Roger Federer is officially the greatest player of all time after winning his 14th grand-slam title and first French Open with a straight sets victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling.

The Swiss is equal with Pete Sampras in terms of major victories, but his number of career wins in total makes him the most successful player of all time.

Federer survived being confronted by an intruder to complete his haul of grand-slam titles by posting a 6-1, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 victory in rainy conditions in Paris. He joins Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Andre Agassi as the only men to have won all four grand slams.

"The victory was a huge pressure for me today," Federer said. "It's one of the best days of my life. Tennis is just my life."

Soderling, who beat Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko en route to the final, said: "I had the two best weeks of my career. Roger is a really worthy winner. To me he is the best player in history so he really deserves to win here at the French as well."

When asked whether the second-set tie-break had been the turning point, he replied: "It's tough to say but he played better than me today. I had a few chances but he came up with some extremely good shots at important moments. I'm still happy. I had a great tournament. Roger was too good for me today."

Addressing Federer at the presentation ceremony, Soderling added: "You really gave me a lesson on how to play tennis today. For me you're the greatest player in history so you really deserved to win this title."

Federer fell to his knees and started to cry the moment he clinched the match, after less then two hours of action.

He never looked in danger from the moment he broke 23rd seed Soderling in the opening game and he was never broken himself.

The only thing that threatened to derail Federer's charge to the title was when he was confronted by an invader in the fourth game of the second set.

With security late to react it could have got nasty but, despite being manhandled by the intruder, who was wearing a Switzerland top, Federer was not harmed and was able to shrug off the incident.

The 27-year-old, playing his 19th grand-slam final, could not have wished for a better start under threatening skies. Indeed rain came down for the majority of the match.

Soderling, playing his first major final, was clearly nervous and his opponent took full advantage. The Swiss dropped just one point on his serve in three games, but Soderling's was far from convincing. He got on the scoreboard in the fifth game but he had already been broken twice by then.

In the seventh game, the Swede was facing two set points when a rasping Federer forehand flew past him. Soderling saved the first with an unreturnable serve but on the second, Federer unleashed a whipped backhand for the set.

The second set, which did not take in a single break of serve, was overshadowed by an incident which saw Federer come face to face with a court invader at the start of the fourth game.

The man, wearing a top bearing the word "Switzerland" on its chest, came down from high up in the stands and vaulted the barriers to enter the court. He ran up to Federer and brandished in front of the player's face what appeared to be a flag of Spanish team Barcelona. He then attempted to put a cap on the head of Federer, who retreated way behind the service line.

Security took their time coming onto the court to aid Federer but when they did, they managed to accost the invader, who by that time had frantically run across the court and leapt the net.

Federer at first appeared shaken and lost the next game to love, on Soderling's serve. Calm was restored, though, as the rain started to come down and the set went to a tie-break. Federer played it flawlessly, smashing down four aces from four serves to clinch it in style.

He then grabbed the key break in the third set in the very first game. Soderling by that time had got over his early-match jitters but he could not halt Federer's juggernaut of a serve.

He only earned his first break point of the match in the fourth game of that set, but the Swiss came up with a fine forehand passing shot to save.

Serving for the match, Federer went break point down again to add to the drama. Soderling wasted that with a mis-hit and then netted a return into the net two points later to hand Federer the title.