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PARIS — The kid is getting better.
It didn’t seem possible, but there it is. Sure, we knew Rafael Nadal was the master of clay coming into 2008 Roland Garros, but this is really starting to get ridiculous.
The muscular Spaniard, less than a week past his 22nd birthday, wrecked the best tennis player in the world on Sunday in the French Open final. Nadal defeated Roger Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.
So it’s official: He cannot be beaten at this venue and, barring a plague of locusts or a serious injury, will not lose as long as he shows up every year. Nadal’s body of work includes a 28-0 record at the French Open and a perfect 41-0 record in best-of-five clay-court matches.
Nadal has won 23 straight sets at Roland Garros going back to last year’s final, when he dropped the second set to Federer. Since then? Nada.
An athlete’s physical peak is usually in the 24- to 25-year-old range, so he is likely to grow even stronger. People who know the game say Nadal’s forehand is deeper, more powerful and bounces higher than ever before. And then there is the mental maturity, a sense of invincibility that knows no peer.
Here are a few other things we learned during a gray and chilly two weeks at Roland Garros:
The window is closing on the Williamses: Venus turns 28 next week and Serena is 26 — fairly ancient by the standards of professional tennis. In the season’s first Slam they were bounced from the Aussie Open by the Serbs and here at Roland Garros they fell in the third round to unseeded players.
Since Serena won the 2005 Australian Open, some 13 Grand Slams have been contested. Only one occasion — when she won the 2007 Aussie — has Serena gone past the quarterfinals. Since Venus won Wimbledon in 2005 she has advanced beyond the quarters in only two majors, winning at Wimbledon last year, then reaching the semis in New York.

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PARIS — No less a tennis authority than Bjorn Borg wonders whether Roger Federer can stave off Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.
Granted, Borg has a rooting interest: He won five consecutive titles at the All England Club from 1976 to ‘80, and Federer aims to claim No. 6 in a row a month from now.
And, granted, Borg wasn’t exactly on the mark when he predicted a tight French Open final: No. 2-ranked Nadal beat No. 1 Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.
Still, 11-time major champion Borg’s words carry weight, and after watching Sunday’s championship match at Roland Garros from a front-row seat, the Swede said of Nadal: “If he survives the first couple of rounds this year, I pick him to win Wimbledon.”
After losing the most lopsided Grand Slam men’s final since John McEnroe allowed Jimmy Connors to take only four games at Wimbledon in 1984, Federer spoke Sunday about wishing he could face Nadal on grass more often.
There are far more tournaments played on clay than on grass, and there’s a strong possibility the rivals will meet on the slicker surface once in 2008, just as they met once at the All England Club in 2006 and 2007 - in the Wimbledon final.
Truth be told, if Federer’s lucky, he won’t have to play Nadal at all on grass. At this point, perhaps Federer ought to hope that somebody else eliminates the 22-year-old Spaniard before yet another meeting.
Because here is the surprising thing: Nadal has come much closer to beating Federer at Wimbledon than Federer has come to beating Nadal at the French Open.
Never at Roland Garros has Federer really put a scare into Nadal, the first man since Borg in 1978-81 to win four consecutive French Open titles.
In 2005, they met in the semifinals. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, they met in the final. Each of the first three matchups, Federer pushed Nadal to four sets. But the 26-year-old Swiss star didn’t even come close to making a single set competitive Sunday.

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