Rafa reigns supreme in Paris

Nadal and his obligatory trophy celebration in front of world's media (Reuters)

Kevin Mitchell, boxing and tennis writer from the Guardian, gave a great analogy of Sunday's showpiece between Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. "Federer floated like a butterfly, but Nadal stung like a bee". Those words rung truer when reliving some moments of the match when Federer diced with the Spaniard clay master, but was left demoralised by Nadal's punishing forehand. Federer metaphorically was left bloodied and bruised, Rafa celebrated like a Heavyweight Champion of the world.

Nadal won in four sets, but the fashion in which the World No.1 won the first set - coming back from 5-2 down and facing a set point - and racking up five consecutive games meant the match almost had an inevitability thereafter. Federer was good, stunningly good. He mixed up his shots very well and did not show much predictability in his general play. But his mental state gradually became a weakness, with a defeatist attitude in the early half of the match. I didn't have much confidence in him finishing off a point in some stages, even in dominant position to do so such was Nadal's impenetrable aura.

Onto Wimbledon in a couple of weeks. Federer's status as the greatest tennis player that ever lived is a statement that is losing validity. He'll need to win the tournament in July to regain some of his invincibility that we saw in the last eight years, otherwise it may well be a champion slowly heading into decline.