By earning a 22nd Grand Slam crown, the Spaniard has moved further clear of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the Grand Slam race, with the Serbian and Swiss tied on 20 major titles.
It is the first time Nadal has won the Australian Open and Roland Garros trophies in the same season and he is now level with countryman Carlos Alcaraz on a Tour-leading four titles in 2022 after improving to 112-3 at the clay-court major.
In front of a raucous crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 36-year-old produced an intense and aggressive first-set performance, hitting his forehand with heavy topspin to outmanoeuvre the Norwegian and move ahead.
After making a slow start to the second set, the Spaniard rallied from 1-3 by returning to basics. He hung in points, won the longer exchanges and produced an array of stunning passing shots off both wings to take further control, before racing clear in the third set to secure another memorable victory after two hours and 20 minutes.
Nadal, who will rise to No 4 in the ATP Rankings on Monday, moved past Top 10 stars Felix Auger-Aliassime, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev to set a first ATP Head to Head meeting with World No 8 Ruud.
Following his triumph over the Norwegian, the Spaniard has become the third player to earn four Top 10 wins at a Grand Slam since the ATP Rankings started in 1973. Mats Wilander at Roland Garros in 1982 and Roger Federer at the Australian Open in 2017 also achieved the feat.
Sindhu, the lone Indian in the fray on the penultimate day of the competition, got off to a good start as she won the first game but could not maintain the momentum as her Japanese opponent came back strongly to win the next two games and seal a place in the final. Sindhu lost 21-18, 16-21, 12-21 in the last-four stage encounter that lasted just over one hour.
Playing on the show court at Stade Pierre de Coubertin, the famous indoor stadium in the French capital, the 26-year-old Sindhu was off to a tentative start and was trailing 10-11 at the halfway stage against the 29-year-old Japanese left-hander. Sindhu kept up the pressure and from 14-16 came up with some good cross-court smashes to take the lead and went on to win the first game.
Sindhu started the second game well and established an 11-9 lead at the break. Sayaka took control of the proceedings from 16-14 to win a flurry of points and wrapped up the second game 21-16.
In the decider, the Japanese played aggressively, smashed the shuttle into Sindhu's body and Sayaka sealed victory with another powerful smash and set up a summit clash.
This is the second tournament in a row that Sindhu, who on a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics to add to the silver she bagged at Rio de Janeiro in 2015, has failed to reach the final. She had lost in the quarter-finals in the Denmark Open last week.
Sindhu took just 34 minutes to outclass Zhang 21-17, 21-8. With this win, the Rio Olympic silver medalist avenged her loss at the hands of Zhang in the opening round of the Denmark Open, last week.
In the next round, Sindhu will now take on the winner of the first-round match between Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong and Japan's Sayaka Sato.
Meanwhile, the Indian men's doubles pair comprising Arjun MR and Shlok Ramachandran crashed out of the tournament after going down 14-21, 17-21 to Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yunchen in the first round.
Hours after thrashing Austria's Dominic Thiem in straight sets, Nadal was playfully quizzed by Paris Mayor Anne Higaldo about a potential 12th French Open title, reports Efe.
Nadal replied modestly, saying "We'll see what may happen next year. Now, we cannot think that hard. We have to be satisfied with what happened, and when time has passed we'll start thinking again about what might happen next year."
The 17-time Grand Slam champion expressed his gratitude for the support he felt in the French capital, adding that winning his previous ten titles was already "incredible."
During the reception held at the City Council and attended by Nadal's family, Higaldo presented a plaque with the champion's handprints on it, cast in the same reddish clay colour as the French Open courts.
The mayor said the plaque will be displayed in a yet-to-be-decided sports facility, and praised Nadal as both a human being and a champion.
Following his 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory, Nadal became the second player in history to have won 11 singles titles at any Grand Slam event after Margaret Court, who won 11 Australian Open titles, reported Xinhua news agency.
He also became the first player in the Open Era to have won 11 titles at three different Tour-level events, as he had done at ATP Monte-Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open.
Nadal, who led 6-3 in previous head-to-heads, broke Thiem's service in the second game, before the Austrian had his own response to tie at 2-all through a break.
Thiem was the only player to have defeated Nadal on clay prior to Roland Garros for the second straight year, and his quarterfinal victory over Nadal at the Madrid Masters snapped the Spaniard's 50-set winning streak on clay.
He displayed his lethal weapon of single-handed backhand, while being troubled by unfavorable performance on his first serves, conceding the first set 6-4.
Thiem already suffered four double faults despite four aces at the start of the second set, while Nadal maintained all of his serves in the second set to move a step further at 6-3.
Thiem save three break points to hold his service into the third set, but the "King of Clay" responded by fully exhibiting his powerful forehand for astute winners.
