IndiaPost.com - Agony for Federer as Nadal wins again

PARIS: Rafael Nadal has defeated Roger Federer in the French Open final for the third year running and joined Swedish legend Bjorn Borg as the only man to win four straight titles at Roland Garros. The Spaniard scored a stunning 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 triumph over the world No.1, taking the last nine games of the match, in stark contrast to the two four-set battles he edged to see off Federer in the two previous finals.

Federer was powerless to stop the barrage of heavy top spin fired at him as he slumped to a demoralizing hiding. If he was a rapier, Nadal was a sledgehammer and in that match-up there was only going to be one winner. Nadal has now won all 28 matches he has played at the Roland Garros and having just turned 22, he is well on his way to replacing Borg as the greatest clay court player of all time. He did not drop a set all fortnight.

"Sorry for Roger, but to win here is incredible and especially to win this tournament four times," he said after receiving the trophy from the hands of six-time winner Borg. For the 26-year-old Federer it was another dark day in the City of Light.

He came into Paris looking to join the history-makers as just the sixth man to have won all four Grand Slam titles. He leaves with the sorry record of being the only player in Grand Slam history to lose to the same player in three consecutive finals. "I would like to have won more than four games but Rafael has played an incredible tournament and he fully deserves to win," Federer said.

"But I'll be back to try again next year and I am looking forward to the rest of this year," he said.Perfect playing conditions greeted the start of the match but clear crowd favourite Federer got off to the worst of possible openings when he dropped his serve and then squandered two break points in the following game.

He saved two break points to open his account in the third game, but muscleman Nadal stepped on the accelerator reeling off four games in a row with two more service breaks to take the set 6-1.

Nadal, wearing the lime-green shirt he has favoured throughout the fortnight, opened the second set with a love service game and then promptly broke Federer for the third time in a row as the world no.1's famed forehand badly misfired.

There was then a brief moment of hope for Federer's many fans as he nailed his first service break of the final and levelled at 2-2. Attacking the net with more regularity, Federer got the crowd going when he had a break point on the Nadal serve to lead 4-3, but failed to take it.

He paid a heavy price in the following game when he let slip a 30-0 lead and Nadal gleefully grabbed a vital break on his fourth break point.