PARIS – After talking so much about all the reasons why this French Open postponed by the pandemic could be more difficult: cooler fall weather, slightly heavier tennis balls, lack of preparation for the match, Rafael Nadal is on back where it normally is: at the end.
And this time, as well as approaching an unfathomable thirteenth championship at Roland Garros, Nadal has a chance to tie Roger Federer for the men’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles.
Doing to his latest opponent what he has done to so many in the clay-court tournament he has dominated during his career, Nadal defeated 12th seed Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (0) on Friday at a semifinal. full of grueling polishing tips.
On Sunday, No. 2 seed Nadal will face No. 1 Novak Djokovic or No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who were scheduled to meet in the second semifinal.
The women’s final is on Saturday, with Sofia Kenin, a 21-year-old from the United States, facing Iga Swiatek, a 19-year-old from Poland.
Nadal improved to 99-2 at the French Open, including a combined 25-0 in the semifinals and finals, as he seeks a fourth consecutive title in Paris. That would add to the 34-year-old Spaniard’s previous streaks of four in a row from 2005 to 2008 and five from 2010 to 2014, along with four trophies at the US Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open.
He has won all 15 sets he has played in the last two weeks, poking fun at the supposed explanations of why this year, so different for so many reasons, could be different for Nadal in the City of Lights.
One line of thought involved changing dates from May-June to September-October. Another had to do with Nadal’s decision to skip the US Open, leaving him with just three matches since tennis resumed in August after its forced hiatus by the pandemic.
Yet another involved Schwartzman, a 28-year-old Argentine: he defeated Nadal in straight sets on clay at the Italian Open last month. But that still left his head-to-head tally book at 9-1 in Nadal’s favor, and showed why on Friday.
The afternoon sun at Court Philippe Chatrier created uncomfortable shadows over much of the court and a blinding glow at one end, prompting Schwartzman to flip his baseball cap back so the wing could protect his eyes.
This was Nadal’s 34th Grand Slam semi-final, and Schwartzman’s first. Additionally, Schwartzman arrived after having needed 5 hours and 8 minutes to beat US Open champion and two-time French Open finalist Dominic Thiem in a five-set quarterfinal.
With the 5-foot-7-inch Schwartzman leaping for a two-handed backhand in response to his formidable foe’s spinning forehand and high rebounding, Nadal was content as ever to engage in long, energy-draining exchanges at first. . The opening game required 14 minutes to complete just 14 points, six of which lasted at least 10 strokes, with a maximum of 28, before Nadal held on.
That set how things would go in that set: 22 of 69 points included double-digit shot counts. And Nadal’s 16-6 lead in total winners in that set made the difference; the numbers were 38-24 at the end of the match.
He pushed the second serves to get right on the baseline to receive, much closer than usual, and won the point each of the first five times Schwartzman started a point with a foul.
Nadal was also good at the net, winning the point in 13 of his 15 forward trips in straight sets.
After going up a break in the third, Nadal was a bit shaky, twice breaking himself when Schwartzman refused to go quietly.
Only 1,000 spectators are allowed on the grounds daily, due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in France, and the meager crowd available was cheering for Schwartzman at the end of the third, probably not so much because they were invested in a win for him. like because they wanted to see more tennis.
A key game came to 5 total in the third, which lasted over 10 minutes and featured a trio of break points for Schwartzman. Take any of those and it would do for the set
But Nadal wiped them out with aggressive play: two quick forehand winners and a volley winner after a delayed run from the serve and volley net.
Plus, he prevailed in the tiebreaker, leaving fans screaming, “Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” as they have done so many times in the past.
.
