• Win over Schwartzman Nadal drops his first set

As in his round of 16 match against

Lorenzo Musetti

,

Novak Djokovic

was entangled in the quarterfinals against another Italian,

Matteo Berrettini

. The world number 1 won 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5) and 7-5, in three hours and 28 minutes and will face

Rafael Nadal

this Friday

for a place in the final of the tournament. Protagonists of three finals in Paris, in 2012, 2014 and 2020, they have only met once in the semifinals: it was in 2013 and the Spaniard won one of the only two matches in which he has consumed all five sets at Roland Garros . The other was against

John Isner

, in the first round of 2011.

Djokovic made good the early

break

of the first set and marked distances with Berrettini, ninth in the ranking, but he did not know how to make it profitable on the fast track.

The Italian, winner of four titles, the most recent in Belgrade, and a finalist a few weeks ago in Madrid, found himself with an opponent eager to correct the bad image of the first two sets against

Musetti

and not waste energy in the game number 58 with Nadal, whom he has won 29 times.

Two big mistakes

But even on this occasion, when the game was very much in his mind, he was able to resolve it clearly. The third quarter went to the tiebreaker and there Djokovic had two services to close it, after notable concessions from Berrettini. He sent balls to the net and gave it an extra life by giving up the tiebreaker. New entanglement for Djokovic, who also saw how the game had to be interrupted for half an hour at five minutes at eleven at night so that the venue was vacated, as imposed by the curfew. He sent 3-2 in the fourth and had to subtract.

He had to wait for the twelfth game of the fourth set and the third match point to break his opponent's resistance.

It was almost twelve o'clock at night and it was more than five hours since Nadal had concluded their meeting.

He kicked a fence after seeing the second

match point

frustrated

.

The two closest references between Nadal and Djokovic bring victories for the Spaniard, who overwhelmingly surpassed him last October to win his thirteenth title and did it again to add his tenth cup in Rome, this time in a tighter match, solved in three sets.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • tennis

  • Roland Garros

  • Novak Djokovic

  • Rafael Nadal

TennisNadal wins his tenth title against Djokovic and is again the top seed at Roland Garros

TennisTsitsipas does not give Carreño an option and is already in the Roland Garros quarterfinals

Roland Garros 2021Nadal leaves the first set in the tournament, but beats Schwartzman and is already in the semifinals

See links of interest

  • 2021 business calendar

  • Home THE WORLD TODAY

  • Rafa Nadal - Diego Schwartzman, live

  • Lenovo Tenerife - Barça