OH HELLS NO!
It's called Roland Garros not Rafa Garros.
You win a Slam by beating the 7 guys the draw presents to you.
No asterisk. End of story.
From Bodo's article: ...Federers's failure to secure a clay-court Grand Slam title until 2009. If tennis history stopped right now, this much could be said: the only man who was able to win a title at Roland Garros during the Nadal era was Federer, but he was only able to do it with Nadal absent from the draw. That was a good effort by Federer. The guy can play on clay, but let's face it, he's no Adriano Panatta. You may recall that Panatta was the only man ever to beat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros, and he did it twice - including a quarterfinal in 1976, after which Panatta went on to take the title. There's no real or imagined asterisk alongside that one, as there is beside Federer's Roland Garros triumph.
Back to me: Um, Rafa was not absent from the draw, he was absent from the final. That isn't Federer's fault. The only real asterisk here should be placed next to Bodo's name as a tennis analyst.
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