French Open

I forgot to add Thomas Muster.

And yep, great performance by Nadal, nearly flawless. I think its no shame to lose someone of Nadal's calibre.

For the stats, since his debut in '05 on Rolland Garros, Nadal has won each of his 28 matches. Quite a phenomenal feat I think. Not many would've come close to this streak.

JGK wrote:Looking like a bagel for the third set.

Haven't seen a great player humiliated in a final like this since McEnroe thrashed Connors at Wimbledon in 1984.

Hewitt humiliated Sampras in the 2001 US Open Final.

It was 7-6 6-1 6-1. Hewitt just blasted Sampras off the court. It's by far the best I've ever seen him play. It's a shame he doesn't play like that these days.

JGK wrote:Federer has made 3 consecutive French finals - he would have beaten the likes of Kuertan, Bruguera and JC.

I agree.

He mightn't have beaten them this year but the way he played in the 2006 and 2007 finals was enough to convice me he'd have defeated Kuerten and Courier. Bruguera at his peak might have been a stretch (he was the ultimate clay court specialist) but I'd back Federer to beat him 50 per cent of the time.

Pete Sampras never won the French Open because he wasn't good enough on clay. Roger Federer hasn't won the French Open because Rafael Nadal is a genius on the surface.

For the record:

The last time Federer lost a match at Roland Garros against someone other than Nadal was in 2004 against Kuerten.

He's improved immeasurably on clay since then, but keeps having to play Rafael Nadal.

Nadal is quite simply the greatest clay court player ever!

And he is quite modest as well. When asked about should not he be the no.1 player in world, he said that he thinks he is closer to no.3 (Jokovic) than no.1 (FedEx).