Nadal regains number one spot, a new woman winner at French Open

On the eve of 6th June, 2010, every Federer fan was praying to god that Nadal wouldn’t win the French Open. But God was too busy listening to Nadal fans.

hhmphh! Another one.

Nadal played 5th seed and the only player to ever defeat Nadal on clay in his home turf Roland Garros, Robin Soderling, entering his second successive French Open final. Last year he played the now former world number one Federer, to be easily defeated in three straight sets. This year he played the clay court king Rafael Nadal in the finals, once again to be disappointed. Robin Soderling lost his match in three straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

Before the match everyone believed that the match would be a terrible and mouth watering battle between the two players and the match would turn out to be as exciting as last year. The match turned out to be exciting, but only in bits and parts. The match wasn’t as challenging as expected. Nadal had no trouble breaking Soderling’s serves whenever it was necessary and gain momentum. In spite of playing an awesome two weeks of tennis Soderling crammed under pressure.

In the second set in spite of having 7 break points, Soderling couldn’t convert any of them in his favor. Nadal took his opportunities, but the unforced errors from the racquet of the 5th seed only made the road to victory for the Spanish easier.

Francesca Schiavone

The third set was in the favor of the 2nd seed the moment Rafa broke Soderling’s serve in his first game itself. The game was clearly in favor of Nadal and till the end of 2hrs and 26 minutes when the game ended Rafa wouldn’t have it any other way. With this win Rafa regains his lost number one spot which he lost to Roger Federer last year after his win in Wimbledon.
On the other hand there was history made in the form of the 17th seed Francesca Schiavone. The first Italian woman to ever win the French Open. She won against the 7th seed Samantha Stosur. The first set was transparently in the pockets of the Italian, but the Australian came back strongly in the second set, which as expected went to the wire. The tie- breaker was hardly a contest between the two champions, with the tie-breaker being an obvious one-sider in favor of the Italian. With 7-2 in the tie-breaker the Italian won the match 6-4, 7-6.

With Nadal regaining his number one spot, and a lot of new blood in great form, Wimbledon promises to be nothing short of exhilarating. With Wimbledon starting on 21st June, it’s definitely worth waiting and seeing what’s to be unfolded. To find out stay tuned to Sportskeeda.