On a cool afternoon in Paris, Roger Federer won the one major title that had escaped him. He beat Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4 in the French Open final. The win completed the career Grand Slam and tied Pete Sampras’s record of 14 major titles.
A ruthless start and a strange interruption
Federer began the final in full control. He won the first four games and broke Soderling’s serve a third time to take the set. Then, early in the second set, a man ran onto the court, waved a flag and tried to put a red hat on Federer’s head.
The break in play hurt his rhythm. “It definitely felt uncomfortable once he came close to me,” Federer told reporters afterwards. “Looking back, it definitely threw me out of my rhythm a little bit.”
Four aces and one last hold
Neither man lost serve in the second set, so it went to a tiebreak. Federer took charge at once. He hit four aces on his first four serves and raced to 7-1, going two sets up.
He broke Soderling in the first game of the third set and then served for the match at 5-4. There he faced only his second break point of the day. He held firm, and the title was his when Soderling sent a return into the net.
Federer became the third man in the Open Era to win all four majors, joining Rod Laver and Andre Agassi. His road had been hard. He came back from two sets down against Tommy Haas, then from a set behind against Juan Martin del Potro, while Soderling had knocked out champion Rafael Nadal earlier in the draw.
The win tied Sampras, but Federer would pass him one month later at Wimbledon. Paris stayed the quiet turning point of his story — the city where the career became complete.
