Nadal wins record 10th French Open

Rafael Nadal claimed his 10th French Open Championship, the most by any tennis player at any major tournament.

Even despite a little bump in the road in Rome, Rafael Nadal continued to be the king of the red clay throughout this year. That run of dominance continued into the French Open, where he is now the champion for a 10th time after beating Stan Wawrinka in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.

Nadal, the fourth seed, did not lose a set in the tournament and in the semifinals got a bit of retribution over Dominic Thiem, who upset him in the Italian Open quarterfinals a few weeks ago; that Thiem loss in Rome has been his only loss on clay this year during his great resurgence. He only lost 34 total games in his six French Open matched, the fewest by any man on their way to winning a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era.

But the victory over the third-ranked Wawrinka was a real statement as he became the first tennis player in history to win 10 championships at the same major in the Open era, also making him the second-most victorious player in men’s tennis history when it comes to Grand Slams. He broke a tie with Pete Sampras and now only trailed rival Roger Federer’s 18 wins.

Wawrinka was frustrated by the mastery of Nadal, so frustrated that he smacked the strings of his racket against his forehead a few times in the match and later it over his knee before drawing a warning from the umpire.

Nadal was so great out on the court he beat Wawrinka both physically and mentally. Nadal had only 12 unforced errors and out-pointed Wawrinka 94-57. Nadal won all 12 of his service games.

And that’s the Nadal that dominated the game so much for so long before. He was struggling for a period. Last year he withdrew from the French Open with a wrist injury and was inconsistent throughout 2016. But 2017 has so far bee his year and now has another Grand Slam and a ton of history made with it. Of course, it was won clay, his favored surface to play on, but the way he’s playing, it has nothing to go with how the ball bounced off the clay, it has to do with how great he has been.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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