The Austrian was hampered by his many unforced errors after long rallies. Nadal finished another break in the third game to move in front, while injuring his left middle finger midway through the fourth game.
He continued his momentum following the medical timeout, and managed to convert his fifth match point on Thiem's poor backhand in the eighth game.
After claiming his 17th career Grand Slam title, Nadal is set to retain his top position at the latest ATP rankings ahead of arch rival Roger Federer.
"It's amazing, I can't describe my feelings because it's not even a dream to win here 11 times. It's impossible to think something like this," he said after the win.
"(The final) It was the best match tournament of me. It was important because Dominic is a very aggressive player. I had a tough moment in the third set when I got cramp in my hand. I was very scared."
Thiem, who had already recorded his best result at Grand Slams with a final appearance in Paris, will rise to No. 7 on world rankings.
Halep extended her winning streak over her American opponent to five matches after triumphing at 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, reports Xinhua news agency.
Halep recorded 0-3 in her previous Grand Slam final appearances, including twice at Roland Garros, losing to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko in 2017.
Coming into the final, she was determined. She led by 5-2 in previous head-to-heads against Stephens, including the pair's past four meetings.
Both players held their serves in the first three games, before Stephens finished her break in the fourth to move in front and built a 4-1 lead midway through the first set.
Halep failed to have her own response for breaking, and had to concede the opening set at 6-3.
The top-ranked player slid away further after being broken at the start of the second set to see herself 0-2 down.
Stephens began to lose her quality in returning, and Halep took advantage of that to win four games in a row.
Stephens tied the score at 4-all after the eighth game, but Halep managed to force into the decider with 6-4.
Then the world No.1 was unstoppable to spurt to a 5-0 lead in the decider, and never appeared to be contested en route to her maiden Grand Slam title.
"It's very emotional as a winner. I was dreaming of this moment since I was starting to play tennis. I'm really happy it's happened in Roland-Garros in Paris - my special city," Halep said.
Already the 2008 Roland Garros girls' singles champion, Halep became the sixth player to have won the women's singles title in Paris after winning the girls' singles title. She has retained her world No.1 ranking by reaching the final.
Halep also became the second Romanian woman to win a Grand Slam title following Virginia Ruzici's triumph at Roland Garros in 1978.
Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion, was set to move up to fourth at latest WTA rankings after reaching the final, the first time for her to break into Top 5.
Wang lost both matches to the 37-year-old American at Grand Slam tournaments last year, the French Open and Wimbledon respectively, reports Xinhua news agency.
Wang, who made it to the main draw at Roland Garros for the fourth time, finished her first break after both players had several deuces in the 12-minute first game, before Williams made a timely response in the following game.
Both sides shared the first eight games of the opening set, before Wang grabbed the chance of wrapping up the set on Williams' forehand flaw.
Williams, seven-time Grand Slam singles winner, built a 3-0 lead early in the second set, but the resilient Wang made a comeback collecting three games in a row.
Wang surrendered her leads in both sets when facing Williams at the same phase last year, but the 91st-ranked Chinese refused to let her chance slip away this time. After the two players shared the next four games for a 5-5 tie, Wang broke Williams' service and recorded her stunning victory over Williams.
Williams suffered a disastrous 35 unforced errors despite notching 28 winners, also inferior to Wang in terms of points on first and second serves.
Wang will next face Croatia's Petra Martic, who eliminated Wang's compatriot Wang Yafan in an earlier match.
Srikanth now has taken a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head statistics against Prannoy.
In the first game, after Srikanth took the first point of the match, Prannoy bounced back to take a 9-7 lead in the first game.
However, the Guntur man quickly brought things level 10-10. Later, Prannoy took charge of the things to take a 17-13 lead and convert it into his first game victory.
The second game started with Prannoy taking a slender 11-10 lead at the breather. Later Srikanth managed to come back and dominate things to clinch the second game and push the match to the third and decisive game.
In the third game, Prannoy had an early 11-10 advantage but failed to maintain it giving away easy points to Srikanth who capitalised on the situation and clinched the match.
Srikanth will take on the winner of match between Anders Antonsen and Kenta Nishimoto in the finals.
However, P.V. Sindhu crashed out of the women's singles at the French Open Superseries.
Earlier, Sindhu failed to find any momentum in a women's singles semi-final against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi that lasted 37 minutes, going down 14-21, 9-21.
The first game saw a close contest between both shuttlers with the Japanese taking a slender 11-10 lead at the breather.
The World No.5 gave little away to the Rio Olympics silver medallist from India, as she gathered seven straight points to take the opening game with ease.
