JAKARTA - Rafael Nadal will become the oldest player to win the French Open if he beats young Casper Ruud in the final of the Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros on Sunday.
Tomorrow's final will be Nadal's 14th at Roland Garros or his 30th in all the Grand Slam tournaments he has participated in.
If he wins, Nadal will extend his record Grand Slam title to 22 with 14 of them coming at the French Open, 17 years on since his victory on his Paris debut.
Nadal who is now 36 years old, was as surprised as people who did not think he could go that far.
The reason, Nadal came to Paris with a chronic injury to his left leg. The injury had relapsed in several tournaments that Nadal participated in before the French Open.
Injury meant that Nadal was only able to advance to the quarter-finals of Madrid's ATP Masters 1000 and the third round of the Rome Masters, having missed the Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona's ATP 500.
This condition then raised big questions about the possibility of Nadal playing at Roland Garros this year.
"I'd rather lose the final than lose my leg," said Nadal, who also admitted that every game played at Roland Garros might be the last game.
Despite the fear and anxiety he felt, Nadal, who was nicknamed the King of Clay, had impressively fought against all assumptions and impossibility to advance to the title match at Roland Garros.
Prior to the final, Nadal had been through a tough challenge since the fourth round. He had to go through a grueling five-set match against Felix Auger-Aliassime, as well as his main rival, Novak Djokovic, in the quarter-finals in a match that lasted more than four hours each.
It didn't stop there, it was Alexander Zverev's turn who then forced him to play as hard as he could for three hours in the semifinals before the world number three from Germany decided to withdraw from the match due to injury.
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With the win over Zverev, Nadal further extended his record at the French Open to 111 wins and just three defeats, with Djokovic responsible for both losses.
Nadal was just 19 years old when he won his first French Open in 2005. And to this day he is unbeaten in all the finals he has played at Roland Garros.
If Rafael Nadal makes it through tomorrow's final he will become the oldest male player to win the French Open after Andres Gimeno who lifted the trophy at the age of 34 or 50 years ago.
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