If the Eiffel Tower had suddenly toppled, or the Arc de Triomphe had crumbled into small pieces, the shock could hardly have been greater than the sight of Rafa Nadal, four times the French Open champion and chasing a place in history as the only man to win the title five times in succession, losing this week in the fourth round against Sweden’s Robin Soderling, a player who previously had failed to progress beyond the last 32 of any slam in 21 attempts.
Nadal had never previously lost a match at Roland Garros. He had never lost any match over five sets on clay. He was the nearest player the world has ever seen to being unbeatable on the surface and to see him lose 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (2) on the Philippe Chatrier main court, a rectangle of clay that had seemed to be his of right, was something more than simply shocking.
Once the disbelief had worn off, the search began to put this defeat into context. Pete Sampras, in his grasscourt pomp, was beaten in the fourth round at Wimbledon by Holland’s Richard Krajicek in 1996, breaking a sequence of three titles at the All England Club that he later extended to seven. Yet by anybody’s recollection this was the mother of all shocks.
With Nadal gone thoughts immediately jumped ahead seven days to the final. Just more than two weeks ago Nadal was beaten for the first time on clay this year, having won the Monte Carlo and Rome Masters, by Roger Federer, who had lost the past three finals here against Nadal. At the time the Madrid defeat had seemed no more than an inconsequential blip.
Now all has changed and suddenly the chances of Federer winning the title for the first time have increased one-hundredfold. Nadal has been Federer’s nemesis, not only here but more recently at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
Could it be that Soderling, this unheralded Swede, has presented Federer with the chance to equal Sampras’s record of 14 grand slam titles and to join Andre Agassi, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Perry and Donald Budge as the only players in tennis history to win all the four grand slams?
Nadal’s defeat could see Federer, if he wins the title, acknowledged as the greatest player of the modern era, or at the least placed shoulder to shoulder with his all-time hero, Laver. -—