The second game witnessed complete domination from the Japanese shuttler, who opened up a 6-0 lead before heading to the break at 11-2.
After the break, Akane continued to hold the upper hand and took full advantage of Sindhu's numerous unforced errors to easily pocket the game and the match.
Dutta posted a picture on the social networking site showing rolled up towels against large glass doors.
"Putting our Wimbledon, US Open, Aus Open &French Open towels to good use!@Maheshbhupathi #MumbaiRain.Stay safe & indoors if possible folks!," Dutta wrote on Twitter.
To that, Bhupathi who won the Australian Open twice (both mixed doubles), French Open four times (two men's and two mixed doubles), Wimbledon thrice (two mixed and one men's doubles) and the US Open also thrice (two mixed and one men's doubles), shot back: "Are u kidding me !!!! That's years of hard work."
The Maharashtra government and civic authorities sounded high alert as torrential rains lashed Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and other parts of the state for the fourth consecutive day, severely affecting normal life and paralysing the lifelines -- local train and bus services -- in the state capital.
"At the start of the year, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and I won the Chennai Open. Then, Marcin (Matkowski) and I reached the Dubai Open final. In April, Pablo Cuevas and I took the Monte Carlo Masters title. So I've played with three different players this year. I've had to adapt to their styles, and I've had to figure out a way to use our combined strengths to get good results," Bopanna told the media here.
"This is the main reason why I feel that I'm now playing the best tennis of my career. Every time I step on to the court, I feel like I can win. This level of confidence is something new for me."
Indian star Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski on Thursday won a tough three-set battle to clinch the mixed doubles title at the French Open tennis tournament.
The seventh seeded Indo-Canadian combination overcame the unseeded pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah of Colombia 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 in 56 minutes.
Bopanna is the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.
Bopanna is also the fourth Indian to become mixed doubles champion at the French Open. Bhupathi was the first -- he won the title with Rika Hiraki of Japan in 1997.
Dabrowski also created history on Thursday as she became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title.
Bopanna also featured in the final of a Grand Slam tournament after a gap of seven years.
He qualified for the Grand Slam final of his career in 2010 when he and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi entered the title clash of the US open.
However, the Bengaluru lad asserted that he has learnt from his long experience and was better this time than the US Open of 2010.
"I felt no nerves at all this time around. All the experience gained over the years meant that I was much better prepared now than I was in 2010," Bopanna said.
Reflecting on his career, the 37-year-old asserted that his attitude of never giving up has been his strongest trait over the years.
"Winning my maiden Grand Slam title, 14 years after turning professional: I have never given up on anything -- this is my strength. I constantly keep doing the right things, irrespective of the result. When I was a junior, I had lost a lot of tournaments in the early rounds. I wasn't discouraged, and I just continued to work really hard," Bopanna said.
"I carried this same attitude into my professional career. I don't have any regrets about not winning a Grand Slam title for the first 14 years of my career. The things I've learnt over the years have made me a better player."
Talking about being nominated for the Arjuna Award, Bopanna said: "Arjuna Award recommendation: I'm very, very happy. The AITA had nominated me in 2014 and 2015 as well, but I didn't get the nod. We have to wait and see what happens this year."
The Indo-Canadian pair sent the third seeded duo of France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic crashing out with a 7-5, 6-3 verdict in the semi-finals.
Bopanna and Dabrowski survived a tough challenge from Hlavackova and Edouard in the opening set before dominating the second set to earn a shot at the title.
The seventh seeded Indo-Canadian combination will meet the unseeded pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah in the final.
Groenefeld and Farah defeated Casey Dellacqua of Australia and American Rajeev Ram 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5 in the other semi-final.
If he does prevail in the final, Bopanna will become only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title.
The legendary Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza are the only Indians to have clinched Grand Slam titles.
Bopanna entered the final of a Grand Slam tournament after a gap of seven years.
He qualified for the Grand Slam final of his career in 2010 when he and Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi entered the title clash of the US open.
The Indo-Pakistan combination had registered several superb performances in that tournament, including a straight sets win over second seeds Daniel Nestor and Zimonjic in the third round.
However, the 16th seeds ran into the legendary duo of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the final.
Bopanna and Qureshi put up a brave fight before going down 6-7, 6-7 to the top seeded Bryan brothers who were also World No.1 at that time.
The seventh seeds stunned the seventh seeded Indo-Croatian team of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-4 in 52 minutes.
World number 10 Saina, who did well to the reach the Denmark Open final on Sunday before losing to nemesis and top-ranked Tai Tzu Ying, and Srikanth, a semifinalist in the same event, have very little time to recover after a hectic last week.
World number three Sindhu will be fresher, having made an unexpected first round exit in Odense.
