.
This Nadal is a completely different prospect. Fit and firing again, the Majorcan swept to three straight Masters 1000 titles on clay this spring – the first time anyone in men’s tennis had completed that trifecta.
If there’s any difference between Nadal’s game this year and in the four years he won the French Open title between 2005 and 2008 it’s that he’s taken some of the topspin off his ground strokes, but that hasn’t been a negative so far.
For Soderling’s part, it’s been a matter of maintaining and improving upon the power game that took him all the way to the final last year. It was a game plan that ultimately proved too hot to handle for Federer, but in his five-set semi-final against Tomas Berdych there were two sets where the 24-year-old let himself down with its execution.
Nadal won’t be so forgiving if Soderling doesn’t play his best tennis from start to finish in the final.
Soderling now has the chance to see his name writ large in the Grand Slam history books, rather than find himself the subject of pub quiz questions for years to come: which player defeated defending champions Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in two consecutive years before going on to lose the final on both occasions, anyone?
For Nadal, it’s the chance to further build upon a legacy that already sees him ranked among the best clay court players men’s tennis has so far seen with a fifth French Open title.
Both will have ample motivation to get the job done in Sunday’s final, but Nadal has been unstoppable on clay all spring, and it’s hard to see that winning run ending here.
Prediction: Nadal to win his French Open fifth title.
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