Rafael Nadal Parera goes on and on. The Manacor tennis player, struggling against his own body, achieved his fourteenth Roland Garros without giving Casper Ruud the slightest chance. The Spaniard, in front of a devoted audience, posted his best game since Philippe-Chatrier’s first ball against the Norwegian.

On his favorite track, where he achieved his greatest exploits, two days after celebrating his 36th birthday, Nadal beat the Norwegian Casper Ruud with authority, 6-3, 6-3 and 6-0, in 2 hours and 18 minutes.

It wasn’t the best final but it was one of the most meritorious of the 14 Nadal played on clay in Paris, as he arrived in the French capital with almost no shooting, martyred by a left foot that , he had warned, cause great pain. .

But the hunger to keep in Philippe Chatrier the scepter which last year Djokovic snatched it this made him overcome to seek to add one more step to the mythos surrounding him. A few months after lifting the Australian Open in Melbourne, he goes through the first two majors of the year for the first time in his life and although the drums are ringing that soon announce the end of his career, no one is left. dare to bury it.

Nadal is superlative and only the physical seems to set limits. In another exercise in tenacity, he becomes the oldest to lift the Mousquetaires Cup, beating compatriot Andrés Gimeno who did so in 1972, at just under 35.

Nothing separates him from his communion with this piece, where the brilliance of his legend ended up dazzling the public, totally devoted to his king, to whom after initial hesitations, he now devotes boundless adoration.

That’s how he jumped center to face one of the most uneven finals in living memory, because in front of him he had neophyte Ruud, a student at his academy, the youngest rival he ever had. faced to lift the title, a meritorious clay-court tennis player who, his 23 years, around the top5 based on consistency.

At the end of his best tournament, he took one more lesson, a house brand, this one paid for by Roland Garros.

The Norwegian, the first of his nationality to reach this stage, barely has the weapons to scratch Nadal’s tennis and the Spaniard did not have to draw on his best resources to score the duel in three sets.

In view of the watchful eye of King Felipe VI of Spain and Crown Prince Hakon of Norway, the monarch retained the throne and the candidate still has some way to go to achieve it.

Paris woke up covered, but without rain, good news for Nadal’s forehand to hit hard, aiming for the backhand of the Scandinavian who survived the challenge more badly than well, caught up in the stadium and by the event. .

Two breaks from Nadal, one from the Norwegian and in the pocket the first partial, uneventful, flat, to put even more in the face of an already favorable final. The marching band sang pasodobles and the public was more amused by the scale of Nadal’s legend than by the quality of the game on the track.

Ruud calmed down a bit in the second, when he reached 3-1, but his rebellion ended there. Nadal put the fifth and chained eleven consecutive games that left the final doomed with the second 6-0 he achieves in the final, after that of 2008 against Roger Federer.

One of the most comfortable finals to cancel a tournament that Nadal had to face with physical doubts but with the certainty that his foot would let him compete.

The Spaniard went from less to more, he worked hard to defeat the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets in the round of 16, peaked to beat Djokovic in four in the quarter-finals and benefited from the withdrawal due to an injury to German Alexander Zverev in the final. semi-finals.

Now the story will fade from the track, where the Spaniard promised to say where his future was going, conditioned by his physique and after several times hinting that this might be his last participation at Roland Garros.