Nadal wins historic French Open #9

Rafael Nadal is still the King of Clay! He claimed his unprecedented ninth French Open title after defeating Novak Djokovic in the final. Way to go, Rafa!

photo courtesy of Clive Brunskill (Getty Images), link to photo provided by Tennis.si.com

While Nadal had already thrust himself firmly into the record books with many of his prior achievements, this French Open is hugely important for so many reasons:

• No other man has won this many titles in a single Grand Slam event. Next to Rafa's 9 are six people (two in the open era) who have won 7. When taking into account the women records, Rafa now matches Martina Navratilova's 9 titles at Wimbledon and is 2 shy of Margaret Court's 11 titles at the Australian Open.
• Also, no other man has won 9 titles in a single event. Guillermo Vilas won 8 titles in Buenos Aires (and of course Nadal himself won both Monte Carlo and Barcelona 8 times as well).
• Nadal is the first man to win five consecutive French Open titles. He also won four in a row, from 2005 to 2008.
• He now matches Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam titles, going up to 2nd in the overall record. Roger Federer is the only man to have more majors, with 17.
• His win-loss record at Roland Garros is an unbelievable 66-1. His only loss came at the hands of Robin Soderling back in 2009.
• Rafa has now won at least one Grand Slam event each year for 10 consecutive years (2005 to 2014). This is a men's record.
• Winning the French Open title also allows Rafa to stay at #1. While Novak is very close to him now, Rafa has almost no points to defend in Wimbledon. A good showing there will allow him to remain #1 until at least until the US Open.

And to think that I almost didn't watch this match! Prior to the French Open, Novak beat Rafa four times in a row, most recently in the Rome final which was also played on clay. I was also worried about my unlucky streak this year with athletes and teams that I solidly root for. When I quickly looked at the score after getting home, I saw that Rafa had lost the first set very easily at 6-1. I almost headed out to watch a movie. Thankfully, I stayed to watch the match as I got to witness Nadal make history.

Congratulations Rafa!!!