Nadal’s 13th Roland Garros and dominance of Big Three in Tennis
Legendry Spaniard Rafael Nadal won his 13th title at the French Open on Monday to equal the record of most grand slams (20 titles) with Roger Federer. He defeated Serbian player Novak Djokovic in a straight three sets (6-0, 6-2, 7-5).
Legendry Spaniard Rafael Nadal won his 13th title at the French Open on Monday to equal the record of most grand slams (20 titles) with Roger Federer. He defeated Serbian player Novak Djokovic in a straight three sets (6-0, 6-2, 7-5). With this win, he became the first player in to win all the four major tournaments without dropping even a single set.
“I never hide that for me, I would love to finish my career as the player with more Grand Slams. No doubt about that. Of course, I care about the records. It means a lot to me to share this number [20] with Roger,” said Nadal in an interview after the win.
The Spaniard did not give even a single opportunity to Djokovic to win over a set while maintaining an upper-hand throughout the game. This was also Nadal’s 100th victory at the Roland Garros (French Open) and 999th ATP tour victory.
His greatest rival in Tennis, Roger Federer lauded him for success. He said, “I hope 20 is just another step on the continuing journey for both of us. Well done, Rafa. You deserve it.”
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) October 11, 2020
How Nadal made it to 13 French Open titles?
The 13th victory of Nadal comes as one of the unbeatable records of all times in the history of Tennis. He won his first Roland Garros title in 2005 and continued his winning streak for four consecutive years. His winning streak broke when he was defeated by Robin Soderling in 2009. By then, he had recorded 31 consecutive victories at the French Open.
This was the year when Roger Federer managed to complete his career Grand Slam in the absence of Nadal. He was defeated by Nadal thrice in the previous finals of the tournament.
Nadal made a comeback in the next year and again won the five consecutive titles of the French Open until 2015. Djokovic had defeated the five-time defending champion, Nadal, in quarterfinals in 2015 while Stan Wawrinka won the title defeating Djokovic in the finals.
In the next year, Djokovic won the French Open defeating Andy Murray. Nadal had withdrawn from the tournament citing wrist injury in 2016.
Rafa returned in 2017 to win his 10th title at Roland Garros and continued his winning streak until he won the 13th title on Sunday in Paris. He is the only player to have won 13 titles of the same tournament.
The Big Three dominance
The Big Three (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic) had been dominating all the four major championships (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) over the last fifteen years. This dominance continued even this year as the French Open’s final was played between the two of the three biggies.
They have won 57 Out of 64 Grand Slam titles since 2004, sparing only seven cups for the rest of the five players who managed to win grand slams in this dominating era of the Big Three. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are the only other players to win more than one grand slam titles during this time.
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Federer and Nadal have both bagged 20 titles each while Djokovic won seventeen titles since 2004. Apart from 13 French open titles, Nadal has bagged one Australian Open, two Wimbledon titles, and four US Open titles.
On the other hand, Roger Federer has dominated the grass-court with eight titles to his name at Wimbledon. Djokovic has had an upper hand on synthetic courts as he owns a total of 11 titles at the Australian and the US Open together.
Federer and Novak could manage to win only once at the Roland Garros since Nadal began ruling the clay court.