Besides Srikanth, the other Indians in the men's singles draw are B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma. Verma had lost a marathon battle against Srikanth in the quarterfinals of Denmark Open.
Ashwini Ponnappa will be playing only mixed doubles this week, alongside Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
It will take a special performance to win the BWF World Tour Super 750 event which features a high-quality field.
Tai Tzu and Kento Momota, who won in Denmark, will be title favourites again.
The women's field comprises Tai Tzu, Saina, Sindhu and Carolina Marin while Momota could be challenged by the likes of Srikanth, Chen Long, Son Wan Ho, Viktor Axelsen and Shi Yuqi.
Srikanth faces world number 22 Wong Wing Ki Vincent in the first round while Saina and Sindhu will take on 37th-ranked Saena Kawakami and 11th-ranked Beiwen Zhang respectively.
Zhang had beaten Sindhu last week.
The Swiss came back strongly after being one set down to beat the Serb 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer stunned the top-seeded Indo-Brazilian pair 6-2, 6-2 to enter the second round of the tournament.
Groenefeld-Rojer showed their dominance right from the word go, winning the first set 6-2 in a one-sided affair.
The second set saw the same result in favour of Groenefeld-Rojer as Sania-Soares failed to make a comeback into the game.
Groenefeld-Rojer pair won 63 percent of first serve points, while winning six out of nine break points. They next face Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan and Australia's John Peers in the second round who earlier beat Hao-Ching Chan and Marin Draganja 6-3, 6-4.
Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis and France's Lucas Pouille beat the Indo-Australian pair 6-3, 6-1 to enter the second round.
Bhupathi-Kyrgios never looked in control of the game as the pair faced an early exit from the tournament.
It was the top seed Serb's second French Open title and 19th Grand Slam title in all. With it, Djokovic has become the first man in the Open Era to win all four majors twice.
Exhibiting remarkable temperament, despite losing the first two sets, Djokovic, 34, rallied calmly and won the last three sets against 22-year-old Tsitsipas to walk away with the trophy.
Staging a comeback is not new to Djokovic. Sunday was the sixth time he had rallied from being two sets down, and the first time he has done it in a Grand Slam final.
Djokovic was two sets down against Lorenzo Musetti in the fourth round, and then he defeated 13-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-final match that lasted four sets.
Before Djokovic, there have been four players in the Open Era who had rallied from being two sets down in a Roland Garros final. They were: Bjorn Borg (1974), Ivan Lendl (1984), Andre Agassi (1999), and Gaston Gaudio (2004). The only player to achieve this feat at another Grand Slam in the Open Era was Dominic Thiem, who did it at the US Open final last year.
With 19 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic is now just one title short of what his rivals Roger Federer and Nadal have achieved.
Djokovic is the first tennis player to win the Career Grand Slam twice in the Open Era, and is halfway to the calendar year Grand Slam.
Barbora, the world No. 33, needed one hour and 58 minutes to beat 29-year-old Anastasia, who too was in her maiden Grand Slam final.
Hana Mandlikova was the last Czech Republic player to win the French Open title, in 1981.
Barbora, who received the trophy from Czech-born legend Martina Navratilova, is the third unseeded player in the last five years to win the Roland Garros title, after Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in 2017 and Poland's Iga Swiatek, who clinched it last year.
The 25-year-old Barbora, who has won two Grand Slam women's doubles and three mixed doubles titles and was ranked the No.1 doubles player in 2018, had an easy first set. She dropped serve in the opening game of the contest before racing to take the next six games and claim a one-set lead inside 30 minutes.
Anastasia jumped into contention, opening up a 5-1 lead in the second set before closing it at 6-2.
But after two contrasting sets, Barbora found the perfect rhythm in the decider at 3-3. It helped that Anastasia was struggling with a leg injury, which necessitated a medical timeout in the second set.
Barbora could make a clean sweep of the titles here, as she is also in the women's doubles final.
On Sunday, Barbora could become the first woman since Mary Pierce of France in 2000 to clinch both the singles and doubles French Open titles as she and compatriot Katerina Siniakova are set to play Poland's Iga and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the title.
Though Barbora has been dominating the doubles circuit for long, her singles surge been phenomenal this year. She broke into the top 100 in singles in September last year and this was just her fifth major main draw after 15 qualifying losses between 2014 and 2019.
Remarkably, Barbora, who is now on a 12-match winning streak, had won her maiden WTA singles title two weeks ago in Strasbourg.
Nadal, who went into the match with 105-2 (win-loss) record and with a 7-1 record against the Serb, was the outright favourite to win the match and set up a final clash with Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. For, he had lost only one set in this year's tournament prior to Friday's semi-final.
