Rafael Nadal Wins Men’s Singles Title At French Open Without Dropping A Set

Following Rafael Nadal’s French Open win, let’s crack open the record books and see where he stands from a historical perspective.

- Nadal has now won five of the last six French Open singles titles, having compiled a 38-1 record at Roland Garros. The all-time career record, held by Bjorn Borg, is six, and there’s no reason to believe that Nadal can’t become the most dominant men’s player in the 120-year history of the tournament.

On Saturday we saw the same Rafael Nadal we’ve seen throughout the French Open -- a man who refuses to lose a single set. Nadal topped Roger Soderling, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, to win his fifth French Open championship.

Nadal’s record at the French Open now stands at an incredible 28-1. His lone loss came last year against Soderling.

From NBC Sports:

The men’s doubles title at the 2010 French Open belongs to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic. The pair bested India’s Leander Paes and the Czech Republic’s Lukas Dlouhy in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, to win the final on Saturday.

For Nestor and Zimonjic, the second-seeded pair of the tournament, this makes their third Grand Slam title. They won together at Wimbledon in 2008 and 2009.

Italy’s Francesca Schiavone -- the 17th-ranked women’s singles player entering the 2010 French Open -- won the women’s singles tournament at Roland Garros on Saturday. Schiavone took the title after winning straight sets over Australian Samantha Stosur, 6-4, 7-6 (2).

Schiavone’s triumph can rightly be called a Cinderella story. She’s only the second woman seeded out of the top ten ever to win the French Open singles title. This was Schiavone’s 39th career Grand Slam tournament appearance, but only her first appearance in a Grand Slam final.

Samantha Stosur continued her inspired run of play at Roland Garros, dispatching No. 4 Jelena Jankovic in a brisk hour-long match, 6-1, 6-2. The seventh-seeded Stosur has already beaten four-time French Open champ Justin Henin, as well as top-seeded Serena Williams, before blasting past Jankovic, to reach her first ever Grand Slam final. Stosur, who earlier in her career was known more for her prowess as a doubles player, could be the first female Aussie to take home a Grand Slam title since Evonne Cawley in 1980.

Stosur will face No. 17 Francesca Schiavone in the final, who moved on after No. 5 Elena Dementieva retired after dropping the first set of their semifinal match 6-7 (3). Dementieva was fighting through a previously torn calf muscle, and was unable to continue, sending Schiavone to her first-ever Slam final as well.

Samantha Stosur made things more difficult on herself than they needed to be, but she eventually took out No. 1 Serena Williams in three sets, 6-2, 6-7, 8-6, in the French Open quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Stosur took the first set easily after breaking Serena twice. The second set was more competitive, but Stosur still had the chance to serve for the set, and the match, at 5-4. She was unable to take advantage, and failed to earn herself any match points as Serena broke back to even the set, and eventually the match at a set-all.

Last year Roger Federer made history at the French Open with a win; this year he did so with a loss. Indeed, while Federer both clinched the career Grand Slam and equaled Pete Sampras’ then-record mark of fourteen career Slams with his breakthrough triumph at Roland Garros in 2009, this year his quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Robin Soderling produced a perhaps more startling record: the end of his consecutive Grand Slam semifinal streak.

And as Yahoo!‘s Chris Chase explains, Federer’s record of 23 straight semifinals is one of the all-time great marks in all of sports:

The first women’s semifinal at the 2010 French Open is set: 17th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone will take on Elena Dementieva, a Russian 5-seed.

Schiavone advanced by upsetting the third-best woman in the world, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets. Schiavone was able to convert an outstanding 75% of her break point chances (6-8), which proved to be the difference in her 6-2, 6-3 victory. The upset makes Schiavone the first Italian female to reach the semis of a Grand Slam event since 1968.

USA’s Robby Ginepri is ranked No. 98. As the round-of-16 was played, it was a shock to see him as the last remaining American in the men’s draw. Ginepri came into Roland Garros with a 1-7 record for 2010 and a 9-31 career record on clay. The American did not just slide around a court, acting like he could hang with the top guns. Instead, he proved it, going four sets with the world No. 3 before losing – 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Djokovic, a two-time semifinalist, will take on Jurgen Melzer. Melzer is playing in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

No signs of a cold kept Serena Williams from getting the job done against Sharar Peer. After losing the first seven points, Williams won the next nine in a row. No. 1 Williams knocked out the No. 18 seed, 6-3, 6-2 with the first set lasting under a half an hour.

Justin Henin also won her first set in just a half an hour. However, the Belgian – who hasn’t lost at Roland Garros since 2004 – was unable to handle Sam Stosur, losing in three sets, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Further into Day 7, America’s Andy Roddick lost to Russia’s Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-4 6-4 6-2. This upset marks yet another woeful chapter in Roddick’s French Open history. Gabashvili smashed an astounding 58 winners, in contrast to Roddick’s 14.

Elsewhere, Rafael Nadal moved past Lleyton Hewitt by the score of 6-3 6-4 6-3. He will play Thomaz Bellucci in Round 4.

