Rafael Nadal must havehad some premonition of greatness when he looked forward to this morning'sFrench Open finals at Roland Garros. Even if he did not, his playing proved his greatness, as he defeatedanother top player, Austrian Dominic Thiem, in straight sets to take thechampionship. The win, he said, wasundreamt of... Winning his 11th French Open crown was not what Rafael Nadal'ever dreamed of' but in doing so, he clinched his 17th grand slam title. He did so winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 despite aworrying injury scare in the closing stages of the final. He now has 17 grand slam titles, just threebehind Roger Federer, but he always shines the brightest at the French Open. In reaching his 11th title at the French Open,he matched Margaret Court's record of titles at the Australian Open, set in the1970s. The ever polite and gracious Spaniard said "It's reallyincredible. I played a great match against a great player." In the third set, thinking he might havebroken his finger, play was suspended for a doctors visit, but afterdiscovering he was cramped, and had no breaks, play resumed. The win was not a predetermined victory. Dominic Thiem is the only man to have beatenNadal on clay in the past two years. Being the French Open final, and Paris being Paris in theSpringtime, many celebrities turned out to watch the action. Former French soccer great and just resigned coach ZinedineZidane took a break from the hubub surrounding his recent resignation from Real Madrid to be present, and was greeted with greataplomb. Nadal is a great fan of Real Madrid and has recently spoken very kindly about the former coach. Also present among thespectators were Tim Roth, Hugh Grant,Marion Cotillard and Jean Dujardin. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
