Despite all of the earlier worries about Rafael Nadal not liking the new balls and not being in his usual form, he still ended the French Open Tennis Championships as Champion. Match by match, he grew in confidence and his defeat of Andy Murray in the semi-final showed that the Scot still has a long way to go before he can really challenge for top honours. In the final, he eventually showed his top form and proved, again, too strong for his opponent, Roger Federer. Federer had already achieved the result of the tournament with a brilliant performance against the hitherto unbeaten, and seemingly unbeatable, Novak Djokovic in the semi-final. The Swiss showed just why he's been so good for so long with a masterful and unexpected victory that reminded us all that he is still very much a contender for major trophies. In the end, he didn't quite have the weapons to see off Nadal as well and lost to the Spaniard for the fourth time in a French Open final, not a record he'll want to be reminded of.
The women's tournament saw the defending champion, Francesca Schiavone, defy a poor run so far this year and reach the final, only to fall victim to the power of the first Chinese to win a major title, Na Li. Schiavone had had her difficulties during the rounds, but had begun to look good for a repeat of last year until Na Li simply out-powered her and Schiavone seemed to run out of steam.
Now it's on to Wimbledon in a couple of weeks and we can look forward to the British press hyping up the chances of Andy Murray, yet again. In truth, Murray has next to no chance, with the 'Big 3' of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer way out ahead of everyone else in the field. With a decent draw, Murray may well get to the semi-final, which would be no bad performance, but his chances of going any further really rely on his likely opponent at that stage, Nadal, slipping up earlier on. Nothing is sport is certain, but if the Wimbledon champion isn't one of Nadal, Djokovic or Federer, it'll be a major surprise. The women's championship could, however, be won by any of a dozen competitors though Na Li must now be near the top of the list, along with Maria Sharapova. All will be revealed by 3rd July.
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