By Sulaimon Jamiu
World number 5, Rafael Nadal battled to a late-night victory over old foe and world number 1, Novak Djokovic, to book a place in the semi-final of the French Open.
The 35-year-old Spaniard, on a quest for a 14th French open title, hustled his way to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, and 7-6 win over the defending champion and world number one, in a captivating encounter that lasted for four hours and twelve minutes.
Epic and entertaining as it was, the match came to an end at 1.15am local time in a temperatures of 12°C, again calling into question the wisdom of tournament chiefs starting their night sessions at 8.45pm.
Nevertheless, it was Nadal’s night, despite there being so much seemingly in Djokovic’s favour. After all, Nadal has been injured, the match was late in the day as per Djokovic’s preference, the Serbian had beaten Nadal in the semi-final last year and was determined to draw level with his great rival on 21 grand-slam titles, having been denied the chance to break the record himself in Australia.
However, Nadal came hurtling out of the blocks and simply bullied Djokovic for the first 11 games, charging into the lead by a set and 3-0 with a double break.
Djokovic, who saved six break points before succumbing to a seventh in a marathon first game of the second set, looked shellshocked.
Afterwards, Nadal’s intensity dropped and Djokovic stopped the bleeding, hauling himself level before nudging 4-3 ahead with a hold in a seventh game which lasted longer than some sets have during this period.
Djokovic duly levelled the match but, while the momentum was all his at the end of the second set, Nadal had recalibrated and raced away with the third set.
Statistically, these two tennis titans have met 59 times, with Djokovic leading the head-to-head with 30 wins, and Nadal has 29 wins to his name. But more importantly, Nadal leads the grand-slam titles race and now has a golden opportunity to extend the lead by two medals.
On Wednesday June 1st, Nadal will face third seed Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, who knocked out Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, on Friday.