But the chinks in his game began to show early. The first set, though won by the Spanish world No. 3 with a 6-3 margin, went on for 61 minutes. Nadal saved a couple of break-points in the very first game of the match and then went 5-0 up before Djokovic fought back to show that he is up for the fight and won't take the Nadal challenge lying down.
The Serb, who was also the last player to beat Nadal in the French Open back in the 2015 quarter-finals, then took the second set. The seventh game was the heart of the set, indeed the match, as neither gave an inch.
Djokovic played some beautiful shots, some cross-courts even as he made some glaring errors. But the game that went on for over 10 minutes saw Nadal hitting the ball outside the court on a number of occasions and being forced to commit errors. The ninth game too stretched for long before the Serb sealed it. He won the set 6-3.
The third set, which saw heavy-duty and sparring tennis, went into a tie-breaker after Djokovic had broken a tired-looking Nadal in the fifth game. Nadal broke back in the sixth game.
The see-saw battle went on before the top seed sealed the set 7-4 in the tie-break and took a 2-1 lead after three sets.
The fourth set saw unrelenting Nadal breaking Djokovic but then the Serb won the final six games to seal a place in the final against Tsitsipas.
While Djokovic won 64 percentage points on his first serve and 55 per cent on the second serve, Nadal won 59 per cent on first and 49 per cent on second. The Serb converted eight of the 22 break-points he got as against six out of 16 by Nadal.
The biggest difference though was the double faults. Nadal committed eight of them against Djokovic's three.
Between 2005, when he won his first French Open and 2020 when he won his last of the 13, Nadal had not won the title at Roland Garros only on three occasions --- in 2009, when he lost to Robin Soderling in the fourth round; in 2015, when he lost to Djokovic in the quarter-finals and in 2016 when he had to pull out of the third round due to injury.
Barbora saved a match point at 5-3 in the third set and went on to win the titanic battle in three hours and 18 minutes.
Barbora will play first-time Grand Slam finalist No.31 seed Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated world No.85 Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 34 minutes in an earlier semi-final encounter.
On an 11-match winning streak, Barbora needed five match points over two games. She duly subdued the challenge from the Greek player and improved to 3-0 in their head-to-head rivalry.
Earlier, Anastasia, 29, became the first woman to play more than 50 major tournaments before reaching a final, having made her Grand Slam debut as a 15-year-old wildcard entrant at Wimbledon in 2007.
Italian Roberta Vinci, who was the 2015 US Open runner-up in her 44th main draw, held the previous record.
This tournament is the 52nd time that Anastasia has made the main draw of a Grand Slam event.
Anastasia will meet the winner of the second semifinal to be played between Maria Sakkari of Greece and Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova.
Anastasia is the first Russian woman to advance to a Grand Slam final since 2015, when Maria Sharapova reached the title round of the Australian Open where she lost to Serena Williams of the US.
The win takes Anastasia into her 21st career final. Her last entry in a final was in 2019 in Moscow. Her first entry into a final was at Monterrey in 2010, where she defeated Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to win the title.
If Anastasia wins, it will be her first title since winning the 2018 Strasbourg tournament. In all, she has won 12 career titles.
Anastasia has been the 'junior' opponent to No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 15 Victoria Azarenka and No. 21 Elena Rybakina in her earlier matches. And now she is the 'senior' pro left in the contest.
Anastasia's career-high ranking has been world No.13, achieved in July 2011. She has reached the quarterfinals in six majors.
Tamara, on the other hand, is the first player from Slovenia to reach the last four stage of a Grand Slam.
"After discussions with my team, I've decided I will need to pull out of Roland Garros today," Federer wrote on Twitter.
"After two knee surgeries and over a year of rehabilitation, it's important that I listen to my body and make sure I don't push myself too quickly on my road to recovery. I am thrilled to have gotten three matches under my belt. There is no greater feeling than being back on court."
Earlier today, twenty-time Grand Slam singles champion Federer of Switzerland indicated that he would not be averse to pulling out of the French Open if the tournament is a stepping stone to "something that is really important to me".
Federer, 39, came off a gruelling three hour and 39 minute-match against Germany's 27-year-old Dominik Koepfer to reach the last 16 at Roland Garros. He will take on ninth seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy for a place in the quarter-finals, where world No.1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia could be waiting.
"These [tournaments] are all stepping stones to something that is really important to me. It is the season, and it is the comeback. I need matches like these," he said at the post-match press conference after his 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 win over Koepfer.
Federer underwent two knee surgeries last year and is competing in only his third event since the 2020 Australian Open.
"We go through these matches, we analyse them highly and look on what's next and will do the same tonight and tomorrow, because I need to decide if I keep on playing or not or is it not too much risk at this moment to keep on pushing, or is this just a perfect way to just take a rest?"
