It was not the most spectacular Roland Garros final but it had its moment with none bigger than the final rally when Nadal officially won his 22nd Grand Slam trophy.
The record is now at twenty two with Rafael Nadal holder of it. He extended his lead over Djokovic and Federer to two after another sturdy performance doing just enough to take advantage of an opponent who was far from his best. This final was a similar final to the one Berrettini played against Djokovic at Wimbledon or Thiem's first against Nadal.
Ruud had his moments but for the most part he was unable to solve the riddle called Nadal. The Spaniard controlled the match really well and seemingly whenever he wanted something out of it, he got it. Ruud made tons of tactical mistakes being punished over and over again. Even when he tried to mix things up things went wrong.
He lost the first set relatively easily after dropping his serve early on in it. In the 2nd he opened with a 3-1 lead but could not hold onto it as Nadal ramped it up again. The serve wasn't there for Ruud at all and it was a problem. The 2nd serve was too vulnerable all match long and Nadal completely dominated Ruud in the final set.
He smelled blood and he went in for the kill. Just a sturdy and comfortable win by Nadal who wore Ruud down entirely in the first two sets. In the final one, Ruud was barely present making a lot of bad mistakes. He finished it off with a bagel 6-0 winning his 11th game in a row. Truly incredible.
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