• Nadal came very close to the precipice on Sunday at Roland-Garros

  • But the Roland-Garros champion found the necessary resources to win in five sets and slip into the quarter-finals.

He may have spent the match suffering, looking tired and grimacing easily, our unconscious has postponed until the last moment the idea of ​​​​seeing Rafael Nadal bowing, Sunday evening, in the round of 16 of Roland-Garros .

The man statued during his lifetime Porte d'Auteuil could not get out like that, so soon, even if we knew his foot was loose for two weeks.

Luckily for him, in a dingo fifth set, Rafa, cheered on by the Chatrier crowd, managed to pull through thanks to mutant points.

But it really took very little for Felix Auger-Aliassime to become the third man to achieve the feat of beating the Spaniard on home soil after the improbable Robin Soderling (2009) and Novak Djokovic, twice (2015 and 2021).

Augier-Aliassime bluffing solidity

“There is pride in what I have produced.

I tried everything compared to what I master today.

Even if I can still refine things, I am proud and I have no regrets, ”recognized, calmly and in class, the 21-year-old Canadian.

While he had never won a match at Roland before this year, Augier-Aliassime was impressively solid.

First to stick an unprecedented rouste for Nadal in the first set (6-1), then to return to the game in the fourth set when we thought he was in the cellar.

Because two sets to one for the Spaniard, no one imagined being still on the Philippe-Chatrier court two hours later.

A legendary fifth round

“During a set, I didn't play well, so I lost.

After the first set and a half, I started to improve, I was much more aggressive, in my opinion.

I played well at the end of the second set.

And the third set was very good for me, then I made a big mistake at the start of the fourth when the situation had already turned.

And then I suffered.

What matters most is that I played 5 sets again and the last 3-4 games I played very well, I think,” Nadal said.

We confirm it to you Rafa, the fifth round has sometimes touched the sublime, between the cinder blocks sent by Auger-Aliassime and the aggressiveness of the boss of the place who always has in him resources that we do not suspect.

He will need it on Tuesday against Novak Djokovic in a match where he will not start as a favorite.

But when we have won 13 titles here, everything is possible for the best player in history on clay.

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  • Sport

  • Roland Garros 2022

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  • Rafael Nadal