Rafael Nadal defeated Casper Ruud to win the 2022 French Open men’s singles title in Paris on Sunday. King of Clay, Rafael Nadal registered his 14th French Open title. Rafa defeated an in-form Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 to win in straight sets. With this victory, he also claimed a record-setting 22nd Grand Slam championship.
36-year-old Nadal surpassed Andres Gimeno’s mark of 34 years and 305 days set in 1972 to become the oldest man to claim the Roland Garros title. It’s also the first time in Nadal’s career that he has won both the Australian Open and the French Open in the same season. Earlier this year, the Spaniard won his second Australian Open title, defeating World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the final in Melbourne.
This was his 30th Grand Slam final and he now has a 22-8 win-loss record in finals. Nadal also has a 14-0 win-loss record at the French Open finals. He began the year by securing the title in Melbourne. He was victorious in the Mexican Open. He reached the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Open, the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, and the second round of the Rome Open. This is Rafa’s fourth title of the year.
King of Clay Rafael Nadal
However, after a long-standing left foot injury that has troubled him throughout his career, Nadal was unsure if he would be able to compete. “For me, personally, very difficult to describe the feelings that I have,” Nadal said in his victory speech. “It’s something that I for sure never believed, be here at 36, being competitive again, playing in the most important court of my career one more time in a final means a lot. I don’t know what can happen in the future, but I’m going to keep fighting to try to keep going.”
Nadal said that he couldn’t walk after his second-round match. “The foot was asleep, so that’s why I was able to play,” he said on Eurosport. He had received two injections before each of his seven matches the last two weeks.”It’s obvious that I can’t keep competing with the foot asleep. It’s a risk that I wanted to take to play here. It’s not a risk that I want to keep taking to keep going on my future,” he said at the press conference.
Moreover, Rafael had gone undefeated in his previous 13 finals in Paris and was competing in his 30th Grand Slam final. He certainly got off to a great start against Ruud, the first Norwegian player to compete in a major final. It took him a two-hour and 18-minutes to win. Nadal will now take medical assistance for his leg and later on will take a call on his Wimbledon participation.
