A bare-chested protestor who jumped on to court with a red flare and the dogged resistance of fellow Spaniard David Ferrer could not stop an irrepressible Rafa Nadal from storming to a record eighth French Open title with a 6-3 6-2 6-3 win yesterday.
The claycourt king was left startled in the sixth game of the second set when a man wearing a white mask leapt over from the stands and ran towards Nadal as he lit the flare.
The protestor ran around waving the flare before he and another bare-chested accomplice were bundled away by security staff.
It was the second such interruption within the space of a few minutes as a man and woman were also led away from high up in a different section of the stands after shouting protests and waving a banner declaring: "Help! France tramples on children's rights."
At Roland Garros, though, Nadal revels on trampling on his opponents and as he became the first man to win the same major eight times, his record at the spiritual home of claycourt tennis moved to a jaw-dropping 59-1.
"I never dreamed about this kind of thing [winning eight titles]," said third seed Nadal, who returned to the tour in February after seven months out with a knee injury, before being handed the Musketeers' Cup by Olympics 100 metres champion Usain Bolt.
Ferrer had to settle for receiving the loudest round of applause from the 15000 fans and a runners-up cheque for à750000.
"These two weeks I played very good tennis but I would like to say that he deserves everything, he's the best," Ferrer told the crowd.
The ugly incidents in the second set momentarily overshadowed Nadal's relentless charge towards the title on an unseasonably cold day in Paris with the temperature stuck at 16 degrees Celsius.
The grey, dank and chilly atmosphere that greeted the players on Philippe Chatrier Court was certainly not to Nadal's liking but he soon warmed to the task of grinding down an opponent whom he had trounced in their last 16 claycourt clashes.
A wild forehand from Ferrer handed Nadal the first break of the match for a 2-1 lead but the fourth seed hit back immediately by employing astute baseline tactics.
But the man who has the number 7 stamped on the heel of his shoes to symbolise his seven Roland Garros triumphs went a break up again in the seventh game and Ferrer meekly surrendered his next service game by slicing a backhand into the net to lose his first set at this year's tournament. Nadal then took total control of the match.
In the 2009 final, Roger Federer's final against Robin Soderling was also interrupted when a man jumped down from the stands and tried to put a hat on the Swiss champion.
Yesterday though, nothing could stop Nadal from collapsing on to his back in triumph after he put a full stop to the match with yet another screaming forehand winner.
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