There will be a dream semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the French Open. Nadal gives his first set in the 6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 0 against Diego Schwartzman, but still convinces. Novak Djokovic wins against Matteo Berrettini 6: 3, 6: 2, 6: 7, 7: 5.
For the 58th time, Nadal and Djokovic will face each other on Friday. The balance is almost equal with 29:28 wins in favor of the Serbs. But Nadal has the advantage on clay (18: 7) and in Roland Garros (7: 1). The Spaniard conceded the only defeat and only one of two defeats in Paris in 2015 in the quarter-finals, when Djokovic later lost to Stan Wawrinka in the final.
This time, too, the winner of the most frequently played duel in the Open Era is by no means sure of the trophy, as Nadal recalled after his quarter-final victory against Schwartzman. Either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Alexander Zverev is waiting in the final.
“It was a difficult situation”
It became clear against Schwartzman that even for a 13-time Roland Garros winner no match is won in advance. After winning 36 sets in a row in Paris, Nadal had to give up another deal. The situation brought the Mallorcan out of control and for a few minutes Nadal’s third defeat at Roland Garros seemed possible.
The world number three produced a lot of mistakes and was a bit worse than Schwartzman in terms of play at the beginning of the third set. The fact that the 29-year-old, not quite 1.70 m tall Argentinian Robin Söderling (2009) and Djokovic (2015) could not do the same, was due to the increase of Nadal. “It was a difficult situation”, the world number three looked back on the first part of the third sentence. “I had to think about what I am particularly good at.”
Nadal found the step again and dominated the world number tenth from Buenos Aires with the 2-1 set lead in the back very clearly. The 6: 0 with 25: 4 points against a demoralized Schwartzman was an impressive demonstration of strength. “I got back to my best tennis when it mattered. That gives me a lot of self-confidence », said a happy Nadal after he had reached his 35th major semi-final.
Djokovic for the 40th time in the semifinals
Novak Djokovic presented himself impressively solid for a long time on the way to his 40th semi-final at this level (only Roger Federer has more with 46). In the tie-break of the third set, however, he brought himself to a faster end with two unforced backhand errors. Especially since when the score was 3: 2 in the fourth set, the game was interrupted for around 20 minutes to order the spectators admitted to a night session for the first time from the stadium due to the curfew in France from 23:00.
Berrettini, who had benefited from Roger Federer’s forfait in the round of 16, was not impressed by the break and made it 3: 3 with his own service. In general, the Italian hit hard and often scored with his massive forehand. It was only in his last game that he received his first break since the end of the second set, having previously blocked two match points.
