Sunday, May 31, 2009

Shocker: Nadal ousted in Paris

Some things never seem to change. Every Sunday in the fall, Brett Favre will be behind center in the NFL. And every spring, Favre will wrestle with whether or not to retire, eventually choosing to continue playing.

Lastly, Rafael Nadal never loses at Roland Garros.

Well, while Favre continues to be indecisive about retirement, Rafael Nadal's winning streak at the French Open is over. Thanks to 23rd-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden, Nadal's record 31-match winning streak at Roland Garros is history.

In his previous 31 matches, Nadal had lost only seven sets. Since losing a set to Roger Federer is 2007, Nadal hadn't even lost a set. I guess if Nadal can lose on clay, maybe Favre can retire? Well, maybe not.

Soderling defeated Nadal 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the fourth round in Paris Sunday. So much for the highly anticipated Nadal-Federer final everyone expected. Now, the best possible final (based on seeding) would be No. 2 Federer versus No. 3 Andy Murray.

While Federer has yet to play his fourth round match, Murray, unlike Nadal, advanced to the quarterfinals fairly easily Sunday, beating No. 13 Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

Personally, aside from these two stars the only other player that draws my interest is Andy Roddick. So if the final doesn't include any of the three of them, it seems unlikely I would even tune in at that point.

Let's hope Federer, Murray and Roddick can continue to have success, unlike Nadal or No. 4 Novak Djokovic, who both lost much earlier than expected.

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