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The record winner had to fight long after midnight to reach the semi-finals. Then he expressed his anger.
Rafael Nadel was anything but happy after reaching the semifinals.
Photo: Reuters
It was 1:26 am on Wednesday morning when the first day of the quarterfinals finally came to a close in the Roland Garros fridge. In front of some spectators wrapped in thick winter jackets, with temperatures around 12 degrees and constant wind. Rafael Nadal had won his toughest test to date against 19-year-old Jannik Sinner, 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 4, 6: 1, but was anything but happy after advancing to the semifinals.
“The problem was the weather,” he said in his brief press conference. “It is not ideal to finish a game so late, but the real problem was the weather. It’s too cold to play, ”Nadal said. And also: “I know that footballers play in those conditions, but there is no comparison because they are always running. On the other hand, we also run, but we stop after each point. “These cold-related interruptions are delicate.” It is a bit dangerous for the body to play in such conditions. “
Längster French-Open-Tag
In the same response, the twelve-time winner from Paris attacked the organizers after his 98th win in the 100th singles at this tournament: “I don’t know why they decided to put five singles on the Chatrier track. That was a huge risk. As soon as I saw the game plan, I thought to myself that today there could be extremely long games. That’s exactly what happened “.
There were two main reasons the game could end in Paris, by far the last. First, the postponement of the last sixteen women between Ons Jabeur and Danielle Collins on Monday was scheduled for the main square, as the opening game. The actual day program with four quarterfinals (two women, two men) started two hours late. And then Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem delivered an epic five moves that lasted 5 hours and 8 minutes and brought out the winner of the US Open.
2020 is the first year that Roland Garros can also play under the spotlight and with the new lockable roof. This circumstance has made those responsible for programming the game a bit brave, or reckless.
The game starts at 10:37 pm
When Nadal and Sinner started the real big game of the day, it was 10:37 p.m. And if the inexperienced but immensely strong South Tyrol had made better use of his opportunities, he would have at least won the first set, and the game would have lasted much longer than 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Nadal had criticized the pre-tournament conditions, especially the change from Babolat to Wilson balls. “These are the most difficult conditions for me so far,” he said. He repeated this criticism after the semi-finals: “Sinner has a lot of power and big shots. It was difficult for me because the ball just doesn’t spin in these places. That’s why I could hardly get him out of his post. “
However, he is in the semifinals for the 13th time, he has not yet given up a set in his first five games and now he faces a player who has come this far for the first time: Diego Schwartzman, against whom he will do so in Rome, however, in their only arena tournament of the season so far. has lost.
