Novak Djokovic believes that he can come back stronger despite his French Open defeat to Rafael Nadal.
The world number one was looking for a place in the history books when he stepped on court to face the six time champion as he was on the verge of becoming the first man since Road Laver to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
However it was not to be for the Serb, who was playing in his first French Open final, as he fell to Nadal in four sets.
Despite the loss the Serb was upbeat about his form and believes that he will have other chances in the future.
Speaking to the ATP after the match Djokovic said: "It's beautiful. These matches make you feel like all the work that you put into it is worth [it].
"You're living for this moment to play the final of any Grand Slam, and sometimes you win; sometimes you lose. I lost this time. But I believe that there are still many years to come, and hopefully I can come back stronger.
"We almost played four hours. I thought we played a fantastic match where people hopefully enjoyed yesterday and today, and I was even surprised with the number of people who attended this match today. It was a working day, but it was still a full stadium."
Nadal looked to be on his way to a seventh title when he was 2-0 up and a break up in the third but a change in weather gave Djokovic the upper hand as he reeled off eight games in a row to take the third set and an early break in the fourth.
And just when it looked like this was now a potential five set match the rain halted play with Djokovic 2-1 up in the fourth.
When play resumed today Nadal broke back immediately to get the fourth set back on level terms. And it was to be a double fault on match point in game twelve that was to hand Nadal the title.
But Novak will be back in Grand Slam action in just a couple of weeks as he defend his Wimbledon title for the first time.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
by Helen Earnshaw
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