Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will face one another in the men’s final of the 2011 Roland-Garros French Open. The semi-finals went on into the late evening with Djokovic refusing to cede his chance at becoming world number one to the Swiss veteran.
Rafa beat Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 after the Scot failed to convert more than three of his eighteen break points. The Spaniard kept his cool despite some gruelling games and took a classy score sheet to the final.
Roger Federer, meanwhile, had a testing four set match against a recently unbroken record of wins by Novak Djokovic. The pair exhibited some of the very finest tennis at the Paris club with powerful rallies from the baseline. Djokovic “the joker” was in good spirits, even applauding some of the astounding shots from Federer.
Federer looked comfortable moving around the court and Djokovic slipped a couple of times on the clay, but there was very little between the powerful play and calm, precision serves of both players. The Serbian finally conceded in a tie-break to a final superb serve from the Swiss master who has a match win to loss ratio of 7:1 over nearly 1000 matches.
The final score in the Djokovic v Federer Semi-Final was 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5).
In This Story: Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most in history for a male player, as well as 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 21 ATP Tour 500 titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles and the 2016 Olympic gold medal in doubles. In addition, Nadal has held the world No. 1 ranking for a total of 209 weeks, including being the year-end No. 1 five times.
In majors, Nadal has won a record twelve French Open titles, four US Open titles, two Wimbledon titles and one Australian Open title, and won at least one Grand Slam every year for a record ten consecutive years (2005–2014). Nadal has won 85 career titles overall, including the most outdoor titles in the Open Era (83) and a record 59 titles on clay. With 81 consecutive wins on clay, Nadal holds the record for the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.
Nadal has been involved in five Davis Cup titles with Spain, and currently has a 29-win streak and 29–1 record in singles matches at the event. In 2010, at the age of 24, he became the seventh male player and the youngest of five in the Open Era to achieve the singles Career Grand Slam. Nadal is the second male player after Andre Agassi to complete the singles Career Golden Slam, as well as the second male player after Mats Wilander to have won at least two Grand Slams on all three surfaces (grass, hard court and clay).
Books #Ad
