Nadal wins his 13th Roland Garros and reaches 20 grand

The Spanish Rafael Nadal added this Sunday his thirteenth Roland Garros crown against the Serbian Novak Djokovic, which he won 6-0, 6-2 and 7-5 in 2 hours and 41 minutes, and equaled with the Swiss Roger Federer to 20 Grand Slam titles.

In a simpler final than expected against the world number one, the Spaniard achieved his 100th victory over the Paris clay court. "This is not the time to think about the 20 big ones or records, it is time to think about this tournament, which is everything to me. Just to be able to play here is a pleasure", said the sportsman.

At 34 years of age, Nadal also won the Roland Garros of the coronavirus, moved to autumn, with cold and dampness that diminishes his conditions, but even in that context he maintained the hierarchy of a tournament that he has made his own.

No one had ever lifted 13 cups in the same tournament before. Martina Navratilova had twelve crowns in the Chicago tournament.

Nadal became the fifth player to exceed 100 victories in a big one and he achieved it in particular conditions, with hardly any audience in the stands due to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Spaniard, who landed in Paris with only three matches after the confinement, showed that at Roland Garros he is growing and endorsed Djokovic for his second defeat of the season, after he suffered it at the U.S. Open for disqualification after giving a ball to a line judge, against the also Spanish Pablo Carreño.

The number one in the world remains at 17 big ones for now and with only one victory in Paris, without being able to become the first player of the 'open era' that adds up to at least twice each of them.

Half an hour before the start of the match, autumn came in the form of rain and the brand new roof of the Philippe Chatrier justified the investment: the 2020 final would be played indoors, like the 2012 Australian Open.

The omen was bad for the Spaniard, who loved the sun and the conditions of the game and had lost that one final between the two indoors.

But the tennis player does not have time to entertain himself with statistics, nor to go through the history books or to take care of everything that does not happen in the ochre quadrilateral that he has turned into his fiefdom.

The one who came in cold was the Serbian, rigid and without the vivacity that characterizes him, at the mercy of Nadal's game, better planted, more hungry to win the duel. The attempts of the number one in the world to find holes in the wall of the Majorcan, neither abusing the left ones nor looking for impossible angles, were of no use. Everything that was on the Spaniard's side came back poisoned.

With only one of every four first serves, the Balkan player gave up one of his best weapons and this explains why his serves were paraded on Nadal's side, who, signing with his own, took almost half an hour to concede a breaking ball.

Only one in the first set, which did not take advantage of the Serbian, who let escape blank the sleeve, the second 6-0 in history between the two after Rome last year, then also in favor of the Spanish.

Improved the percentage of first services of the Serbian and won his first game to open the second sleeve, but, in return, Nadal read better the game in the network and dried the livelihood that gave Djokovic the left.

The Spanish steamroller did not slacken off and the Serbian had to risk too much, looking for the impossible, which can go well or badly. The number one had no day and multiplied the errors, without managing to disarm Nadal's defence.

Only halfway through the third set there was a threat of reaction from Djokovic, who, after having given up his serve, recovered it by turning his first breaking ball of the 5 he had and harangued the uninhabited stands, in search of sustenance to try what no one had achieved before, to overcome two sets to Nadal on clay.

The Spaniard did not fall apart, and continued with his strength to achieve the liberating victory with a direct serve point.