"Because I don't have the week in between here and Halle (the grass-court tournament preferred for Wimbledon tune-up) like normal to see what's best now, if you count back from Wimbledon and so forth. It's just a lot going on, but having a match like this, knowing I could have probably played a fifth set but not knowing how I will wake up tomorrow is interesting, to say the least," said Federer
Federer is an eight-time Wimbledon singles champion and he is aiming for his 21 Grand Slam title at his favourite Grand Slam, which commences on June 28.
The Swiss great made 63 unforced errors during the match Koepfer, quite unlike Federer as the contest as he avoided what would have been his earliest exit from the French Open since 2004.
Naomi, 23, defeated Romania's Patricia Maria Tig on Sunday, but did not turn up to face media. This prompted the organisers to fine her $15,000 and be warned that she faced expulsion from Grand Slam tournaments if she continued to do so.
On Monday, Naomi posted a statement on Twitter, saying that she had "suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018" and that "it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences" because she gets "huge waves of anxiety before".
"This isn't a situation I ever imagined or intended when I posted a few days ago. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. More importantly I would never trivialise mental health or use the term lightly," wrote the winner of four Grand Slam titles.
"The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that I'm often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety."
Naomi apologised to journalists for a genuine reason.
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) May 31, 2021
"Though the tennis press has always been kind to me (and I wanna apologise especially to all the cool journalists who I may have hurt), I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world's media. I get really nervous and find it stressful to always try to engage and give you the best answers I can," she wrote.
"So here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences. I announced it pre-emptively because I do feel like the rules are quite outdated in parts and I wanted to highlight that. I wrote privately to the tournament apologising and saying that I would be more than happy to speak with them after the tournament as the Slams are intense."
Naomi did not commit on how long her break would be.
"I'm gonna take some time away from the court now, but when the time is right I really want to work with the Tour to discuss ways we can make things better for the players, press and fans. Anyways hope you are all doing well and staying safe, love you guys I'll see you when I see you," she said.
The 32-year-old has not played since pulling out of an event in her native Russia at the end of January and had a small operation in February, reports the BBC.
The two-time Roland Garros champion announced on Instagram that she would not be participating in the tournament, which begins on May 26.
"Withdrawing from the French Open today. Sometimes the right decisions aren't always the easiest ones," she posted. "In better news, I have returned to the practice court, and slowly building the strength back in my shoulder. I really miss you Paris, until next year," she added.
Sharapova, who won the French title in 2012 and 2014, returned to the tour in April 2017 after serving a 15-month ban for taking the banned drug meldonium.
She reached the quarter-finals of the French Open last year, losing 2-6, 1-6 to third seed Garbine Muguruza.
The 23-year-old Barty, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise up the rankings after resuming her tennis career following a hiatus to play professional cricket, earned a 6-1, 6-3 win over the 19-year-old Vondrousova on Saturday in the one hour and 10 minutes match, Efe news reports.
Barty, who was ranked No. 325 at the end of the 2016 season, shortly after starting her comeback to the WTA Tour, is set to rise to a career-high No. 2 (behind only Japan's Naomi Osaka) when the new rankings come out on Monday.
She is the first Australian player -- man or woman -- to win a French Open singles championship since Margaret Court in 1973, who captured the second-to-last of her record 24 Grand Slam women's singles titles that year in Paris.
The world No. 8 jumped out to an early lead against a clearly nervous Vondrousova, a promising young southpaw who was not accustomed to the big stage.
In a match-up of two players known for their variety of shot and creativity, Barty led 4-0 before the 38th-ranked Vondrousova finally got on the scoreboard, with the Czech winning a shockingly low 29 per cent of her first-serve points in the opening set and striking just two winners to her opponent's 13.
The only game Vondrousova won in the first set came via a break of Barty's serve.
The second set was slightly more competitive, but Barty remained in control at all times, improved her play on serve and broke Vondrousova's serve twice more, including one final break in the last game.
"It's unbelievable. I'm a little bit speechless. I played the perfect match today. I'm so proud of myself and my team. It's just been an incredible two weeks," Barty was quoted as saying on Tennis Australia's Twitter account.
In her post-match remarks, the humble Barty reflected on Court's success and also noted that one of her contemporaries has been a consistent contender at Roland Garros.
"It's a special place for Australian players. (Samantha Stosur) has done so well here in the past (losing in the 2010 final and reaching the semifinals on three other occasions). She's been so close before. I'm incredibly proud of what I've been able to achieve. It's just been a magical two weeks."
Barty is a former Wimbledon junior champion who walked away from the sport due to burnout after the 2014 US Open.
During that hiatus, she showed her versatility as an athlete by briefly competing for the Brisbane Heat women's professional cricket team despite not having any formal training in that sport.
