CASPER RUUD considered himself a victim and he was absolutely right.
He wasn’t supposed to win, in the first place.
The minute Ruud put himself in the French Open Finals, beating the aging Marin Cilic to advance, he became a mere footnote in Rafael Nadal’s continuing, unrestrained, march to tennis greatness.
So that to those who missed watching the Nadal-Ruud Finals clash, no worries. You missed nothing, except Ruud’s eulogy: “I am not the first victim. There have been many before me.”
Indeed, the match was a complete Sunday sleeper, Nadal merely going through the motions in wrapping up the win via a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0, blow-by.
Only in the second set did Ruud make his presence felt. But it was a most unforgettable moment, as in a bit player thrust in a movie minus a dialogue.
Look. When Ruud tried to spoil the party by posting a 3-1 lead after absorbing a first-set thrashing, a stung Nadal reeled off 11 straight games in merciless fashion to win a record-extending 14th French Open and 22nd Grand Slam title.
Nadal is now two Slams ahead of his nearest rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, tied at 20 majors each.
To achieve his latest feat—Nadal’s 112th win against only three defeats at Roland Garros since his first French Open victory as a 19-year-old rookie in 2005—Nadal became, at age 36, the oldest clay-court king in history.
And to think that he was a doubtful starter, his chronic left foot injury bugging him as early as the Rome event preceding the French Open.
To complete a seven-match wipeout, including two successive wins pocketed after epic battles each lasting nearly four-a-half hours against Felix Auger-Aliassime (five sets, Round of 16) and Djokovic (four sets, quarterfinals), Nadal needed two anesthetic injections each on his two ankle nerves before every match.
Nadal said he needed the 14 injections in order “to sleep the foot,” playing all this time with a numbed foot. He made it to his seventh straight Finals when Alexander Zverev quit after suffering a twisted ankle with the second set tied at 6.
“Very tough to describe the feeling,” he said after disposing the No. 8 seed Ruud, whose only notable distinction was his being the first Norwegian to reach a men’s majors final.
The victory made Nadal a back-to-back winner of the year’s first two Slams, adding the Australian Open that he won by erasing a two-set deficit.
Thus, the question now is: Will Nadal be ready for the Wimbledon, which starts on June 27?
“I never believed I would be here at 36 still being competitive,” said Nadal. “It means everything to keep going. It’s incredible.”
He spoke of a bit of uncertainty during the post-match conference, saying: “I don’t know what can happen in the future.”
When pressed for more, Nadal said: “But I will fight to keep going. Wimbledon is a priority. It has always been.”
Nobody ever skips Wimbledon, the Vatican of tennis.
THAT’S IT We lost a great sportswriter in Ernie Gonzales, who succumbed to cancer last weekend. His fine prose graced many newspapers from pre-Martial Law years to post-Edsa era, the last one being the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The proud son of Malilipot, Albay, will be missed by his peers, who consider him a decent, honest and most polite harvest from the Philippine sportswriting profession. Rest in peace, my friend.