Nadal's Fifth Roland Garros Title: 07 June 2010

My arm hurts from writing so many revs notes. I've written eighteen pages. I think I should take a break today...but since we're here, this is how I've been setting out my revs notes, so I thought I'd do the same for another moment in history.


Rafa's Fifth Roland Garros Title: 07 June 2010

• Rafael Nadal, 24, won his fifth French Open title this morning (AEST) at about 1:30am, which for those lucky Frenchmen, was in the afternoon, so they didn't have to stay up into the wee hours of the morning.
• Opponent: Robin Soderling, who is the only man to have defeated him at Roland Garros. 
• Scoreline 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. I feel sorry for those people who bought tickets expecting something awesome. It was quite awesome, but still. The most epic final was Australian Open 2009. Or Wimbledon 2008. Epic five-setters. Awesome tennis.
• Not that this tennis wasn't awesome. It was just it was over a little quick.
• Although I'm sort of glad, because it means I go through less anxiety of thinking that Rafa might lose, and I was able to sleep at 2. 
• I woke up at 8:30, and I'm surprisingly energised, although we'll see about that when I have to go to tutoring at 4. One and half hours of spesh may not do me much good in my current state. 
• Rafa cried. It was adorable.
• He was rolling around in the clay so much after he won. That's how much he loves the stuff. He dominates ridiculously on the surface, and I love watching him play on clay. It's so ridiculously quick, and then you finally see where he gets all the weird things he does from e.g. the brake and rotate after you run for a ball. He's adapted his clay court playing style to play on other courts. He's such a weird player. And what's with the whipping raquet around head after a shot?
• I want his hoodie. His shoes are pretty cool too. As was the t-shirt. I love the colours he wears.
• Jay-Z was watching. Shouldn't he be touring Blueprint 3 or something? 
• Edit at 8:45pm: Sarah stayed up til 2am watching him. And I'm starting to feel the effects of that now. Well I started to feel the effects during the one and a half hours of tutoring I had for spesh at 4pm. But yeah. Quite tired now. I was feeling rather energised when I woke up this morning though. It was weird, because I'm terrible when I lack sleep. Terrible. Not even lack sleep, just sleep late. Once I sleep late, it seems to kill my brain, even if I get the amount of sleep I'd usually get. Weird. Maybe it's cause I stayed up doing something enjoyable.

Significance

• Rafa became the second man after Bjorn Borg to win five or more French Open titles; one more and he'll equal the record of six. 
• HE'S BACK AT NUMBER ONE. THE CHAMP IS BACK.
• The match showed how awesome he is at clay. 
• He played some of the best tennis since Australian Open last year. 
• He's also broken some other record about clay court, something along the lines of winning some clay court Masters as well. 
• Also booked a spot in the ATP something or rather at the end of the year. Whatever it is, it's awesome. 
• First player to win five French Open titles in six years.
• I'm really quite happy because I love the kid. He's so inspirational, he knows how lucky he is to have what he's got, and I love his humility and sportsmanship, or "sportivity" as he said of Roger Federer when he first won Roland Garros all those years ago. Back in the days when his English wasn't so good.  
• My heart hurt to see him bury his face in his towel, and I just wanted to hug him.
• No I don't have a celebrity crush. 
• He's done all this stuff, and he's still only 24. 

Quotes

"You got Roland Garros title again and return to No. 1 ranking. So right now, which is more important for you right now?"
"For me, I told you too, no, yesterday and a lot of times, I think that for me it's Roland Garros. This is the most important thing for me, no? (Pointing to trophy.) After the No. 1 is there, yes. But I was No. 1, and believe me, I am very happy. When I was crying after the match, the last thing I was thinking was on the No. 1. The first thing is the title and all the hours I worked a lot to be here another time."

Sources

 I'm always get scared that he's going to kill himself when he falls over in victory

I love how he shook the trophy in ecstasy. He's such a kid.

Vamos

Quotes

"Do you consider yourself a great tennis player?" 

"No, that's exactly the kind of question I don't like, because then people say I'm arrogant, that I'm fat headed. What do you mean, being a great player? As I said, I try to play my best tennis, to play my best game, to do everything I can. If figures and statistics say I've been a good player over the last years, well, I'll continue and play as best as I can to maintain those figures as long as I can."

"As I said, it's a huge pleasure for me to be here in Paris. I am in Paris. I won in Paris. I'm very lucky, and I was very fortunate in life to have had the opportunity of experiencing all this at the age of 24. Never in my wildest dream would I have dreamt of such beautiful presents. Life was very kind to me."