PARIS — When a 29-year-old Serbian with elastic limbs and enormous heart splayed happily onto the clay and looked up at the sky after match point on Sunday evening at Court Philippe Chatrier, he might have just defied common sense.
In the Darwinian cauldron of men’s professional tennis, it made sense that nobody had won four straight Grand Slam singles titles since September 1969, when Rod Laver outlasted Tony Roche in four sets at the U.S. Open to complete the feat. It figured further that nobody had ever done so on three different surfaces. Somehow, all the way into 2016, in an era full of ball-blasters who can make it ever harder to secure a given point, one guy has won 28 straight Grand Slam singles matches, and holds all four Grand Slam titles.
In this regard Novak Djokovic, who once seemed rooted perpetually at a commendable No. 3, used his 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win in the French Open final to exceed both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Even those two former tormentors of Djokovic never could place all four current Grand Slam trophies upon any of their swank furniture. It made Sunday an occasion on which the runner-up, Andy Murray, reminded the audience of its luck as witnesses and called it “such a rare thing to have happened,” and “something you probably won’t see for a long, long time.”
“In the last point, I don’t even remember what happened,” Djokovic said. “It was really one of those things, moments where you just try to be there. It’s like my spirit has left my body and I was just observing my body, you know, fight the last three, four exchanges, you know, going left to right and hoping that Andy will make a mistake, which has happened. And yeah, a thrilling moment. One of the most beautiful I have had in my career.”
Still further, as Djokovic plied his 12th try at Roland Garros to his elusive first French Open title, he pulled up alongside Federer and Nadal in another record-book vein. He joined those two – along with Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Fred Perry, Andre Agassi and Don Budge – as the only men to win all four Grand Slams in a lifetime, and he joined Federer, Nadal, Laver and Agassi among those to do so entirely within the Open Era that began in 1968.
Djokovic did all this from probably the unlikeliest homeland in the bunch, a country ravaged by war during his childhood. As he continued his crackling path out of the long Federer-Nadal shadow, he looked exhilarated during a news conference lavish in diplomacy, as he extolled Federer and Nadal and said, “I think all of us contribute something different.”
Still further, he reached 12 Grand Slam titles all told, a vibrant threat to the Nadal-Pete Sampras tie at 14 and even to Federer’s peerless total of 17. He became the first man since Jim Courier in 1992 to win the Australian Open and French Open in the same year, spurring thoughts of a potential calendar Grand Slam to boot. “Well, I don’t want to sound arrogant,” he said, “but I really think everything is achievable in life. You know, winning this trophy today gave me so much happiness and fulfillment, I’m trying to grasp and I’m trying to cherish, obviously, these moments right now.”
He did all this editing of the records despite a bustling brain and a first set in which he broke Murray to start, lost the next four games and, he later said, “Nerves kicked in.” Murray, who has reached finals at all four Grand Slams and has won two of them, looked the stronger, his shots drawing mass gasps for their inconceivable mustard. Then Djokovic pulled the great-champion gear and reconfigured himself.
So as he played the last point, the kind of 20-shot exchange that helps mark this laborious era, he and his sport had found some realm so rarefied that he sort of watched himself play, until Murray’s last backhand reached the net and Djokovic fell flat backward. After all, he’d created a reality unseen for 47 years.
In Saturday’s women’s final, Garbine Muguruza stunned Serena Williams in straight sets to capture the French Open and prevent the American from Grand Slam title No. 22.
Williams, the world’s No. 1 player, failed to tie Steffi Graff’s Open-era record for the third consecutive Grand Slam event as she lost 7-5, 6-4 to fourth-seeded Muguruza of Spain.
The 22-year-old Muguruza, winning her first major, traded powerful groundstrokes with Williams en route to beating the 34-year-old for the second time in three years at Roland Garros. In 2014, Muguruza knocked off Williams in the second round.
Williams fought back tears in her runner-up speech as she addressed the crowd in French.
“Thanks to my coach, Patrick (Mouratoglou),” Williams said. “We didn’t win today, but we’ll try again next year.”
Muguruza, who lost to Williams in last year’s final at Wimbledon, became the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won the French Open in 1998.
“I’m so, so excited,” Muguruza said on court. “To play a final of a Grand Slam against one of the best players, I’m so happy. Serena is a very powerful player and I had to be ready for every point.
“I can’t explain with words how this day means to me. You work all your life to get here.”