Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 5: Rafael Nadal will become the oldest man to win the French Open title if he defeats Casper Ruud on Sunday.
Nadal will compete in his 14th Roland Garros final and 30th Grand Slam overall. Victory will give him a record-tying 22nd major title and 14th French Open, 17 years after he won his first major in Paris. The 36-year-old Nadal, on the other hand, is as amazed as anyone that he has made it this far. Last month, a longstanding left foot issue that has plagued him throughout his career flared up again in Rome, raising significant doubts about his ability to make it to the French capital.
Despite his misgivings, Nadal has fought his way into the championship match on Sunday.
In the last 16, he took five sets and nearly four hours to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime, then another four hours to beat Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
Alexander Zverev then pushed him all the way in the semi-finals for three hours until a terrible ankle injury forced him to retire on crutches.
Despite the German’s brave all-or-nothing attempt, Nadal maintained an amazing presence on court, winning a lung-busting 44-shot rally at one point.
Nadal now has a record of 111 wins and three losses at the French Open. Two of those losses were caused by Djokovic. Notably, when Nadal won his first French Open in 2005, he was only 19 years old.
