Nadal reaches Djokovic – AS.com

Like Real Madrid, who won the Champions League on Saturday without playing better than Liverpool, Rafa Nadal played Curtois and prevailed against Felix Auger-Aliassime due to the historical weight of his figurefor that intangible that makes him beat his rivals despite not controlling the game most of the time, something that happens rarely. At almost 36 years old, the Balearic maintains an aura that dazzles most of the rivals who face him, whatever they do. That is why, among many other things, he has won 109 games and lost only three at Roland Garros. And so he could this Sunday with the Canadian of 21 and 9th in the world in the third match resolved in five sets that he has had to play in his 18 participations in the French tournament: 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6 and 6-3 in four hours and 21 minutes.

In the other two, against Isner in the first round in 2011 and against Djokovic in the semi-finals in 2013, he also won. Due to his greatness, Rafa has only had to rush all five sets on 38 occasions (25-7) in his 20 seasons as a professional. Repeating success and fortune allows him to reach the Serbian, who very easily got rid of the Argentine Diego Schwartzman (6-1, 6-3 and 6-3 in 2h15). They will meet in the quarterfinals on Tuesday for the 59th time. The global head-to-head is narrowly dominated by the world number one (30-28). The Balearic commands in Grand Slams (7-10), on land (8-19) and on the land of Paris (2-7). It will be the third time that the two world tennis stars meet so soon in the Bois de Boulogne. The previous two ended with a win for each. Nadal won in 2006 and Djokovic in 2015. Theirs is the mother of all rivalries in tennis and one never tires of seeing them fight. They will be measured with different sensations. The Balkan ones seem better. He has not lost a set in four games and has spent less time on court (8h13 against 10h43 for Nadal). “We know each other very well. We have had many stories together. He comes from winning in Paris and it is not an ideal situation for me. But this is Roland Garros and it is my favorite tournament. What I guarantee is that I will try to do my best and that I will fight until the end,” Rafa warned.

Stiff opposition was expected from Auger-Aliassime, but the Montrealer exceeded expectations without advice from his adviser, his rival’s uncle and former coach, Toni Nadal., who at the time clarified that he would not intervene in any case before or during a confrontation between Felix and his nephew. The coach calmly sat down to watch the match in the Philippe Chatrier box of honor, along with the president of the French Tennis Federation, Gilles Moretton, and former player Mansour Bahrami. “He can’t want me to lose, he wants the best for me,” Nadal had said after beating Dutchman Van de Zandschulp. The fact is that Auger-Aliassime put the match uphill from minute 1. With a double break, he scored a first set in which the Manacor titan seemed to move without energy, with shots that stayed in the middle of the court. The ball did not run at all nor did he feel it as usual in his clay garden. The played of her suggested a fatal outcome.

growth and value

But Rafa grew after pulling off the third game of the second round. From then on, she almost did not suffer with his serve and maintained that tendency to get ahead in the third set., thanks to some brilliant defenses that caused the error of his opponent in an easy shot that cost him a new break. It seemed possible that Nadal closed the victory in four sets. However, Auger-Aliassime rose. He was not intimidated by the trend that led his opponent to victory and in a sequence of break, counterbreak and break he leveled the score.

The fifth set was tense. The open serves of the Canadian made life difficult for the Spaniard, who went for all the rest with 4-3 in his favor. There he made force with his hip so that his herculean arms could move the ball with more speed and bite (“I’m proud of the attitude at the end, when I’ve been aggressive,” he congratulated). In his opponent that losing vein appeared that has made him fall in nine of the ten finals that he has played. A passing through and an agonizing one-handed backhand to get to a Felix volley gave the 21-time Slams winner the gas he needed to salvage a situation he had only found himself in twice before at his favorite event. And how its Madrid, which he had encouraged at the Stade de France, came out on top. And the best thing is that, physically, his performance did not raise any doubts.