Roland Garros 2013 – Takeaways from France
1) He’ll always have Paris…
Steven Tignor commented ‘It’s Paris, it’s spring, it’s clay, it’s Rafa.’ Rafael Nadal was the bookmakers’ favorite to win Roland Garros this year and so it has come to pass. By his standards, it was a pretty stressful tournament, but the inevitable semifinal-cum-final against Novak Djokovic was THE defining match of the tournament. They churned out another epic (as they always seem to do) which Nadal won in 5 grueling sets. The final against David Ferrer was a mere formality. Nadal will be back next year to defend his title for an unprecedented 9th time. He now owns the record for the most wins in a single Grand Slam with 8. Robin Soderling’s victory over Nadal in 2009 in Roland Garros seems to have reached mythical proportions just about now. Enough said, you might think. But you can sense that Novak Djokovic bridged the gap in Paris. Which leads us to…