Like the ghosts of Christmas past who haunted Ebenezer Scrooge, the spirits of French Opens past were paraded in front of Roger Federer before Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal.
PARIS: Like the ghosts of Christmas past who haunted Ebenezer Scrooge, the spirits of French Opens past were paraded in front of Roger Federer before Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal.
Like the grim Dickens' character, all they represented for Federer was sheer and utter torment.
Lined up to accept the applause of Court Philippe Chatrier were the likes of Bjorn Borg, Ilie Nastase, Mats Wilander and Yannick Noah, all Roland Garros winners.
For Federer, they would have been a living reminder of the success in Paris which seems destined to elude him and prevent him from adding an achingly-desired Roland Garros title to his 12 Grand Slams.
In any other era, Federer would probably have gathered more than one title here.
However, very few other eras in the sport have seen the muscle-bound phenomena that is Rafael Nadal, the dashing, left-handed Mallorcan who, at just 22, is destined to be ruler of Roland Garros for years to come.
On Sunday's evidence, when Nadal won his fourth successive title with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 humiliation of Federer, few would wager against the Spaniard winning eight, nine, maybe more.
One can only feel for Federer who gracefully accepted his latest defeat in the Paris sunshine, the third successive final he has lost to Nadal in three years.
He even lost the semi-final to the world number two here in 2005, the Spaniard's first year here.
Since then, Nadal has won 28 out of 28 and on Sunday became only the third player to win the title without dropping a set and join Borg as the only man to win four in a row.
What must be particularly galling for Federer was the manner of his defeat.
Thirty-five unforced errors compared to Nadal's seven is a summary associated more with the world number 100 not the sport's supreme talent.
Federer didn't lack support inside the 15,000 capacity court.
Most were behind him, willing the great champion to victory.
'Roger, Roger', they screamed but all they got in return was their hero stumbling towards the net, sniffing a volley, only to hang his head apologetically as another turbo-charged Nadal forehand screamed past him.
At the end of the first set, many of his fans, even the corporate guests who were initially interested enough to put down their Blackberrys, had such a sense of foreboding that they headed to the bar.
Poor Federer must have felt like joining them.
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