The mixed tears of joy and relief ran slowly down Roger Federer's face as he held aloft the Coupe des Mousquetaires having finally won the French Open title in his fourth successive final. So he became only the sixth man in tennis history to win all four slam titles, with Andre Agassi, the last man to do it in 1999, presenting him with the trophy. Federer also equalled Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slam titles.
Federer beat Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), and 6-4 in just under two hours and with rain falling for much of the final. As Soderling put Federer's last serve into the net, the Swiss dropped to his knees on clay as if history had suddenly pushed him to ground. And it had.
"This was my greatest victory," said Federer, although undoubtedly the greatest win of all at this year's tournament belonged to his opponent Soderling who the previous Sunday has shocked tennis to its roots by defeating Rafa Nadal, the four times French Open champion who was attempting to become the first man ever to win five in succession.
Soderling's dramatic win in the fourth round took away the player who had stood four square between history and Federer for the last three years, the only player to have ever beaten Federer in a slam final, including last year's Wimbledon and this year's Australian Open. " I can now go the rest of my career without worrying that I would never win the French Open," said Federer.
Soderling, playing in his first slam final, and watched by fellow countryman Bjorn Borg who won this title six times, was rarely in the match, but made Federer serve it out. "You gave me a lesson how to play," he said afterwards. "To me you are the greatest player in history."
The only moment when Federer was unnerved came at 2-1 in the second set when a spectator ran onto the court in a Swiss shirt and with a Barcelona flag, and tried to place a hat on Federer's head. In took security 18 seconds to bring him down, a huge embarrassment to the French authorities.
Federer lost three points in a row after the incident as Soderling levelled for 2-2. But Federer quickly recovered his composure to join Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Don Budge and Fred Perry as the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
Roger Federer in 2007 
Swiss tennis player Roger Federer won his first Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros or Tournoi de Roland-Garros (French Open) championship on Sunday by defeating Robin Söderling from Sweden 6-1 7-6(1) 6-4 in Paris. In winning this tournament, Federer joins Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam tournaments won and along with Andre Agassi is the second man in the Open Era (since 1968) to clinch all four major tournaments. In the last four years, only Rafael Nadal has stopped Federer from winning the French Grand Slam title missing from his collection. 

The match took place in bad weather conditions with light rain and strong winds during the first two sets, a situation which became worse during the third. Uneasy and visibly nervous, Söderling lost the first set in just 23 minutes. In the second, he began to play better tennis and at 2-1, after an interruption by a man on court, Federer seemed to lose power. He finally clinched the tie-break 7-1 by shooting four aces. The third set was won 6-4 by Federer who fell to the ground, sobbing.

After the match, Söderling said that Federer was the "greatest player of all times" and that Federer gave him "a lesson of tennis."

In the 2009 ATP Ranking, Federer moves closer to Nadal after he lost to Söderling in the fourth round. Before the tournament, Nadal had a 4500 points lead. Since Monday, he has a 2070 point lead. The next Grand Slam tournament is Wimbledon in London and begins on June 22, 2009.