15 years ago today: Rafael Nadal premieres in Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal and Roland Garros - this is perhaps the greatest love story in tennis. At the beginning there was a match against a German.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: May 26, 2020, 10:45 am
To say that Rafael Nadal had come completely unnoticed to his first French Open in 2005 would simply be wrong: the 18-year-old at the beginning of the tournament had the titles in Costa do Sauipe, Acapulco, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome in advance of Roland Garros fetched, all on ashes. That had brought Nadal fourth in the seed list, the then world ranking second Lleyton Hewitt skipped the tournament.
On May 26, 2005, Rafael Nadal's journey began, with twelve French Open titles at the end so far. And the first player who had to surrender to Nadal was a German: Lars Burgsmüller was able to experience firsthand in the bullring, the legendary Court 1, how one of the great runs in tennis history started.
Nadal beats Federer in the semi-finals
After the smooth success against Burgsmüller, Nadal did not last long with Xavier Malisse or Richard Gasquet, in the fourth round Sebastian Grosjean challenged the Mallorcan so far that Nadal had to give up a sentence. The quarter-final against David Ferrer got a clear affair after a tight first round, with tournament favorite Roger Federer waiting in the final round. Nadal's four-set win already gave a prospect that Federer in Roland Garros would never get anything against his long-term rival (the most recent meeting was in the semi-finals in 2019, which Nadal won in three sets).
In his first final of a Grand Slam tournament, Rafael Nadal finally faced Mariano Puerta, who had won five sets against Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals. The Russian has traditionally always looked good against Nadal, while Puerta, who was later suspended in his career for a violation of the anti-doping guidelines, was only able to take action in the first act. Rafael Nadal won 6: 7 (6), 6: 1, 6: 3 and 7: 5 - and should remain unbeaten in Roland Garros until 2009.