French Open 2020: Rafael Nadal wins late shift against Jannik Sinner
Rafael Nadal has reached the semi-finals at the 2020 French Open. The Spaniard beat Jannik Sinner 7: 6 (4), 6: 4 and 6: 1 in a match that ended well after midnight. For Nadal it was the 98th victory in the 100th match at the Stade Roland Garros.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Oct 07, 2020, 01:27 am
Sinner did not make it easy for the big favorite in his first quarter-finals at a Grand Slam tournament: In the first round, the South Tyrolean hit the set win at 6: 5, Nadal parried and won the tie-break. After more than 70 minutes of play, just before midnight - the four matches before that had taken longer than planned. After 2:48 hours of play, Nadal made it into the last four with 7: 6 (4), 6: 4 and 6: 1.
Sinner tried, especially at the beginning, to repeatedly play flat and quickly into Nadal's forehand. The Spaniard needed some time to get his forehand longline into position as a point hit. But Nadal managed the decisive break to 5: 4 in the second set mainly through excellent defensive work, a net scooter and two small carelessnesses by Jannik Sinner. After 2:11 hours, Rafael Nadal was two-thirds in the semifinals.
Nadal in the semifinals against Schwartzman
The third set began for Nadal in his 100th match made to measure at Roland Garros: He got a break in the first game. And made 3-0 with the next. Jannik Sinner didn't play much worse in this phase than at the beginning. Rafael Nadal, however, is much better. Just before half past one in the morning, the 19-year-old Italian finally had to take note of his departure from the 2020 French Open.
In the semifinals, Diego Schwartzman is now waiting, who defeated last year's finalist Dominic Thiem 7: 6 (1), 5: 7, 6: 7 (6), 7: 6 (5) and 6: 2 after a fight lasting more than five hours. For the Argentine it will be the first semifinal in a Grand Slam final. The two places in the semi-finals in the upper half of the tableau will be determined in the games Novak Djokovic against Pablo Carreno Busta and Stefanos Tsitsipas against Andrey Rublev .
Here the single tableau in Paris
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