King of clay Rafael Nadal hailed his enduring love affair with the French Open after becoming the first player in the Open Era to win the same grand slam for a 10th time.
Nadal, who won his first French Open title at the age of 19 in 2005, had gone three years without a Grand Slam crown. He's going for his 10th Roland Garros, so it's something really impressive, something tough. In best-of-five matches on clay, Nadal is 102-2.
It was also his first major since winning the 2014 French Open, and the third time he's triumphed in Paris without dropping a set.
Wawrinka had to come through five sets against world number one Andy Murray in the semi-finals and his body language quickly displayed his frustration as Nadal masterfully whipped balls into hard areas with punishing pace and accuracy - a spinning cross-court forehand putting him 3-0 up in the second set.
Wawrinka had been riding a 10-match winning streak before he ran into Nadal.
Finally back to full strength in the offseason, Nadal returned to work, reconstructing his forehand and redoubling his efforts to get back to his best. Roger Federer leads on 18.
Wawrinka was now facing an nearly impossible task and that sense of foreboding only increased when yet another terrific forehand saw Nadal claim the second of three break points in the first game of the third set.
Sunday was also the first time since 1969 that the Roland Garros final had featured two men over 30.
Down a set and at 5-all in the second, Nadal took 20 of 26 points and five games in a row. "I enjoy playing tennis every week". Wawrinka had a game plan coming in.
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All the third seed could do was applaud.
Nadal was able to wrap it up without needing to serve again, the world number three firing long to concede an opening set in which he hit just four winners compared to 17 unforced errors.
He whipped the crowd up when he created a game point to hold for 2-3 only for Nadal to scramble a defensive lob just inside the baseline, with Wawrinka netted the smash. The Spaniard's only two losses have come to Robin Soderling in 2009 and Djokovic in 2015. "It's something tough to describe when you just say you won 10 French Opens", he said.
"Wawrinka is a very unsafe opponent, so my mentality was that I can not give him the chance to be back on the match", he added.
He said:"For me the nerves and the adrenaline I feel when I play on this court is impossible to compare to another court".
While Nadal lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires, a huge banner was unveiled in the stands saying, "Bravo Rafa".
World No. 3 Wawrinka is a player of enormous pedigree and wonderful style, but even on his best day, he likely would have struggled to deal with Nadal. "What you are doing in tennis is unbelievable". Thank you to the organisers, the other players, to all the people that make this tournament possible.
He paid tribute to his uncle and coach Toni Nadal, who is planning to step down as head coach at the end of the season.
"Since three years old we were working", said Nadal.
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