Return of the king

The win,Nadal’s fifth here since 2005,put him second on the all-time list of French Open winners,one behind Bjorn Borg whose last title here came in 1981. He is now 38-1 in matches played at Roland Garros. It was also the second time he had won the French Open title without dropping a set,having first achieved that feat in 2008.

For Soderling it was another cruel finish to the tournament having defeated top seed and title-holder Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. Last year he beat top seed and title-holder Nadal,but lost to Federer in the final. “I played my best match against you otherwise it would have been impossible to beat you,” Nadal told Soderling on the awards podium. In reply Soderling said,“If you continue to play like this you will surely have the chance to win many more. I will be back next year and hopefully it will be third time lucky.”

Fifth seed Soderling procured the first break point of the match in the third game. He failed to convert that though,hitting a backhand long and was made to pay the price.

The fifth seed saved three set points from 0-40 down,but Nadal wrapped up the first set in 55 minutes on serve in the following game.

With dark clouds gathering over Roland Garros,Soderling had a total of four break points for a 2-0 lead early in the second set but,despite having Nadal on the ropes on three of those occasions,he failed to take his chances. Once again the man from Mallorca made him pay a heavy price as he broke the Swede’s serve to love in the fifth game to lead 3-2.

The match was starting to slip away from Soderling and his confidence took another blow when Nadal broke again two games later to lead 5-2. He comfortably served out for a two sets to nil lead. A relentless front-runner,Nadal scented victory and he moved in for the kill by capturing Soderling’s serve to open the third set.

Soderling’s last glimpse of a chance came when he had break point in the following game,but a big Nadal first serve slammed shut the door. The Spaniard simply needed to hold serve four times to win the tournament and that he did comfortably before falling onto his back in triumph.