After 33 wins in a row, Rafael Nadal (35) lost another game at the French Open. The Spaniard (13 French Open titles) loses in the semifinals against the Serb Novak Djokovic in four high-class sets with 6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 7 (4) and 2: 6.
Nadal takes off right away. He takes the serve from his rival twice, leads 5: 0, but “only” takes the set 6: 3. The first movement alone takes 61 minutes!
But the “Joker” fights back and takes set number 2 6: 3. It’s crazy how the two tennis titans fight. Almost every service game, every point is contested.
The third movement is strange! Both take the serve twice up to a score of 5: 5. In the tie-break, Nadal made a slight volley error when the score was 3: 4. The decision. Djokovic wins the set with 7: 6 (7: 4) – after an incredibly exciting 92 minutes!
Nice story on the side: Despite lockdown, the spectators are allowed to stay in the stadium after the 3rd set. During the short break they even sing the “Marseillaise”.
At the beginning of the 4th movement it seems like Djokovic is taking a break. He is quickly 0: 2 behind, but then the world number one turns up again. He took the service from Nadal three times and won after 4:11 hours with 6: 2. So the balance of the two eternal rivals is now 30:28 for Djokovic, who is also the first player to win twice against Nadal in Roland Garros.
In the final, it is now against Zverev-conqueror Stefanos Tsitsipas (22). Djokovic was able to win his only French Open title so far in 2016. At that time he defeated the Scots Andy Murray (34) in four sets.
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