Finally: Roger Federer Wins His First French Open

Charlie Klein

It seemed like it would never happen. Rafa is too good people said, he is unbeatable on the clay court, Roger's lost a step, et cetera et cetera. Today all of the critics were silent as the greatest tennis player of all-time Roger Federer won his first French Open yesterday in Paris.

“This could be my biggest victory, the one that takes off the most pressure,” said Federer, a 27-year-old Swiss who was in tears (not for the first time this season) after the 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 victory. “Now for the rest of my career, I can play relaxed and never hear again that I never won the French Open.”

The win over Robin Soderling was Federer's 14th Grad Slam title and made him the sixth man to ever win all four grand slam titles (Wimbledon, French, Australian, and U.S.). With 14 Grand Slams Club Fed is tied with American Pete Sampras for the most all-time. Tears fell from Federer's eyes as the Swiss National Anthem as he held the French Open Trophy. As he walked around with it, it looked like he would never let it go.

“What (Rod) Laver did is godlike,” Andre Agassi said. “To win all of them in the same year twice — how do you argue with that? At the same time, Federer could have done it in a pretty intense era. He could have done it a couple of times. So for him to get over the line here, how could you argue anybody had done something better than he has?”