• French Open, Day 15: Plays of the Day

Nadal dishes out further pain to Ferrer

Rafael Nadal received the trophy from special guest Usain Bolt © Getty Images

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Another day, another French Open for Rafa

When Usain Bolt presented the French Open trophy to Rafael Nadal on Sunday, on the podium stood two great athletes of the modern era.

Bolt with six Olympic gold medals to his name side by side with history-maker Nadal during the presentation ceremony at Roland Garros, and it was a fitting moment for Nadal to be handed the piece of silverware he continues to get his teeth stuck into every year.

Nadal will already go down as the greatest clay court player in history, but his eighth French Open triumph and a 59th win at the event highlighted this even more. Win No. 59 means no one has won more matches at Roland Garros than he has, and French Open No. 8 means no one has won more times at a single grand slam than he has.

Truly remarkable.

Protester quickly dealt with

When you are on the verge of breaking records, the last thing you need is someone to run straight past you bare-chested with a flare and disrupting your rhythm.

Nadal was serving for the victory but was unexpectedly interrupted by a protester jumping out from the crowd and running with a flare on court.

Mind you, the security on Court Philippe Chatrier were like greyhounds out of the traps as they man-handled the protester to the ground and quickly escorted him off court. They were ready as moments before several spectators stopped play when they began calling for the resignation of France president Francois Hollande.

Rafa was not impressed.

More heartache for Ferrer

You work so hard to make it through to your maiden grand slam final after 42 attempts, and what happens, Nadal is waiting on the other side of the net.

Perhaps Ferrer would be thinking what if the top four in the world of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Nadal were not around? Maybe then he might have a chance of winning a major.

And the record against Nadal did not help as well, as Ferrer had lost 15 of the last 16 outings before the final on Sunday.

You get no prizes for finishing second at tournaments, but for all of his efforts and tremendous work rate, Ferrer will always come out second best to Nadal in everything that he does, which is no fault of his own and every credit to Rafa.

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