Sunday, June 11, 2006

French Open Update, Part 3

Nadal went on to win the second set, and had been holding serve throughout the fourth, up a break. However, due to one lucky drop shot, Federer was able to break to tie 5-all and hold for 6-5. Nadal is trying to force a tiebreak. Nadal hasn't so much won as Federer has had nearly twice as many unforced errors, especially on his backhand.

It looks like we're headed to a fourth set tiebreak.

And...Nadal wins it in fourth set tiebreak, 7-4 in the tiebreak. Federer continued to make errors, including dropping two points on serve. Federer could never get back on track. Had he played a low error match, it may have worked, but the wheels came off, and this wasn't to be.

Nadal has continued his mastery of Federer, and still shows that head-to-head dominance leads to head games. Federer certainly could have won.

All in all, not such a great final. This isn't like Seles-Graf where the win wasn't always inevitable. You felt that if either was down, they would play great points to scrap back.

Oh well, maybe next year.

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