French Open 2025: 'King Of Clay' Rafael Nadal Feted At Roland Garros
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The undisputed emperor of the clay court, Nadal, was felicitated at the RG, where he holds an astounding 112-4 win-loss record in a tribute befitting his legendary stature.
Legendary tennis player Rafael Nadal was feted at the Roland Garros on Sunday in a ceremony to celebrate the legacy of the 14-time French Open Champion and was joined by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray.
The Spaniard, who boasts an astounding record of 112-4 at the RG was given a tribute befitting his stature as the undisputed emperor of the clay court.
Nadal returns to Court Philippe Chatrier a year after being ousted from the clay-court major in the first round by German Alexander Zverev in what proved to be his final French Open, before Nadal called time on his career following the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.
Nadal's tally of 14 victories in Paris stands alone in the count of multiple titles at a single Grand Slam event, with Margaret Court's 11 Australian Open triumphs the closest behind the Spaniard's record in France.
French Open organisers approached Nadal for a tribute ceremony in 2024., however, the King Of Clay was was still indecisive about his future.
First Published:
May 25, 2025, 22:05 IST
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The expression often heard and uttered of athletes 'raising their game'. We felt it happen and saw with our eyes how it is done. For Sinner until he had three match points, Alcaraz from that point on for refusing to let go. He climbed into Sinner's serve and covered the court like a fiend, created angles running around his backhand, slicing the court into narrower and narrower slivers from where there were points to be won. Every time the crowd thought Sinner had sealed a point, Alcaraz extracted enough reach to put racket to ball at its most distant end. From the first time he had found his groove in the third set, Alcaraz drew fuel and lift from the crowd. Every break of serve, every game held after fighting off a Sinner resurgence was responded to like he'd won the damn thing. Alcaraz shook his fist at the stands as he passed by to serve or back to his chair, egging them on to egg him on. The entire Chatrier village, and Alcaraz said it himself later, helped raise their defending champion back from match points down on the way to his second title. Even as the world thought Sinner had faded, being broken early in the fifth, he hauled himself back at the tail end of the match, levelling the set and pushing Alcaraz to reach within. Or maybe from somewhere beyond. At 5-6, 15-30 down, Sinner at the centre of the net, everything covered, Alcaraz created a narrow cross court forehand that went across his opponent before he could twitch. It was a shot of great physical capability but also an athletic imagination whose range is only just being comprehended. Cheering and chanting are deliberate responses, but the outbreaks of nervous shrieks gasping, collective intakes of breaths – that was 15,000 instincts finding expression. Both Sinner and Alcaraz, world No.1 and world No.2, are in their early twenties, just out of boyhood, their faces not yet crystallised into the men they will become. No matter how different they are on the outside, these are worthy rivals cut from the same competitive cloth. At two different points in the match, one early, one late, both men called the line for his adversary's serve when the match situation was testing them. Alcaraz for a Sinner serve down the tee that was called a fault by a line judge. Sinner for an Alcaraz wide serve even as the umpire was getting down from her chair, scuffing the ground beneath his foot and sparing her the trouble. These two twentysomethings at the top of men's tennis today carry their lineage well. As the reporters streamed back into their work room, one man was heard asking, 'What did we do to deserve this?' For someone at their first Roland Garros ever, mon dieu, what indeed?