During Round 3’s action at Roland Garros, Serena Williams moved past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-1 1-6 6-2. There was brief cause for concern during the second set:

In the third set, though, Williams suddenly looked like her normal self, putting away Pavlyuchenkova to advance to the fourth round. She’ll face Shahar Peer, who defeated Marion Bartoli on Day 7 to advance.

Roger Federer did what Roger Federer does on Friday at the French Open: Demolished some guy you’ve never heard of.

Qualifier Julian Reister was the victim in the third round, showing up for his beating at the hands of the world’s best player, who cruised, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4, in about 90 minutes of play. Federer gave his opponent zero break chances, while converting five of his 13 opportunities.

Nadal will next face the winner of Lleyton Hewitt in the third round.

Another former French Open champion was in action Friday morning, as top-ranked Serena Williams took on Julia Goerges. The match lasted under an hour, with Serena dominating, 6-1, 6-1. At one point, she won nine straight games.

See this? Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini were playing tennis outside when it looked like this.

Rain delays bumped match after match back in Day 4 of French Open action, and by the time play was halted on Philippe Chatrier, it was close to 10 p.m. It’s unclear how things would have gone for France’s favored son had they been allowed to continue -- Monfils may have been able to see all right, but he was walking unsteadily and had given up a two-set lead to Fognini. In HD it looked like an episode of True Blood, with all the grunting and shadowy flurries of activity.

It may not have been the best judgment call to even allow them to go on as long as they did, but a home crowd surely played a part in the decision. No matter. Whatever the motivation, the longer Monfils stays in a tournament, especially this tournament, the more entertaining it’s going to be. Play will presumably pick back up again tomorrow with the gentlemen tied 5-all in the fifth set.

The only thing slowing down Roger Federer’s march to the third round of the French Open on Wednesday was the rain. Two weather stoppages only delayed the inevitable as Federer eventually finished off his Columbian opponent Alejandro Falla, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.

It wasn’t a total breeze for Federer, however. He struggled in the first set, hitting 21 unforced errors and eventually being broken by Falla after saving five chances. Roger quickly broke back, and then took the tiebreak, 7-4.

Williams struggled with her first serve, particularly her ball toss. She often took extra time before serving, and had to re-toss. For this match, the inconsistency didn’t matter though, as she was able to save Parra Santonja’s three break point chances, while breaking her opponent three times. Her serve could certainly become an issue moving forward, however, as the competition improves.

The other American in action early Wednesday was Tyler Dent, who had the misfortune of facing last year’s runner-up Robin Soderling in the second round. It did not go well. Soderling blew Dent off the court, only dropping two games in a 71-minute rout.

Rafael Nadal played his first match at Roland Garros on Tuesday afternoon since losing in the semifinals to eventual runner-up Robin Soderling at last year’s French Open. The result: A straight set victory over 18-year-old French prospect Gianni Mina.

Mina had his chances in the match, earning himself nine break points, but he was ultimately unable to convert any of them. Conversely, Nadal was 6-for-12 on break point chances.

Tuesday morning at Roland Garros was an important one for the American men, with their first and third ranked players in action.

Andy Roddick looked strong in his first set of the season on the European clay, cruising 6-2 over Jarkko Nieminen. It appeared as if it would be an easy first round match for Roddick, but his Finnish opponent fought back, wining the second and third sets. In the fourth, Roddick evened the match by winning a tiebreak. He went on to take the fifth set after breaking Nieminen early, 6-3.

It took four hours, but fourth-seeded Andy Murray finally won his opening round match at the French Open on Monday over Richard Gasquet.

France’s Gasquet won the first two sets, and was in prime position to win the match in straight sets after going up a break in the third. But then his fitness began to fail him, and Murray’s comeback began. It started by breaking back in the third set, which he eventually won, 6-4. From there, Gasquet’s conditioning slowly deteriorated over the final two sets, both of which he lost 6-2, 6-1.

Serena Williams needed a tiebreaker to win the first set against Stefanie Voegele on Monday, but rolled in the second set, ultimately winning her first match at the French Open, 7-6, 6-2. After being broken once, the top-seed saved three break points in the first set before winning the tiebreaker 7-2.

Serena served up 10 aces to go along with 22 winners.

Normally when a relatively unknown American qualifier loses a match in the first round of the French Open it isn’t newsworthy. This happens all the time. But Monday morning’s result was something special.

American Michael Yani lost to Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 12-10. That’s a lot of numbers, so we’ll do the math for you: 71. That’s how many games the two played. If that sounds like a lot, it is. In fact, it ties the record for most games played in a French Open match since they started using tiebreakers at Roland Garros in 1973. (Obviously there are no tiebreakers in the final set.) The match started Sunday afternoon and had to be completed Monday morning after it was suspended due to darkness.

Here’s the complete TV schedule for the 2010 French Open at Stade Roland Garros. In the United States, the tournament will be broadcast on the Tennis Channel, ESPN2, and NBC.

The 109th French Open, a 15-day tournament that serves as the year’s second Grand Slam event, started Sunday in Paris. The field of competition features 32 men and 32 women.

Roger Federer, the top-ranked player in the world, will aim for his second consecutive French Open victory.