A Great, Historic Day for Roger Federer

Tennis historians will long remember this Sunday, as Roger Federer defeated Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4 to claim his first Roland Garros title and thus complete the career Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles. Millions of Roger's fans must have shared his tears of joy as he finally overcame the toughest challenge of his career, helped in no small measure by Robin, who eliminated Rafael Nadal earlier in the tournament. Rafa had defeated Roger in the three previous finals and a semifinal the year before that. Most of the tennis world would probably agree now that Roger is either the greatest player of all time or equal to Rod Laver, who won the calendar-year Grand Slam twice.

This French Open was a breakthrough for Soderling too, who had never before advanced beyond the third round of a major. He played brilliantly leading up to the final, hitting his groundstrokes with unbelievable power, depth, and accuracy, especially his open-stance, unusually roundhouse forehand. At 6'3", Soderling handled the high-bouncing topspins of Nadal and Fernando Gonzales comfortably; he seems actually to prefer the ball up high. Roger clearly recognized this, as he used low-skidding slices to keep the ball below Robin's strike zone. Roger also used the drop shot, a relatively new shot for him on the forehand, with great success. Sunday was an especially good day for slices and drop shots; the cool, damp conditions made the ball bounce lower, as lower temperatures decrease the air pressure inside the tennis ball and clay gets softer when it gets wet. The weather also made the court slower, which is never a welcome change for someone like Soderling who wants to put balls out of reach as quickly as possible.

Even though Robin couldn't play his best tennis, there's no question that Roger's play was worthy of a historic win. He landed 66% of his first serves, most impressively not letting Soderling touch a single serve during the first-set tiebreak. Roger's forehand, which is often called the best ever, was back to its full brilliance, and his one-handed backhand was solid. Considering the magnitude of the occasion, Roger's nerves were remarkably solid too.