Roland Garros: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will play on Tuesday night, despite what the Spaniard asked for

PARIS.– It was very clear Rafael Nadal. Barely a few minutes into his five-set battle against Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime he spoke directly about Tuesday’s match against Novak Djokovic, for the French Open quarterfinals, and when and how he wanted to play it. “I prefer to play it during the day. I know Roland Garros during the day, that’s how I’ve played it my entire career and being aware that, if everything goes wrong, it could be my last game here, because I would like to play it during the day”, shot the left-hander from Manacor. But the will of the man who was 13 times champion on the orange Parisian land collided with the determination of the organizers, who announced the program for the quarterfinals on Monday. Y Nadal and Djokovic will play on Tuesday night in Parisnot before 8:45 p.m. local time (3:45 p.m. in Argentina).

Roland Garros got the first thing he expected: a great duel between Nadal and Djokovic, the 59th chapter of a tennis superclassic. It will not be in the final, nor in the semis: the draw determined that they were too close in the draw, and that is why the duel between the defending champion and the left-hander who seeks his 14th French crown, will be in the quarterfinals. On top of that, on the same side of the key, two other brilliant names arrive: the winner will go to the semifinals against Carlos Alcaraz or Alexander Zverev.

At the time of preparing the game program, the organization had two women’s quarterfinals (Martina Trevisan vs. Leylah Fernandez and Coco Gauff vs. Sloane Stephens) and two men’s. They could have arranged a female room at night for a change, since most of the nightly meetings were matches of the men’s bracket. But no: the option was to open the day with the two women’s matches, Alcaraz and Zverev in the third round, and close with the most anticipated match of the tournament so far. Despite what Nadal wanted, the man who has a huge statue on the entrance esplanade to the contest. Since the start of the tournament, the Spaniard had been clear: “I never liked night sessions on land.” In this decision, the climatic conditions of the Parisian spring weigh: at night, the temperature drops several degrees, there is more humidity, the court is slower and the ball is heavier, and that reduces the effect of Nadal’s impacts.

And at the same time, the possibility of scheduling the match between Alcaraz and Zverev at night did not appear either, for the reason that the young man from Murcia had already played two matches in the last session, including the one on Sunday, when he beat the Russian in three sets. Karen Khachanov. “Honestly, it would not seem fair to me, here we are going to say things as they are. I’ve already played twice on the night shift. It’s not that playing at night bothers me, but everything ends very late: dinner, the physiotherapist, trying to rest with the adrenaline you’ve got from the game… you have less time to rest and it’s harder to recover. It wouldn’t be fair for him to play a third time at night”, explained the 19-year-old and number 6 in the world.

And what did Djokovic say about it? After his loose win in straight sets against Diego Schwartzman, the world number 1 recounted: “As top players, we make our requests, but our suggestions are not always accepted. The tournament director, along with the TV, I think they are the ones who decide in the end. You know: TV is important, it depends on where they want to watch your game, day or night”. And he added: “You have to adapt to that. Obviously, it also depends on who you play against. Sometimes it is favorable to play at night, sometimes during the day. There is no predetermined or formula that always works, is what I mean. Although historically I played very well and won many night matches in different Grand Slams, especially in Australia.

At this point, Djokovic knows very well what it means to play against Nadal at Roland Garros, and even at this stage. “Obviously it was the game that many expected to happen when the draw came out. From my side, I’m glad I haven’t spent much time on the pitch so far, knowing that a match against Rafa at Roland Garros is going to be a physical and mental battle. I am sure it will. It is a huge challenge, perhaps the biggest one can have in this tournament. But I’m ready, well prepared, I like how I’m feeling, the way I’m hitting the ball. I just have to focus on what I have to do, I know he will have my chances.”

And in what Djokovic said there is another part of the decision to take the classic to the night: the weight of television. If it was played during the day, Nadal-Djokovic would have been broadcast on France TV. But the night game was acquired by Amazon Prime Video, a paid streaming service that, however, announced that it would broadcast it free of charge; that is, it will not be necessary to be subscribed. In this determination, Amélie Mauresmo, the director of the tournament, may have also influenced. France TV, broadcaster of the rest of the programming, regretted the change, and in a statement said that “the public service will not be allowed to broadcast the match with a more fluid and easier access for viewers.”

On Nadal’s side, after learning of this situation, his coach, Carlos Moya, spoke. Speaking to RMC Sport, he expressed: “I would not speak of disrespect. But here, I think Rafa has merit, he won the tournament 13 times, and if he has a request you should listen to him because he is part of the history of the tournament. We also know that there is nothing bigger than Roland Garros, nobody is above it, but in the end it is a business matter, and we understand it”.

The one they will hold this Tuesday will then be another episode of a rivalry that has already lasted 58 games (30-28 for Djokovic), nine of them in Paris (7-2 for Nadal). The Serbian won the last meeting here between the two in the semi-finals in 2021, and is the only player to beat the left-hander from Manacor twice on the Parisian clay.

On the women’s side, with the Polish Iga Swiatek as the only Top 10 in the race, the first two quarterfinals will feature the young Canadian Leylah Fernandez (18th), finalist in the last US Open, and the Italian Martina Trevisan (59th). , followed by the American generational crossover between Sloane Stephens, finalist at Roland Garros in 2018 and winner of Wimbledon in 2017, and the young Coco Gauff (23rd), quarterfinalist in Paris last year at just 17 years old.