ROLAND GARROS 2014 Nadal Wins Battle For No. 1; Historic Ninth Roland Garros Crown Paris, France by ATP Staff Rafael Nadal will start his 139th week at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday after he captured a historic fifth straight – and ninth overall – Roland Garros title. Nadal temporarily ended Novak Djokovic ’s hopes of returning to the summit of men’s professional tennis for the first time since 6 October 2013 with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 victory in Sunday’s clay-court final. The 28-year-old Nadal draws level with Pete Sampras at No. 2 in the Grand Slam title-leaders list on 14 major crowns. He is now three Grand Slam trophies behind Roger Federer The Spaniard received a €1,650,000 first-prize after he became the first man in tennis history to win nine titles at a single major championship. He has a 14-6 record overall in Grand Slam finals. Djokovic had been attempting to complete a career Grand Slam with his first Roland Garros crown. He also finished as runner-up to Nadal in the 2012 title-match. Nadal has a 66-1 record at Roland Garros , where he is 35-matches unbeaten. His only loss on Parisian clay came against Robin Soderling in the 2009 fourth round. The Mallorcan has a 90-1 win-loss record in best-of-five-set matches on clay courts. He has now won 64 tour-level titles – 45 of which have come on clay courts - and is only two red dirt titles behind all-time leader Guillermo Vilas (46).
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:19:37 +0000