The conditions were damp and overcast.  Perhaps the kind of conditions Djokovic wishes his semifinals were played under.  But perhaps nature favors the champion.

Most proclaimed the semifinals between Nadal and Djokovic as the de-facto finals as neither Tsonga nor Ferrer were expected to pose the kind of challenge that Nadal and Djokovic would to each other.  And, indeed it was.  That match went 5 sets with the world number 1 having an early break, but unable to maintain the break in a crazy 4-3 game which involved a time violation warning and a touch of the net invalidating the overhead that Djokovic had just put away.

David Ferrer came into the finals without having dropped a set, but he not faced Federer, Djokovic, or Nadal, the three players that give him so much trouble on nearly every surface.  He had only 4 wins over Nadal, and hadn’t beaten Rafa on clay since 2004, their first meeting.

The problem is Rafa does everything better than Ferrer.  He serves better.  He hits harder and more accurately.  He plays defense better.  If Djokovic, hitting harder and more accurately than Ferrer could not beat Nadal, how could Ferrer do this?

And, worse still, Nadal had rebuilt his game with one goal in mind: beat Djokovic.  In particular, Nadal is taking attacks to his forehand by stepping to the ad corner and directing that shot down the line.  That shot is high in degree of difficulty, but with it, Djokovic would have to be worried hitting that inside out shot to the Nadal forehand.  This shot also happens to be a favorite for Ferrer too.

The match started off with Ferrer in a bit of trouble broken in his second service game to go down 2-1, and already people were thinking Ferrer’s done for.  Ferrer normally tries to attack Nadal, but to do that requires consistent hitting to the lines, a tall order for anyone.  Ferrer managed to break back to 2-all, but it provides false hope.  Nadal breaks again to 4-3, and once more to 6-3.

The second set was more lopsided as Nadal broke to 2-0 and Ferrer had to work hard to hold to 2-1.  Nadal broke again to 5-1.  Sometime around the 5-2 game, there were protesters near the top tier.  Then, two protesters came near the court, one was caught, but other carried a flare and was running in Nadal’s direction.  Guards grabbed him and forced him out while trying to extinguish his flare which was creating smoke.  Apparently, these topless protesters were protesting the passage of same-sex marriage in France.

Nadal eventually held serve and served out to 6-2.

The third set was pretty even to 3-all, but eventually Nadal got the break and held to win 6-3 and take his eighth French Open title, the first time a male player in the Open era has won the same Slam (Martina won Wimbledon 9 times).

In the end, Nadal was too powerful, and Ferrer couldn’t hit his hard shots in the court often enough to win.  So congratulations to Nadal, the once and future king of clay.