Rafael Nadal beats Stan Wawrinka, wins 10th French Open

Rafael Nadal beat Stan Wawrinka in the 2017 French Open finals to become the first player in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title 10 times.

Going into the 2017 French Open, Rafael Nadal was one of the clear favorites. He’s been nothing short of phenomenal on the clay court. It came as a surprise to nobody Nadal made it to the final once again. However, he didn’t face the opponent everyone wanted to see. Everyone wanted to see Nadal versus Andy Murray, but Stan Wawrinka made sure it didn’t happen by upsetting him in the semifinals. As expected, Rafael beat Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

Early on, the challenger from Switzerland was matching Nadal, with the first set tied at two games a piece after four games. However, Nadal went on to win the next four games. Anytime Wawrinka seemed to get a little bit of momentum going, Nadal snuffed it out.

After his 10th French Open title, he has put himself into the conversation of the greatest player of all time discussion. Nadal is now 20-0 all-time in the semifinals and finals in France. His 10th French Open title gives him the most titles anyone has ever won at a single Grand Slam tournament, topping Martina Navratilova’s record of nine Wimbledon titles.

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Nadal has passed Pete Sampras in career Grand Slam titles with 15. That’s the second most of any men’s player, trailing only Roger Federer. And considering Nadal’s 23-14 record over him, including a 9-3 record in Grand Slam matches, one could argue Nadal is better than him. Each of the rivals are keeping the other one from becoming the first men’s player in the Open era to win at least two of every Grand Slam title.