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(CNN) – The new balls are not to his liking, the cold weather is less suitable for his game with many effects and he has not played as many warm-up games as usual, but none of that stopped Rafael Nadal from reaching the thirteenth final of the French Open .
Nadal walked away a victory from clinching another title at Roland Garros and joining Roger Federer at the top of the men’s Grand Slam rankings after beating Diego Schwartzman 6-3 6-3 7-6 (0) in Friday’s semi-final at Paris despite a slight late wobble. .
Schwartzman handed his friend a rare clay-court defeat last month at the Italian Open, Nadal’s only prep tournament in this reorganized tennis season due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the Spaniard proved once again that format Best of five sets is a different beast.
He also spent time working on his clay game after the straight-set backhand in Rome.
Nadal faces Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday in search of his 100th French Open win.
More importantly, he would tie Federer at 20 majors by prevailing.
If Djokovic beats Tsitsipas, and the Serbian world number one is the favorite despite dealing with neck and shoulder problems this week, he would be playing for an 18th major himself.
The stakes wouldn’t be much higher.
“I lost to him in Rome, so I was expecting a very difficult match,” Nadal said in his on-court interview.
“Happy with the way I play. I think I have been improving and today has been a very positive game for me.”
In addition to beating him in the Italian capital, Schwartzman handed Nadal, who has yet to concede a set in this tournament, his toughest encounter on the way to winning the 2018 crown in Paris. He led Nadal by one set and broke two years ago before an unsurprising rally from the now 34-year-old, helped by a rain delay.
Despite dropping his racket in the first set, hitting a backhand that bounced a couple of yards in front of him, and shaking his head when he missed another backhand, Nadal found his best tennis of the fortnight on Friday when he considered his challenger.
The sun and autumn shadows added another dimension. Nadal seemed to struggle early on when facing the sun, but Schwartzman was still largely powerless.
Break point possibilities
Schwartzman will regret his break point tally: He went from three of 12 to Nadal’s six of nine.
The Argentine, who will be within the top 10 for the first time after reaching an inaugural grand slam semifinal, said he would feel good physically after beating recent US Open champion Dominic Thiem in five hours on Tuesday.
Maybe it was not as fresh as expected. Or maybe it was.
The final score suggested an almost routine victory, but in the important first set that lasted a 64-minute marathon, Schwartzman made the worst possible start.
He couldn’t capitalize on two break points in a 13-minute opening game, then broke from 30-0 to 2-0.
Schwartzman regained service temporarily, but was immediately broken 1-3.
Realistically, when he lost the first set, his chances of becoming the third man to beat Nadal at Roland Garros in the last 15 years plummeted.
Shot of the day
However, Schwartzman could take comfort in the fact that he hit the shot of the day.
With Nadal serving at 3-2, 0-15 in the second, he ran to recover a forehand before his forehand from the baseline sped over his opponent.
How did Nadal respond? By earning the next four points.
Nadal was now sailing but suffered a couple of blips, letting the slip break the lead twice in the third with some unknown misses.
He saved three break points with winners at 5-5 and went into the playoff, raising his arms in celebration when Schwartzman scored a backhand.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Rafael Nadal reaches the 13th final of the French Open after beating Diego Schwartzman.”
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