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After the win, the conversation quickly turned to whether Nadal is now the greatest clay court player ever. Nadal himself doesn't like getting drawn into the "greatest this," "greatest that" discussion. "I'm not the right one to say that," he said.
Others certainly will.
"Well, he has to be now," said Mats Wilander, who won here three times and presented the trophy to Nadal. "I mean, you can never compare eras. But, yeah, I think the players that he's up against are better on clay. They're more consistent than the ones Borg was up against. Playing Roger Federer in a bunch of finals. Now Novak, No. 1 in the world. Yes, yes, absolutely. The seven here makes a big difference."
Those seven go along with eight at Monte Carlo, seven at Barcelona, six at Rome and an overall 254-19 record on the surface.
But while the numbers get gaudier, the tennis world moves on -- to the grass at Wimbledon, which is where Djokovic started his string of three straight Grand Slam wins last year, beating Nadal in all three finals.
"I don't have that chance to play in my favorite court the rest of the season," Nadal said. "That's the thing. The calendar says we only have this period of time on clay, and I don't have more chances to play on clay."
The rest of the tennis world should rejoice at that.
But if playing on clay was supposed to make the 2012 final a no-stress walk through the park at Roland Garros for Nadal, somebody forgot to give him that message.
Nadal said the first time he felt confident Monday, in the hours before the final act played out, was three minutes before he walked on the court.
"Because for the rest of the time I was a little bit too nervous, more nervous than usual, probably, for the situation," he said.
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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