Roland-Garros – Nadal-Djokovic’s cheat sheet in the quarter-finals: The stars are still waiting for him

Why and how

Ten minutes for the first game, 51 for the first set and even 1h24 for the second. If it started at 8:45 p.m., in the evening therefore, this Nadal-Djokovic, 59th of the name, did honor to the “night session”. It was at 1:16 a.m. that this legendary duel ended in a Philippe-Chatrier court almost full to bursting as in the first exchanges. Rafael Nadal had the best start, he best concluded an unreadable game in many respects where the momentum changed sides many times.

You didn’t have to be a great cleric to guess that this match would be a long-term fight. It took ten minutes for Rafael Nadal to mark his territory and take the opposing serve in the first game of the match, then a second time to lead 4-1. Imprecise, and not entered the match as his coach Goran Ivanisevic had requested, Djokovic especially struggled to properly revive the opposing service (8/10 for Nadal on second ball). As a symbol, it was on a winning service that Nadal took the first set (6-2).

The Serb was in fact the barometer of this quarter-final. When he was at his best, the match would reach heights and he was able to struggle. When he lost the thread of the match and his game a little, he allowed Nadal to take advantage of it. Djokovic got into trouble by dropping his entry serve in the first three sets. If he managed to turn the tide, at the cost, it must be said, of an exceptional level of play, in the second set, he let slip the third by multiplying the faults (6-2, 4-6, 6-2).

It was with what he had shown in the second set that Djokovic came back for the fourth. Balance sheet, he quickly led 2-0 and held his commitment until 5-3 before a bizarre game. Three big firsts put him one point in the set. Once, twice Nadal fought and then broke. The rest is this fabulous tie-break, these three match points saved by Djokovic and finally the deliverance for the man at 13 Roland-Garros.

The key moment

5-3 fourth inning, set point Djokovic. The Serb is very close to taking Nadal and all the Chatrier in a necessarily historic fifth round. The band of the net denies him hope. Second set point? It is this time a passing pass from Nadal that closes the door in his face. The Spaniard will seek the break himself on a winning forehand. 5-4, Nadal was back and his time was coming.

State: 28%

Between two of the best receivers in the world, the service will have been one of the keys to the game. On this side, Rafael Nadal was clinical for three sets, the three of which he obviously won. If Novak Djokovic managed to steal half of the points from him on his engagement in the second round, his success rate drops to 28% in the other three (26/90). The statistic is even more impressive on second ball since in the first, third and fourth innings, Nadal will have dropped only 8 points on his one.

The declared

Nadal : “This is my best match for four months“

The question: After the summit, stars for Nadal?

This Nadal-Djokovic scheduled for the quarter was indeed a final before the letter. With the elimination of Carlos Alcaraz, the other strong head of the tour on earth, and that of Stefanos Tsitsipas, finalist last year at Roland, the affirmation takes on even more force. After a huge duel and a fabulous fifth set against Félix Auger-Aliassime in the eighth, Nadal moved on to the ultimate revealer: Novak Djokovic.

The man with 13 titles at Roland-Garros passed it with congratulations from the jury. Because he obviously emerged victorious, but also and above all perhaps because he showed, once again, that he was capable of playing at a very, very high level for four hours, a little less if the ‘we forget the sequence of the second set where Djokovic copiously dominated him. For the rest, Nadal had control most of the time and in these strata there are not many who can get it.

To be honest, Novak Djokovic was perhaps the only one and even the Serb couldn’t do it. However, all this does not mean that Rafael Nadal is assured of his 14th title at Roland-Garros. Already because he will face an impressive Alexander Zverev of calm and accuracy against the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz.

Then because he has just spent more than eight hours in three days on the court. Finally because it is not written that he will deliver two more recitals until the title. For him, the half is perhaps more dangerous than the final. Imagining Zverev beating Nadal at Roland-Garros is already not easy, so doing it for Ruud, Rune, Rublev or Cilic requires a certain degree of creativity.