What a way to close out after 15 days of top-standard grand slam tennis with the men’s singles’ final in this year’s French Open. World No.8 from Norway Casper Ruud did his best to hold out Rafa earlier on between the 1st and 2nd sets. But it’s Rafa who was outstanding for the whole time that blew Ruud away so easily with the championship win at Court Philippe Chatrier; 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.
It’s not the ending Casper Ruud hoped for after he finished runner-up in his first ever grand slam singles’ final at age 23. He showed some fight when trying to catch up to Nadal earlier on, as well as the 2nd set restart where Ruud got the better momentum there. However, a poor opening set start and a lack of 2nd half pull robbed him the chance to shut down Rafa, before he was comfortably beaten without any game registered by the 3rd & final set. What he can learn from his first-ever grand slam final is for Ruud to take out these positives that helped him work his way through this men’s singles draw, and try go go one better later this year at Wimbledon and/or US Open. There’s still plenty of time left to make history of world tennis throughout this 2020s decade.
And once again this is grand slam title No.22, as well as his 14th French Open Championship for Rafa Nadal aka The King of Clay. He fired off comfortably with a decent early lead against Ruud where the Norwegian may have held Rafa back a bit when he was being tested. But he was simply too good where he had the better experience, patience, fightback & execution to pull off from start to finish in three straight sets. It will be interesting to see if Rafa can complete the clean sweep with all four grand slam titles in the one year going into Wimbledon in a few weeks, as well as the US Open in late August-early September. He also just turned 36 a few days ago where this will be his next and last golden target before Rafa retires.
Two grand slams done, two to go. We now turn our attention to The Championships at Wimbledon in London, England, from Monday June 27 to Sunday July 10.
#Tennis #RafaNadal #CasperRuud #FrenchOpen #GrandSlam #RolandGarros #Spain #Norway #CourtPhilippeChatrier #ATPTour
