French Kiss 

In tennis, there are four major tournaments–The Australian and U.S. Opens played on hard courts, Wimbledon which is played on grass, and the French Open which is played on red clay, sometimes sneeringly referred to as dirt.


On June 11, 2012, Rafael Nadal won his seventh French Open title, defeating Novak Djokovic in four sets beset by rain which gave the final--carried over to Monday--a humid air of anti-climax.

Mr. Nadal is inarguably the best clay court player in the history of the sport and currently one of the three best tennis players in the world on any surface. Fortunately for Mr. Nadal, in the French Open this year, the other two were on the other side of the draw and had to face each other before they got a shot at him -- as they have been for 12 out of the last 14 majors and it hasn't mattered what their ranking was.

Just as conveniently for Mr. Nadal, the player who had defeated him a month ago on clay (Madrid, May 2012) likewise was on the Djokovic-Federer side of the draw.

There was a lot on the line in the French Open this year: If Mr. Federer won, he’d have added another major title to his impressive collection of tournament scalps giving him an almost insurmountable record of major titles. If Mr. Djokovic won, he’d be the first player since 1969 to hold all four titles at once. If Mr. Nadal won, he’d win his seventh French Open. Wonder which one the French Federation was most interested in?

Any die-hard tennis fan betting on the outcome of the French Open easily could see Mr. Nadal’s path to the final was a fait d’accompli unless he broke a leg, or like the racehorse, I’ll Have Another, got tendonitis and had to be scratched. Mr. Djokovic’s and Mr. Federer’s paths, on the other hand, were not so easy. Before they could get to Mr. Nadal, they’d have to face each other in the semi finals. That’s assuming either one made it that far. Their half of the draw was saturated with big-hitting land mines named Del Potro, Anderson, Berdych and Tsonga. With the exception of Mr. Anderson, all had been in the finals of a major, and Mr. Del Potro has a U. S. Open title (2009).

Mr. Nadal’s side of the draw was not so heavily populated with potholes. Andy Murray (4) who has been in two majors, hasn’t beaten Mr. Nadal in a major since 2008, and had a bad back. Fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer (seeded 6th), has only one clay court victory over Mr. Nadal, and that was eight years ago. Mr. Ferrer has never reached a major final. Another of Mr. Nadal’s Spanish teammates, Nicholas Almagro, was likewise in his half of the draw. Like Mr. Ferrer, Mr. Almagro has never been in the finals of a major tournament. Serbian Janko Tipsarevic (8) also was in Mr. Nadal's half of the draw. Mr. Tipsarevic has never taken a set off Mr. Nadal.

Interestingly in the French Opens of 2009, 2010 and 2011, the number 4 player was in the top half of the draw with the number 1 seed. In those three years, Messrs. Federer and Djokovic were seeded 2 and 3. This year, with Mr. Djokovic seeded 1, the number 4 player found himself in the bottom half of the draw with Mr. Nadal (2).

Gives new meaning to “the luck of the draw” doesn’t it?