While Nadal sealed his greatness at the French Open, Ostapenko announced her promise In sport, there aren’t many tests tougher than playing Rafael Nadal on Parisian clay. For over a decade, the Spaniard has reduced nearly every player, regardless of reputation, Roger Federer included, to an unrecognisable heap of dust. On Sunday, when he did the same to Swiss Stan Wawrinka to win an unprecedented 10th French Open title and his 15th major overall, it was just a reiteration of the same. Nadal lost only 35 games all tournament, a number second only to Bjorn Borg’s 32 in the 1978 French Open, and did not concede more than four games in any set he played. Coming as it did after two years of under-performance, troubled by a creaky wrist and stripped of his aura, it might well be his most significant title. This does not mean that Nadal’s status as the greatest of all clay-courters was ever in doubt. As the 31-year-old himself said after thrashing Dominic Thiem in the semi-final, “I think ...