Rafael Nadal’s French Open set streak is finished. His quest for a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title – including 14 at Roland Garros – stays particularly intact.
Nadal disregarded dropping a set in Paris for the first time in two years and regained control Wednesday, whipping violent forehands punctuated with first pumps and yells of “Vamos!” on the way to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over 10th-seeded Diego Schwartzman to arrive at the semifinals rounds at the clay-court major tournament for a record-extending 14th time.
Subsequent to taking the last nine games against Schwartzman, No. 3 seed Nadal will play in Friday’s elimination rounds against No. 1 Novak Djokovic – a rematch of last year’s conclusive.
The semifinal will be the genius team’s 58th matchup, more than some other two men in the sport’s professional era; Djokovic drives 29-28, yet Nadal is ahead 10-6 in Slam gatherings, 7-1 at the French Open.
“We know each other well,” the third-seeded Nadal said. “Everybody knows that in these kind of matches, anything can happen.”
Added Djokovic: “I’m confident. I believe I can win. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
The other men’s semifinal will be No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas versus No. 6 Alexander Zverev.
Nadal, who turned 35 last week, is 105-2 in his career at Roland Garros.
He is only two successes from obscuring the men’s mark for most total Grand Slam singles titles that he presently shares with Roger Federer.
Notwithstanding his 13 trophies at Roland Garros – four in row from 2005-08, five in succession from 2010-14 and another four in succession so far since 2017 – Nadal won four titles at the U.S. Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open.
Nadal entered his quarterfinal with a 35-set run at Roland Garros that started during the 2019 last. That developed to a day and a half Wednesday, before Schwartzman outflanked him for a stretch, shockingly winning a greater amount of their trades that kept going in any event nine strokes.
In any case, what is important is who wins the match, and Nadal championed himself rapidly after Schwartzman was ahead 4-3 in the third.
Nadal would not drop another game, separating to go 5-4, preceding holding at adoration to take the third set. Then, at that point he tore again to open the fourth and truly eliminate any leftover feeling of tension.
Schwartzman – presently 1-11 against Nadal, remembering a misfortune for the 2020 French Open elimination rounds – began muttering to himself and ricocheted his racket off the mud a second prior getting broken again to trail 3-0 in fourth.