Before the start of the semifinal, Rod Laver was honored at Arthur Ashe on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the conquest of the second of his two Grand Slam. In 1969, the Australian again took over the four majors , as he had achieved in 1962, when tennis had not yet opened to professionalism. Related for a long time with the best history of this sport, Rafael Nadal entered the field ready to ascend one more step in the penultimate challenge of his career. At this point, no one doubts that both he and Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have as their maximum objective to treasure the largest number of large , litigation in which the Swiss can be left with only one more than Nadal if he stands with his fourth Open of United States in the final on Sunday and puts the 19th in its global locker.

With the roof covering the field due to rain, the world number two exceeded 7-6 (6), 6-4 and 6-1, in two hours and 34 minutes, a brave Matteo Berrettini, 25th favorite, a who did not overweight his first semifinal of a Grand Slam, and will face Andrei Medvedev, who beat Grigor Dimitrov in three sets. Nadal crushed his next opponent 6-3 and 6-0 in the recent Montreal final. Champion in 2010, 2013 and 2017 and runner-up in 2011, the Spanish will play his fifth final in New York, twenty-seventh in a tournament of this category. It will be his third Grand Slam final this season, after winning Roland Garros and losing to Djokovic in Australia.

"The first set was a bit frustrating, because I had a lot of breaking balls that I couldn't convert. I had a bit of luck in the tiebreaker and managed to survive. From the break in the second set the game changed," said the Spaniard on foot. of track.

Berrettini, who won a challenger in Arizona in March, did not have a single victory in the US Open until the present edition. No one had him in this instance of the tournament. At 23, he has been leading the most vertiginous ascent in the ranking: last year he entered the top 100 and on Monday will appear as number 13.

Decisive tiebreaker of the first set

The Italian rebelled in the first set. The service worked for him, which he complemented on several occasions with successful leave. He raised six break balls, one of them set, in the tenth game. He traveled to the tiebreaker guided by his excellent serve and his virulent right and came to have two options to take it: 6-4 advantage. Nadal resisted with intelligence and trade and created the option that would be final after an hour and 13 minutes of unsuspected struggle.

Entire, temperate, with clear ideas, Berrettini, who was fired at full speed before Federer in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, in his first direct contact with the biggest, did not offer excessive signs of naivety. Champion in Budaspest and Stuttgart, the Roman giant managed to mitigate the damage in its reverse, on which Nadal percussed with the usual tenacity.

Up to ten balls of break needed the left-hander to break the Italian, who bent the cervix in the seventh game of the second set, a severe suture in the outcome of the match. It was a new solvency exercise by Nadal, who once got ahead of the delicate moment of the first quarter was growing until he ruled the game with absolute authority. Already with two sets of advantage and with a new break at the start of the third, the victory was only a matter of time. He will be very favorite in the final against a neophyte like Medvedev. The Russian, fifth favorite, champion in Cincinnati and finalist in Montreal and Washington, is the sensation of the summer, but he will have in front of him a plethoric player, the best of the course, in direct combat to add his legend. And you already know how you spend them on short distances.

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  • Rafael Nadal
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