French Open: Novak Djokovic conquered 13 times champion Rafael Nadal to reach the Roland Garros final

Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in the French Open semi-final 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 and reached the final to clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas for the Roland Garros title match. He became the first player in history to overcome Nadal in a Paris semi-final and the one who defeated the Spaniard twice at Roland Garros ending his perfect record in the semi-final.

They both met for a record of 58th time. It was their 15th semi-final battle and ninth meet at the Roland Garros. Both the professionals previously clashed on May 16th in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final.

Image Courtesy: Twitter/rolandgarros

It was Nadal’s third defeat in 108 matches at a tournament that he won all of the four years, he beat Djokovic in the 2020 final. His first loss at the French Open was in 2009 against Robin Soderling of Sweden. He lost his second in 2015 against Novak Djokovic.

“It was a privilege to face and to be on this court with Rafa. It was my greatest match ever in Paris. The greatest match with best environment for both of us. You have to play your best tennis to win over Rafael Nadal and tonight I played my best. It’s hard to sum up my feelings in words. Even though you tell there is no pressure but there is pressure. Pressure is the privilege to test me in such matches, to test my game and character,” said Djokovic after 4 hours and 11 minutes of long battle.

Andy Murray praised both the players via tweet “You cannot play better clay court tennis than this. It’s perfect.”

Djokovic will now face Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas who overcame German Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, for the final battle of Roland Garros on June 13, Sunday in the evening.

 

 

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