Nadal responds to young Sinner's push at dawn in Paris

At 10:30 pm on Tuesday night,

appeared

at the mouth of the

with a scowl.

The 12-time champion of the tournament, holder of 19 Grand Slam titles and number two in the world, had waited a whole day, three women's matches and one men's, to continue

the defense of his throne at Roland Garros

against

.

The organizers did something wrong in the day's programming.

In the edition of the most exceptional tournament in memory, the tennis player who has written the best history of this competition appeared at an inappropriate time.

For the first time in 16 participations he would play in the middle of the Parisian morning.

And he would do it in front of 400 spectators and at a temperature of 12 degrees.

Nothing is as it was.

It was in these unusual circumstances that he qualified for his thirteenth semi-final of the tournament, after beating Jannik Sinner 7-6 (4), 6-4 and 6-1, in two hours and 49 minutes.

On Friday

, twelfth seed,

awaits him

, who emerged victorious from a bloody battle lasting more than five hours against

, third seed, finalist of the last two editions and recent champion of the United States Open.

Schwartzman recently beat the Spaniard in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome.

Further than its predecessors

After four games against players who hardly opposed him, Nadal found himself with a kid who in a single set had already achieved more than any of his predecessors.

Jannik Sinner, champion of last year's NextGen ATP Finals, the tournament that brings together the eight best young players from each season, served to win the first set before falling into the tiebreaker.

His direct, daring game, bothered a somewhat puzzled Nadal at that unprejudiced, irreverent attitude.

It was difficult for the left-hander at first to do damage with the

parallel

and suffered from the Italian's approach, who attacked him with his backhand crossed precisely on the

, as men who have studied his game usually do.

Sinner is the first tennis player to reach the quarterfinals on his debut, something that no one has achieved since Nadal won the first of his titles in this tournament in 2005.

Far from being satisfied, after knocking out Alexander Zverev, sixth-seeded and final runner-up at the US Open, in the round of 16, he competed with an uncharacteristic ease of his 19 years.

Nadal needed a test like this, to face delicate situations like those that he will probably have to face in the final rounds.

Neither the wasted opportunity in the first set nor the attention he needed later on his left leg daunted him.

Sinner broke again in the third game of the second set, but, as in the first set, he was unable to ratify the

.

The Italian, who will jump next Monday from position 75 to 46, came out responsive, but did not lack finesse when defining.

Nadal needed to pull his job and become strong on a stage that he knows better than anyone.

He resisted the attacks of his adversary and was accurate in the trances that made the difference.

After losing the serve again in the first game of the third set, Sinner assumed that the company surpassed him.

A future looms for him.

Surely he will take advantage of the experience of measuring himself in the Roland Garros center with Nadal, even if it was at an hour when the tennis players, in general, have already earned the rest.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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