14th Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal is the French Open 2022 men’s singles champion. Further solidifying his title ‘King of Clay’, this win represents his 14th time winning the Roland-Garros Grand Slam.
The Match
This match was the culmination of 2 weeks of high intensity, high quality tennis. In the final match the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, faced seed No. 8 Casper Ruud.
Ruud is the first Norwegian tennis player to reach the men’s singles final in history.
Although his first ever Grand Slam final, Ruud played fairly well against the seasoned Grand Slam champion. Nadal did not play games as he finished the match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0, securing his 22nd Grand Slam title. Nadal won the championship point by sailing a blistering down the line shot which, for Ruud, was simply untouchable.
There was not much Ruud could do as he was only able to win 50% of points on his 1st serve and 36% of points on his second serve. Whereas for Nadal, in addition to the points won from Ruud loosing his points, Nadal also took 82% of points on his 1st serve and 53% on his 2nd.
This win puts a 2 Grand Slam buffer zone between Nadal and Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer’s 20 Slam tie.
Nadal's Future
Now the oldest Roland Garros men’s singles champion, many expected Nadal to make an announcement regarding the future of his career, but instead, he left the question open as to whether we will see him compete in this year’s remaining Grand Slam tournaments.