Australia anguish spurred awesome Nadal to ninth French Open title

Tennis gave back to Rafael Nadal as he troubled the record books once again at the French Open yesterday.

The world number one’s 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic gave him an unprecedented ninth title at Roland Garros, made him the first man to win it five times in a row and the first man ever to win a grand slam title in 10 successive seasons.

Djokovic had hoped to become only the eighth man to win all four grand slam titles but leaves Paris licking his wounds once again having lost to Nadal for the third straight year.