The match took 3.12, significantly longer than it looked to be in the middle of the third set.
- I started to miss and he got in some nice points and the end was really difficult.
I knew it would be tough because I was beaten two weeks ago, says Nadal after the tough finish until the tiebreak.
When they met in Nadal's comeback tournament in Rome, also on gravel, a couple of weeks ago, Schwartzman surprised by winning the quarterfinals.
When Diego Schwartzman, named after the football god Diego Maradona in 1992, used his second breakball at 1-3 in the third set, both he and the audience lit up.
The one-sided match suddenly got nervous.
The final set went to tiebreak since Schwartzman was reborn and Nadal started to miss.
There, however, it stopped for the Argentine.
Nadal's 99th victory in Paris
Nadal took home the tiebreaker with 7-0 and was able to stretch his hands in the air and roar out his relief and joy.
It was Nadal's 99th victory over Roland Garros.
At the beginning of the third set, the Argentine, who played a five-hour match against Dominic Thiem on Wednesday, had an argument with the referee and showed frustration.
Then the end seemed only a few minutes away but the match suddenly changed shape and the game became drawn out and exciting.
In the final, either world setter Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas are waiting.