Barty, however, was encouraged to return to tennis by her close friend and former doubles partner, fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua, with whom she was runner-up at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
The Australian, who has mainly focused on singles since her return to the WTA Tour, has teamed up with different partners since Dellacqua's retirement last year and won the 2018 US Open women's doubles title with American CoCo Vandeweghe.
Until this fortnight, Barty had never reached a Grand Slam singles semifinal, her best previous result at a major having been a quarterfinal berth at this year's Australian Open.
Her victory at the French Open has come as a big surprise considering that her best career results have come on grass and hard court and she had never advanced beyond the second round at Roland Garros in five previous appearances at tennis' clay-court Grand Slam event.
Despite never before playing singles in the final weekend of a Grand Slam tournament, the 2019 Miami Open champion and Fed Cup stalwart for Australia had the experience edge in the final over Vondrousova, whose best previous result at a major was a fourth-round showing at the 2018 US Open.
Since claiming her maiden World Championships title in August, Sindhu has looked awfully out-of-form as she had failed to cross the second round in three tournaments.
She faltered in the second and first rounds at the China Open and Korea Open respectively last month. Sindhu again exited in the second round in straight games against Korea's An Se Young in Denmark Open last week.
The Olympic silver medallist looked a tad slow in her movement in the last three tournaments, showing signs of dip in her form.
Seeded fifth in the tournament, Sindhu, a 2017 semifinalist, will be up against Canada's world number 9 Michelle Li, who has beaten the Indian in the past twice.
If Sindhu gets past the early rounds, the world number 6 Indian is likely to face top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
World number 8 Saina Nehwal, who is also taking part in this BWF World Tour Super 750 event, has also been struggling with her fitness and has made three first-round exits in her last three tournaments.
The 29-year-old, who had finished runner-up at the 2012 edition, will meet Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi in the opening round.
In the men's singles, 2017 champion Kidambi Srikanth too will be desperate to turn around his poor run in form when he steps out at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin here.
However, it will not be an easy outing for the world number 9 Indian as he opens his campaign against second seed Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen.
Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who reached the semifinals at India Open and Korea Open, would look to prove that the first-round exit last week at Denmark Open was an aberration when he lock horns with Hong Kong's NG Ka Long Angus.
Sameer Verma, who had reached the semifinals of the World Tour Finals last December, will meet Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the opening round.
World number 12 B Sai Praneeth, who had claimed a bronze at the World Championships, will once again face the legendary Lin Dan of China in the opening round.
A 2017 Singapore Open winner, Praneeth had beaten the two-time Olympic champion Chinese at Denmark Open last week.
In the doubles, the women's pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will square off against fifth seeded Korean duo of Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan.
The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face the Dutch combination of Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling. Another men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy and the mixed duo of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini are also in the fray.
Young thus continues her impressive run having beaten reigning world champion P.V. Sindhu in the first round of the Denmark Open last month. She had been knocked out of that tournament only after pushing Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the quarter finals that went on for an hour and 20 minutes.
Saina was chasing for much of the match but she had game point at 20-19 in the first game. Young however took three consecutive points to win the first game 22-20.
The two went toe to toe in the second game with the Korean holding a slender 11-10 lead. After that, however, Young raced to an 18-13 lead and Saina responded by taking four consecutive points to close the gap to a point. It took two match points but in the end, the 17-year-old Korean prevailed over the former world no.1.
Saina will next feature in the $75,000 Saarlorlux Open in Germany which starts on November 29.
Newly crowned World Champion Sindhu lost to World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying 21-16, 24-26, 21-17 in an intense last-eight match which lasted for 75 minutes on Friday night. It was a fierce battle between the two ace shuttlers as long rallies, jaw-dropping drops and never-say-die attitude were on display in a gruelling quarter-final clash at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin.
Earlier, Saina's campaign in the Super 750 tournament came to an end after she lost her quarter-final clash to South Korean teenager An Se Young. In a contest that lasted for almost 50 minutes, the 17-year-old from Korea defeated Saina 22-20, 23-21 to enter the semis of the competition.
However, there was good news for India's top-ranked men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who continued with their imperious form and shocked Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen to enter the semi-finals.
The Indian duo, which had claimed its maiden Super 500 title at the Thailand Open in August this year, shocked the World No 8 Danish 21-13, 22-20 in a 39-minute quarter-final encounter.
This is the second time on the trot that the pair has reached the last four of the Super 750 tournament.
Satwik and Chirag will now take on the Japanese fifth seeds Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe for a berth in the finals.
Satwik and Chirag, who had won their maiden Super 500 title at the Thailand Open in August, notched up a 21-11 25-23 win over the fifth seeded Japanese combination in a 56-minute semifinal on Saturday.
