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The record balance of Rafael Nadal, who has 12 titles in the French Open, will still speak "in 200 years," said the former British number one, Greg Rusedski.
Nadal, 33, is the first player to win a dozen singles titles in the same Grand Slam.
The second-seeded Spanish defeated Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 in Sunday's final at Roland Garros.
"This is the indestructible record," former US Open finalist Rusedski told BBC Sport.
The third consecutive victory of Nadal on clay Parisian has removed from the 11 titles of Margaret Court.
The Spaniard is only the second player to win the same tournament in singles a dozen times. Martina Navratilova won 12 titles in Chicago between 1978 and 1992.
"Most players do not win 12 titles in their career, he won 12 major clay court tournaments at Roland Garros," Rusedski said.
"When we are dead, in 200 years, we will talk about the fact that Rafael Nadal wins 12 Open de France.
"It's the world upside down.
"It's the Tour de France of tennis and doing it 12 times is superhuman."
| Most titles in men's singles of the same Grand Slam at the Open |
|---|
| 12 Rafael Nadal – French Open 2005-2008, 2010-2014, 2017-2019 |
| 8 Roger Federer – Wimbledon 2003-07, 2009, 2012, 2017 |
| 7 Novak Djokovic– Open from Australia 2008, 2011-2013, 2015-16, 2019 |
| 7 Pete Sampras– Wimbledon 1993-95, 1997-2000 |
| 6 Bjorn Borg– Open de France 1974, 1975, 1978-1981 |
| 6 Roger Federer– Open from Australia 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2017, 2018 |
"The longevity of the big three is unheard of"
Defeating Thiem, 25, for the second consecutive year in the final, Nadal increased his total to 18 major victories.
Only his long-time rival, Roger Federer, has won more Grand Slam tournaments, two places ahead of the Mallorcan in the all-time list of men's singles triumphs.
The Serbian world number one, Novak Djokovic, whom Thiem had refused the opportunity to hold the four Slams at the same time in the semifinals, is now three points behind Nadal.
Nadal, Federer, 37, and Djokovic, 32, have won the last 10 Grand Slam titles.
The British Andy Murray was the last under-30 player to win a men's singles title in the Grand Slam, when he won the Wimbledon victory at the age of 29 in 2016.
"The last" generation "had a lot of war wounds against Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, they did not necessarily think that they could beat those guys," said Rusedski, 45.
"But I think the new guys – led by Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Alibadime, Denis Shapovalov – this generation might not have the same war wounds.
"And in a few years, Roger will be almost 40 years old and Rafa and Novak will be in their mid-thirties, if they still play at that time.
"Doing what they do is unheard of.
"It's always these big guys and the other guys are trying to knock on the door.
"We want to see one of these young guys take a slam."
"Women's sport is full of intrigue – and that will be the same for men's football"
Nadal beating Federer and Thiem ahead of Djokovic, the men's semifinals were contested by the top four seeds for the first time since the Australian Open 2012.
On the other hand, the women's draw was wide open after early outings by the best seeds like Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.
Only one of the last four – the Briton Johanna Konta – had already reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam, while two of the others – American Amanda Anisimova and Czech Marketa Vondrousova – were teenagers.
Future champion Ashleigh Barty won her first singles title with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Vondrousova, 19.
"On the women's side, about 10 to 15 women could win," Rusedski said.
"There are a lot of intrigues because you do not know who will win.It's good to have been in a slam."
"We'll see this level of intrigue return to men, of course we'll do it, I do not see the same domination.
"We have had [Andre] Agbadi and [Pete] Sampras and when they retired, it was "what's going to happen now?" There was a gap of two years and then suddenly, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all showed up.
"Tsitsipas is going to be a great superstar in our game, you have [Alexander] Zverev, you have Thiem.
"There will be a small transition period, it may take a year or two, but there will be stars to replace the big three."
Why Nadal is the king of clay
- 950 – Nadal's victories on the tour, only Federer (1,207), Jimmy Connors (1,156) and Ivan Lendl (1,069) have more
- 260 – The number of Spanish Grand Slam victories, with only Federer (347) and Djokovic (270)
- 93 – Nobody won more matches at Roland Garros than Nadal, with Federer (70) and Djokovic (68), his closest opponents
- Nadal has won more career titles on clay than any other man, after eclipsing Guillermo Vilas' previous record of 49 in 2017
- 12 – Nadal won all the finals of Roland-Garros in which he participated
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