King of clay Nadal denies Federer

Rafael Nadal retained his French Open crown today – and denied Roger Federer a place in the history books in the process.

The Swiss world number one was aiming to become the third man ever – and the first since 1969 – to hold all four grand slam titles at the same time, following in the footsteps of Don Budge and Rod Laver.

But despite a poor start, Nadal showed once more he is the man to beat on clay by extending his winning run on the surface to 60 matches with a 1-6 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7/4) victory.

After being overshadowed by Federer's class in the first set, Nadal battled back by storming into a 3-0 lead in the second.

He broke again in the sixth game as Federer put a backhand volley wide, and Nadal went on to pull level at one set all, converting on his second opportunity as Federer returned his serve wide.

Nadal maintained the momentum in the third set, although he did have to stave off four break points before levelling at 2-2.

Federer rued missing those chances as Nadal broke for a 4-2 advantage, and the Spaniard kept his nerve to move ahead in the match by two sets to one as Federer put a backhand wide.

Nadal added another nail into Federer’s coffin at the start of the fourth set when he took his serve with a winning forehand.

The Spaniard held on to his advantage to later take a 5-3 lead.

The youngster showed a few nerves when serving for the match, however, and Federer broke back when Nadal made a rare mistake from the back of the court.

In the tie break, Nadal took a 3-2 lead after Federer missed a dropshot and a forehand on his serve.

Federer fought back to make it 5-4 with a great volley but a powerful serve from Nadal earned him a match point which he converted with a forehand volley.