It was the final everyone had waited for since the draw was made more than two weeks previously (actually, if truth be told, it was the final everyone had waited for since this time last year). And it was the result everyone had expected from the moment they saw Rafael Nadal crush Novak Djokovic in the semi final.

Nadal won his third consecutive French Open title, booking his place in the record books alongside Bjorn Borg, by beating the mighty Roger Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a little over three hours. Since the competition was opened up to international players, only Borg had won three on the trot – he went on to add one more in 1981 – but that achievement may well be overshadowed if Nadal continues at his present rate.

As every round slipped by, the man from Manacor got stronger, better and more confident. Put Nadal on a clay court and he is terrifying.
Put Nadal on a Roland Garros clay court and he is unstoppable.

Federer did his best, but he simply had no answer to the Spaniard's game. He has beaten his old foe just three weeks before, taking the Hamburg Masters final on the red dirt – but this was different. For a set, Federer stood a chance, but as soon as he had levelled the scores using the tried and trusted technique of attacking at every opportunity, Nadal pounced again.

Missing all but one of 17 break point chances did not help matters for the Swiss, but, more often than not, it was Nadal who snatched the opportunity away rather Federer who missed the point. Federer knew what to expect and Nadal did not disappoint him.

"Rafa is the toughest guy on clay," a philosophical Federer said. "It is one thing to create chances, but you have to convert them, too. He just wears you down, wears you out. He makes you miss."

For Federer it was a bitter pill to swallow. For the second year running he had put himself in the position to win the non-calendar grand slam. It was his eighth consecutive major final and yet for all his dominance elsewhere, for all his genius, he could not work out how to beat Nadal. He was within one match of becoming one of the true greats of the game, within three sets of joining Don Budge and Rod Laver as the only men ever to hold all four grand slam titles at once.
To have that chance again would take another superhuman effort – and Federer knows it. No wonder then, that he is trying to forget the past fortnight and plan for the coming four weeks on grass.

"It's always easy to forget the clay season," he said. "Once you get on the grass, everything is in the past. I'm very excited about the grass season. This is a huge opportunity for me once again, Wimbledon, to win there and hopefully win my fifth in a row, that would be absolutely incredible."

Unfortunately for Federer, Nadal admitted to his Spanish colleagues days before the French Open final that he could not wait to get back to London and on to the grass. "Then I can clear my head," he said. Mr Federer will be pleased to hear that.

Henin had created a little piece of history herself. By winning her third consecutive title, and her fourth in all, she had matched Monica Seles's dominance of this event and become only the second woman in the Open era to win a triple crown in Paris. But on an emotional day and after a lopsided 6-1, 6-2 match, all of that was irrelevant.

The diminutive champion has had a miserable year, announcing at the start of the season that she was missing the Australian Open in order to deal with the fall-out from the collapse of her marriage. Already estranged from her family since her teenage years, she only come back in February and was desperately trying to concentrate on her tennis while keeping prying eyes away from her private life.

While it seemed that Henin's world was falling apart off the court, at least, she was quietly and carefully rebuilding the bridges with the rest of her family. By the time she arrived at Roland Garros, she was talking every day on the phone to her father and was collecting tickets to fill the players' box with her siblings. She took just 65 minutes to trounce Ivanovic in front of her brother Davis and her sister Sarah while her father watched it all on television back at home.

"I was glad I could give them this victory because everyone suffered a lot from the situation in the last few years," she said. "And today, finally, we are united in this joy, and we can share this moment, and it's great. And I feel so happy that I can offer that to them."

Ivanovic had been so desperately nervous that she could offer little to the proceedings. For a game, all was well – she broke Henin's serve – and then suddenly she appeared to look around, realize that she was in the French Open final and froze. No matter - she will be back, she will learn and if she continues to improve at this rate, she will be challenging for more major titles sooner rather than later.

Official 2007 French Open Website