He did it. Novak Djokovic brought down Rafael Nadal on his land. The Musketeers Cup will not be lifted by the Spaniard for the fourteenth time in his history. After four anthology sets (3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2 in 4:11), the Serbian has achieved the impossible: to dethrone the Mallorcan in the semi-final of Roland Garros. Superlatives are lacking to qualify the performance of the two men which took place in an atmosphere worthy of a Davis Cup final.
With 58 matches, the Spaniard and Serbian now have the most prolific rivalry in the history of the sport since that of Americans Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, who have faced each other 80 times. Their eventual duel in the semi-finals was therefore eagerly awaited since the start of the competition. Except for a small alert in the round of 16 for Novak Djokovic against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (the Serbian finally won after losing the first two rounds in the tie break), the two men qualified without great difficulty for the last one. square.
Many wondered if Rafael Nadal would repeat his performance last year here in the final where he stepped on the world number 1 (6-0, 6-2, 7-5 victory). He just couldn’t. The Serb was too strong, physically and mentally. The latter will meet in the final the Greek Stéfanos Tsitsipás, who also fought a bitter battle against the German Alexander Zverev (victory 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 in 3h37).
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