Nadal cruises to historic win

Nadal: Fourth title

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King of Clay - Your View

Rafael Nadal blasted his way into the history books with a comprehensive straight-sets win over world number one Roger Federer in Paris.

With the 6-1 6-3 6-0 victory, Nadal took his place alongside tennis legend Bjorn Borg as the only players to have won four consecutive French Open titles.

Too many unforced errors characterised Federer's game as the Swiss ace, also looking for his slice of history as only the sixth player to win all four grand slams, never found his rhythm.

An awful start to the match was a sign of things to come for Federer, whose 12 unforced errors to Nadal's three handed the opening set to the Spaniard 6-1 in just 32 minutes.

Showing signs of early nerves, Federer struggled to find his rhythm, losing his opening service game and going 15-40 down in his second, before clawing his way back to take the score to 1-2.

But that was to be his only success in the first set as Nadal, looking the more composed of the pair, held serve in the fourth before breaking again in the next to open up a three-game lead.

The Spaniard closed out the set after holding serve, breaking for a third time as Federer put a forehand volley long.

Brilliance

The second set was a marginally more competitive affair, although Federer made a similarly miserable start before rallying briefly.

Despite showing moments of brilliance he never really troubled Nadal, winning just three games as the Mallorcan took the set 6-3 to leave the top seed two sets adrift and staring down both barrels.

Federer found himself two games down at the start, losing his serve in the second game before finally showing signs that the 12-time grand slam winner had arrived at the party.

The Roland Garros crowd went wild as the Swiss ace broke Nadal for the first time in the third game and then held serve to force his way back into the set and level the scores at two games apiece.

Exchange

Both players held serve in their following three games but it was Nadal who broke the deadlock in the eighth, breaking Federer with a brilliantly executed forehand down the line after a lengthy exchange of deuces before serving out for a two-set lead.

Again Federer lost his first service game of the third set and from there things went from bad to worse for the Swiss, as Nadal took a stranglehold on the set to open up a 4-0 lead.

After breaking Federer again in the fifth game it was only left for the 22-year-old to hold serve to claim his place in history in less than two hours of play.

To emphasise his total dominance on the Roland Garros clay, Nadal did not drop a set on his way to the title.