Stifled Stan bows to king of clay

PARIS - Until Sunday, Stan Wawrinka had an unblemished record in Grand Slam finals - but then he had never faced Rafa Nadal in a final in the Spaniard's favorite arena at the French Open.

The Swiss, who beat Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final, was dismantled 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday as Nadal won his 10th Roland Garros title.

"He's playing the best he's ever played," the third-seeded Wawrinka said of Nadal in his post-match news conference.

"He's the best ever on clay. It's always a tough challenge."

Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka breaks his racket in frustration during his straight-sets loss to Rafael Nadal of Spain in Sunday's French Open final at Roland Garros, Paris. Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

Wawrinka, the French Open champion in 2015 when Nadal lost to Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, said the Spaniard lived up to his expectations on Sunday.

"It was the Rafa I was expecting. We saw how he has been playing since the beginning of the season - fit, aggressive, his level has been incredible," said Wawrinka, who lost to Nadal on the same court in the last eight in 2013.

The 32-year-old Wawrinka had only one break point, early on, and then never threatened.

The Swiss blamed himself for being too hesitant.

"When you hesitate on how to play a ball, your legs move later and it's too late," said Wawrinka, who is the reigning US Open champion.

"You have to be able to play without thinking. If you hesitate for half a second, it's already too late.

"If you're not completely free ... you don't want him to take the lead and play even more freely.

"At the end of the day it was three sets, nothing to say. I can talk about the game, about what I did, about what he did, but at the end of the day it's quite clear."

Wawrinka, however, took positives from the tournament following the disappointment after a first-round loss in Madrid and a second-round defeat in Monte Carlo.

He entered the final on an 11-match winning streak following his title triumph in Geneva.

"It was an amazing tournament. Today I lost the final but three weeks ago I was feeling down, I had doubts about my game," said Wawrinka.

"Then I won Geneva and I reached the final of a Grand Slam. That's big for me, but I will need a few days to really see that."

Reuters

Tremendous 10s

Rafael Nadal won a record 10th French Open title against Stan Wawrinka in Sunday's final.

Here is a look at an elite group of other athletes with 10 or more titles in the same event:

Bill Russell

The legendary Boston Celtics center won a record 11 NBA championships as the franchise dominated the league in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. Russell, now 83, served as player-coach during his final two title-winning seasons in 1968 and 1969. He was voted the NBA's Most Valuable Player five times and later inducted into the Hall of Fame. Team-mate Sam Jones, drafted after Boston's 1957 triumph, teamed up with Russell to win 10 of those 11 titles.

Henri Richard

The brother of NHL legend and fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Maurice "The Rocket" Richard won a record 11 Stanley Cup championships with the Montreal Canadiens from 1956-73. Nicknamed "The Pocket Rocket," the 81-year-old was named one of the NHL's all-time 100 greatest players earlier this year at a ceremony marking the league's 100th anniversary. He notched 1,046 points in 1,256 regular-season games and another 130 points in 180 Stanley Cup playoff contests.

Ryan Giggs

The Manchester United great's career coincided with the most successful period in club history as the Welshman won a remarkable 13 Premier League titles. Giggs broke through as a teenager at Old Trafford, helping United end a 26-year wait for a top-flight title in 1992-93. He eventually retired in 2014, a year after United lifted the Premier League trophy in Alex Ferguson's final season as manager.

Yogi Berra

One of baseball's greatest catchers, Berra won 10 World Series titles - more than any other player - as part of the star-studded New York Yankees teams in the 1940s and 1950s. Berra was an 18-time All Star and lined up alongside legends such as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. He then earned another ring as a coach with the crosstown rival Mets, winning the 1969 World Series, before earning two more titles after returning to the Yankees.

Margaret Court

Until Nadal's victory on Sunday, Court was the only player in tennis history to win 10 or more titles at a single Slam - lifting the Australian Open a staggering 11 times between 1960 and 1973. Her 24 major titles is one more than Serena Williams' record in the Open era.