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PARIS: Novak Djokovic set up a successful French Open title showdown with Rafael Nadal on Friday (October 9) after a dramatic five-set semi-final victory over Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas.
World number one Djokovic, the 2016 Roland Garros champion, reached his fifth final in Paris, defeating fifth seed Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1 on a roller coaster competition. where he had a match point in the third set.
Nadal, the 12-time champion, defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) to reach the thirteenth final of the tournament.
On Sunday, Djokovic can win a major No. 18 and become the first man in half a century to win all four Slams twice.
Nadal, the world number two, can match Roger Federer’s all-time record of 20 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic is one of only two men to have beaten Nadal at Roland Garros in 15 years. Sunday will be their 56th clash.
“This is Rafa’s house,” Djokovic said. “I will have the motivation to win, I won it here in 2015, but this will be the biggest challenge: facing Nadal on clay.”
Djokovic praised Tsitsipas, who appeared in a Slam semi-final for only the second time.
“Stefanos is a great player, but after four hours he was tired. He gave me a lot of problems. He seemed calm on the surface but it was a different story inside,” added Djokovic, who will be in his 27th Slam final.
Djokovic took a 5-1 career lead over Tsitsipas in the semi-final and showed no signs of the neck and shoulder injury that ruined his performance against Pablo Carreño Busta in the last eight, securing the only break of the first game in the second game. .
Crucially, he saved all five break points he faced.
That became seven of seven at the start of the second set and made Tsitsipas call, breaking for a 3-2 lead and backing up with another for 5-2.
The 22-year-old Greek, who appeared in his first French Open semi-final, simply couldn’t make Djokovic break.
An eighth break point came and went in the second game of the third set with Djokovic breaking 5-4.
– Nadal in 13th final –
Having saved two more break points, Djokovic failed to convert a match point in the 10th game, suffered a time violation, and, unsettled by the call and crowd disturbances, broke in the 11th minute of asking.
From the brink of a quick exit, Tsitsipas stayed alive, taking the third set 7-5.
Djokovic blew 10 break points in the fourth set when Tsitsipas, who had also been down two sets in his opening match against Jaume Munar, tied the match.
However, in a final twist and as the clock approached the four-hour mark, Tsitsipas fainted in the deciding match, losing serve twice to give Djokovic a 4-1 lead.
He saved another match point, but was unable to do anything in the third when Djokovic fired a clean winner.
For the 34-year-old Nadal, his win over Schwartzman was his 99th at Roland Garros.
He is in his 28th final in the majors and hasn’t lost a set in the tournament this year.
“It’s always amazing to play here and this is a very special moment,” Nadal said after a 10th win in 11 games against Schwartzman, which surprised him in Rome last month.
“I played a couple of bad points in the third set, but Diego is a very tough player. He probably makes more breaks on the road than others.”
“It was difficult until the end, but it was a positive game for me.”
Nadal battled two break points in a 14-minute marathon opening game. He then broke 2-0, but Schwartzman got it back immediately.
It was a brief respite for the 5-foot-6 (1.68-m) player affectionately known as “El Peque” (“shorty”), as the 28-year-old broke down again in the fourth game.
The Argentine saved a couple of set points but threw the third into the net and the first goal came from Nadal at 65 minutes on the court.
Nadal was comfortably the strongest, breaking in the third and ninth games for a two-set lead.
With the game and his spirit seemingly fading, Schwartzman dropped serve again to go 3-1 down in the third.
But he bounced back when Nadal slid into passivity and by the 11th game he was back on duty, though he berated himself for wasting three break points that would have left him serving for the set.
That was his last chance when Nadal broke into the tiebreaker.
The Argentine was sorry for his 48 unforced errors and for converting just three of his 12 break points.
“It’s different playing against Djokovic, Federer, Rafa, these guys. It’s not easy to play five sets because you have to play your best tennis maybe for three, four hours, five hours. Physically it’s very difficult,” he admitted.
