Robin Soderling, in his speech after the match, said he was “yoking” with his coach, Magnus Norman, himself a finalist of the millenial French Open in 2000 (losing to Gustavo Kuerten in four sets), “yoking” that no one beats Robin Soderling 10 times in a row.

This was a riff on the famous quote by Vitas Gerulaitis, after beating Connors for the first time, that no one beats Gerulaitis 17 times in a row (Borg had a 19-0 record against Vitas, so even that was not true).

Soderling went to point out that he was wrong, and proclaimed no one beats Robin Soderling 11 times in a row. Despite being the giant killer and making it to his very first French Open title, Soderling couldn’t feel too bad about his loss. He had played his best ever Grand Slam event, and losing in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4 wasn’t so bad. Soderling proclaimed he had lost to the best player of all times.

A quick overview of the match. Key to the match was Roger’s serving. 66% first serves. 16 aces, including several in the second set tiebreak. 24 unforced errors. 41 winners.

Federer was looking to get to a quick start. When he does that, he gains confidence and begins to roll. Soderling started off nervous, missed first serves, and let Roger get off to a very quick start, taking the first set 6-1. Indeed, Federer played so well that Soderling only ever had two break points the entire match. Federer played aggressive, tried to keep Soderling running so he couldn’t set up for his big shots, and used the drop shots deftly as he had throughout the entire tournament.

The only weirdness occurred early in the second set when a guy came on court with a flag of sorts and waved it in Federer’s face. Federer seemed bothered. The interloper was chased around by security before being tackled and then dragged off court.

Perhaps it says something about American mentality that McEnroe’s reaction was to have Roger Federer use his racquet to defend himself and Roger’s reaction was mostly to be annoyed. Indeed, Mirka, his expectant wife, didn’t seem at all distressed about the occasion, probably not sensing any potential harm. As it was, Soderling was serving and held serve, and it didn’t seem to affect the match much except to get Roger a little off his rhythm, but not so much it affected the match results.

Let’s look at the victory in perspective. Can we call Federer the best player of all times? Here are some stats to back it up. Tied for the most Grand Slam titles at 14 with Pete Sampras. Has won a career Grand Slam with his win of the French. Reached semifinals or better of Grand Slam majors for 20 Grand Slams in a row. Reached the finals of Grand Slam majors 15 of the last 16 times (the exception was the 2008 Australian Open).

There are those who can complain he’s not the best ever. he’s 7-13 against his biggest rival, Rafael Nadal including losses at the Australian, Wimbledon, and last year’s French. On the biggest stages, Nadal has come up with the goods and beaten Roger. He’s 2-6 against Andy Murray, but they’ve only met at a major once, and Roger won that.

But the case for Federer is his amazing consistency in Grand Slams. You can argue against Rod Laver. Laver won his first Grand Slam when amateurs played. Had pros played, he would never have gotten the first, as evidenced by the numerous early defeats he had when he turned pro. When he won his second Grand Slam, three of the four majors were played on grass, the lone exception being the French. If you were a good grass court player, you could dominate the Grand Slams. Imagine if 3 of 4 Grand Slams were played on clay. You could imagine Rafael Nadal being on the verge of winning Grand Slams every year.

Sampras won a lot of titles, but he never once made the finals of the French. As tough as he was at the Slams, he was basically a fragile person, who didn’t try hard to win the regular tournaments so he could save himself for the majors. One could argue that he didn’t try to win the French so he’d be in good shape to win Wimbledon. The one year Sampras got to the semifinals at the French (1996), he lost in the quarters to Richard Krajicek. The one big knock against Sampras is his record at the French.

Right now, Roger can savor the one title that was missing from his formidable portfolio.

You can now call Roger Federer, 2009 French Open champion.