Lawn Tennis
French Open - Roland Garros
Paris, France, May 25-Jun. 8, Grand Slam The French Open - Roland Garros
May 25th-June 8, 2008
Paris, France
French Open - Roland Garros
Paris, France, May 25-Jun. 8, Grand Slam
Rafael Nadal Wins Fourth Consecutive French Open
By Anton Lagani, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Sunday, June 8, 2008 10:35pm CST USA
Rafael Nadal Wins Fourth Consecutive French Open
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
PARIS, France (lawntennismag.com)—Sunday at the French Open in the men's final, world number two Rafael Nadal of Spain crushed world number one Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 to win his fourth consecutive French Open title. Nadal joined Bjorn Bjorg of Sweden as the winner of the most consecutive men's singles titles ever.

Hitting his trademark left-handed topspin groundstokes closer and closer to the lines, Nadal powered to a first set lead of 6-1.

Nadal, who moved to 28-0 at the French Open, also raised his head to head lead versus Federer to 11-6.

Federer stepped up his game to reach 3-3 in set two. But Nadal would only play even better, passing Federer at ease and connecting with almost all attempted groundstrokes to take the last nine games of the match. Federer had not lost a set 6-0 since 1999.

“He no longer plays short balls, the way he did in the past. You can no longer attack him on his forehand, the way I could in the past,” said Federer. “He is getting much more aggressive, and it’s becoming much more difficult. He dominated from the first point until the end.”

Nadal, who moved to 28-0 at the French Open, also raised his head to head lead versus Federer to 11-6. Overall Nadal's claycourt records are staggering. He is 115-2 on clay since 2005 and is 22-1 in claycourt finals and has never lost a match at the French Open, one of the toughest tournaments in tennis.

Nadal's low error count also proved a key in his upset win over Federer as he hit only 7 unforced errors to 35 for Federer. Nadal also is the first man since Borg (1980) to win the French Open without dropping a set.

“I am humble,” Nadal said, “but the numbers are the numbers. I didn’t expect a match like this. I played an almost perfect match. I didn’t believe this match.”

“Roger, I'm sorry,” Nadal said after the 1 hour, 48 minute final, the most one-sided in French Open history since 1977, at the trophy presentation.

Copyright Lawn Tennis 1997-2008 | Home