The duo's effort is commendable as this is the first time an Indian men's doubles pair has reached a World Tour 750 final.
They will now look to become the first Indian pair to win a Super 750 title on the BWF circuit when they take on top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the final on Sunday night.
If they win, they will become the first all-Indian pair to win the French Open since Partho Ganguli and Vikram Singh did it in 1983.
Currently perched at a career-high World No. 11 ranking, their series of top-10 wins this week will help them inch closer to the highly-coveted top-10 spot and a berth at the Tokyo Olympics next year.
It's their composure under pressure that has been the very reason for their continued success and rapid improvement, something Chirag Shetty himself pointed out.
"It really feels good to be playing in the French Open final today and hopefully if we are able to keep the calm and patience that we have shown for the past one week, then I think we definitely stand a chance to win," he said.
Satwik and Chirag had come into the match with a 0-2 head-to-head record against the Japanese combination, having lost to them at the 2018 Indonesia Open and 2017 World Championship.
The Indian pair took the first game easily in just 15 minutes, using the smash to good effect, but Satwik and Chirag were under a bit of pressure early in the second game.
However, they came back strongly to lead 11-8 at the mid-break. This was after the Japanese had taken a 8-6 lead owing to a few errors from the racquet of Satwik.
The Japanese pair fought hard in a dramatic second game and saved multiple match points, but the determined Indian duo eventually emerged victorious with their brilliant play that was a mix of attack and defence, a far cry from the one-dimensional approach that punctuated their game in the past.
They are the only remaining Indian challenge at the USD 7,00,000 event following the defeat of reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and Olympic bronze winner Saina Nehwal at the quarterfinals stage.
They had become the first Indian team to triumph at the Super 500 when they triumphed at the Thailand Open in August.
At the French capital this week, they have taken it up a level further with their confident strokeplay against some of the best teams in the world.
Reigning world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, one of the most experienced pairs to play the sport, fell to the Indians' variety and superb teamwork.
After securing their biggest career win against the World No. 2 duo, they kept that impressive run going against World No. 8 Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and World No. 6 Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe to set up a summit showdown with the World No. 1 pair.
The winning mentality and never-say-die attitude have set them on the path to glory. At the French Open, only Kidambi Srikanth has so far tasted success from among the Indians ever since the tournament was upgraded to a Superseries level in 2007.
Saina Nehwal was the only other Indian to make it to the final in 2012.
In the men's singles event, Djokovic, despite visibly struggling with his left arm early on Wednesday evening, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in three hours and 10 minutes to make it to his 10th semi-final at the Roland Garros.
"Well, I definitely didn't feel great coming into the court today," the Serbian admitted after the match. "Few things happened in the warm-up. I had to deal with those physical issues coming onto the court. As the match went on, I felt better, didn't feel as much pain."
"But I don't want to take away anything from his good performance. Especially for a set and a half he was the better player, dictating the play. I was very neutral. I didn't have much energy really happening in my legs or movement or game itself," he added.
The world number one will next face Stefanos Tsitsipas, who ousted Hamburg European Open champion Andrey Rublev in straight sets.
In other men's singles semifinal, 12-time champion Rafael Nadal will lock horns with Diego Schwartzman.
Meanwhile, in the women's singles event, Kvitova booked her place in the last four following a 6-3, 6-3 win over Laura Siegemund in 78 minutes.
The seventh seed, who is yet to drop a set this fortnight, was impressive against Siegemund as she claimed 77 per cent of her first-serve points and converted five of 10 break points.
"I think I'm still same clay player as I was before, but I just think that I find those conditions here and I'm still mentally tough," Kvitova said. "I mean, I played indoor, outdoor, sun, wind, whatever, rain, whatever happens… I think eight years ago I think it was everything, you know, kind of (the) same, same weather."
Kvitova will face this year's Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin for a place in a maiden Roland-Garros final.
In other semifinal, Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska, who had defeated third seed Elina Svitolina, will compete against Polish teenager Iga Swiatek.
(IANS)
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The FFT said that the decision was made in response to France President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement last month that a scheduled to progressively get cultural and sporting events in the country back up and running would be set up from mid-May onwards, subject to the improvement of the health situation.
“Using this as their starting point, the FFT worked in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the relevant government services on potential scenarios for organising Roland-Garros, while taking the international sporting calendar into account,” said the FFT.
“In this context, it appeared that postponing the tournament by one week would be the best solution. Hence the qualifying rounds will be held from Monday 24 to Friday 28 May and will be followed by the main draw, from Sunday 30 May to Sunday 13 June,” it further said.
The FFT further said that limited number of fans will be allowed at the event.