It has been a dramatic clay season for Rafael Nadal. It started rather well, with him winning the earlier clay tournaments, but when Madrid and Rome swung by, suddenly, doubt crept into him, as the flawless Novak Djokovic snatched both trophies from him, in an emphatic display of clay court tennis! The losses in those two major clay court tournaments sent shock waves in men's tennis. So much focus was on Novak that Rafa, I think, began worrying if he still had it. What made the self-doubt more evident and that the impact was strong was when John Isner almost upset Rafa in the first round! That would've been disastrous!
Anyhow, Rafa has proven naysayers wrong, as he slowly won round after round, and handily defeated Andy Murray in their semifinal match yesterday. However, after seeing Roger Federer play, I can sense that Rafa still has to regain back that full belief that he really is the King of Clay. It helps though that he has defeated Roger several times here in a final, but Roger is also out there to prove that his first French Open title was no fluke since he didn't defeat Rafa then, Soderling did. So I'm sure he's really psyched up for the finals tomorrow, if just to prove that he deserved his first French Open title - since he defeated Nadal.
So let's just enjoy the slugfest tomorrow between these two legendary players. I won't be surprised if this would be another thriller!
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