When the longest tennis day at Roland Garros was over, when the players were exhausted and many spectators could hardly stand it, the question suddenly arose: And what now?

What is to come now after this marathon day, which began on Tuesday at twelve noon and ended on Wednesday night at quarter past one, and after this incomparable dramaturgy of four quarter-final games.

Thomas Klemm

sports editor.

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After two women's matches as - with all due respect - a kind of preliminary program, the excitement curve shot up steeply with a highly intensive exchange of blows between two top players before it all ended with the eternally tingling duel between two grandmasters.

A thirteen-hour day straight out of the script, with intense arcs of suspense and crazy twists and turns in the last two matches.

"It was one of those unforgettable evenings," said Rafael Nadal after defeating his rival Novak Djokovic late at night in Paris after four sets and more than four hours of play.

"But the next morning I'll start preparing for the semi-finals" As nice as it was - victory in the tournament is still a long way off.

So back to work before the duel on Friday against Alexander Zverev.

With his high-class quarter-final victory over Carlos Alcaraz, the Hamburg player showed that he can do more than just play in the tennis Champions League.

How the third in the world rankings defended himself against the force of the young Spanish star, how he kept calm in tricky situations, was not impressed by the Spaniard's incredible 43 drop shots, nor by his own service losses and continued to play aggressively even under the greatest pressure - such a mixture of race and Class gives hope for a hot fight against the thirteen-time Paris winner Nadal.

His young compatriot Alcaraz and presumably upcoming tennis superstar accepted his four-set defeat against Zverev as a lesson that a match in a Grand Slam tournament requires far more than everyday life on the ATP tour.

"I'm leaving this tournament with my head held high," said Alcaraz, who only has seven major tournaments under his belt.

The fact that the nineteen-year-old has the physical and mental tools to reach much more than a quarter-finals has long since been more than hinted at.

On the other hand, Novak Djokovic, the big failure of this long day of tennis and the whole tournament, left Paris quite dejected.

He knew that he had lost everything there was to lose: his series of nine matches without defeat and 22 wins in sets had come to an abrupt end, and he will be rid of his title as Roland Garros champion after the final next Sunday , at the latest eight days later also his lead in the world rankings.

The only thing that is uncertain is who will follow him as the industry leader: if Zverev wins the French Open, it will be his turn;

if he does not win it, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who was number one for three weeks in March, moves up again.

For Djokovic, the half-time record after two of the four Grand Slam tournaments is extremely sobering.

At the beginning of the year he was not allowed to defend his title at the Australian Open because he was considered a public health risk and nuisance for refusing to vaccinate and was expelled from the country.

In Paris too, as the defending champion fell, he lost many of the world ranking points he won in 2021.

And it doesn't get any better in Wimbledon either: The professional organization ATP does not award any points there because the London All England Club, as the organizer, refuses to let Russians and Belarusians play in times of war.

The Serb thinks the ATP decision is wrong, but it won't stop him from playing on the London lawn anyway.

"I don't look at Wimbledon through the lens of points or prize money." It is more important for Djokovic to quench his burning ambition by winning his 21st Grand Slam title if possible and catching up with Nadal.

Or, should the Spaniard Nadal triumph in Paris for the 14th time, he doesn't have to let him pull away any further.

Until then, there isn't too much for the 35-year-old Serb to gain confidence from.

The season went poorly, he recently won his only title at the Masters tournament in Rome.

In the quarter-finals in Paris, too, he showed himself to be vulnerable and vulnerable from the start.

He was already 2: 6, 0: 3 behind before he braced himself against all odds as usual.

And if he had served confidently in the previous rounds, he lost seven of his 17 service games against the Spaniard.

"In a match like this you go through a lot of ups and downs, both playfully and mentally," said the Serb after he had had to admit defeat for the 29th time in the 59th duel between the two.

In the decisive moments, Nadal was better: "He showed why he is a great champion." Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, threatens to grow into a double role as a challenger: as a hunter of the new number one and the Grand Slam record champion Spain.