It is the 109th victory in 112 games played by Nadal in Paris, who is looking to add to his title record in Roland Garros at 14 and the Grand Slam at 22.
In a generational duel, between one of the young promises that seeks the throne of world tennis in the coming years and the king of clay, who will be 36 years old on Friday, Nadal he had to fight hard to take the victory, with Auger-Aliassime (21 years old) taking him to the fifth set, something that until now only two other players had achieved since 2006.
“Felix is a great player, one of the best in the world. He is very young, with a lot of power and great mobility (…) He is doing things well and improving year after year”he said of his rival, advised by Toni Nadal, the Majorcan’s uncle and his coach for most of his career (until 2018).
The 13-time champion in Paris started unknown, without service (he only won 53% of the points with his first serve) and that translated into two early breaks for the young Canadian, who managed to close the first set in his second chance (3-6).
The loss of the first set did not seem to make react to Nadal, who went through another difficult moment when he had to save two break points that would have given Auger-Aliassime an advantage again.
That game changed the dynamic of the match: Nadal he gained confidence, his forehand began to go in, the first service also and he made just a few errors to equalize a set equal (6-3).
without looking the best Nadal in Paris, the Spaniard also scored the third set (6-2), imposing his greatest experience in games of this importance: the Canadian did not take advantage of any of the three balls he had to make the break and the Spaniard took advantage of two to stay a single set of the quarterfinals.
The Canadian reacted in the fourth set, breaking Nadal’s serve twice from the start and with an ‘ace’ he made it 1-4 on the scoreboard, with the Spaniard making the same mistakes as at the beginning.
With everything to decide, the fifth set was very even and aware of what was at stake, Nadal he was careful with his serve, giving up only five points in the first 4 games on his serve.
And in the eighth game came the decisive moment. He pressured the Canadian with very long and placed shots until he got a ‘break point’, which was scored after reaching an impossible drop shot. Auger-Aliassime to put her on the other side of the net and come within a game of victory.
“I didn’t start the match well. In the first set I didn’t manage to convert all the opportunities I created. In the third set I played better, but the beginning of the fourth was difficult. He has a great serve (194 km/h on average with the first serve) and I couldn’t return it”declared the Spaniard after the game.
“But at the end of the match I knew I had to do something different by being more aggressive and getting more into the net. That made the difference.”he added.
Nadal and Djokovic will meet on Tuesday for the 10th time at Roland Garros and the 59th in their careers, with a favorable balance for the Mallorcan 30-28 and 7-2 in Parisalthough the Serbian already defeated him in the quarterfinals of 2015 and in the semifinals of last year, an edition that he would later win against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“We know each other very well, we have a lot of history in common. He arrives after winning in Rome and I did not have the best preparation, but I will try to give my best and fight until the end, as always”.
In fact, Djokovic He is the only player capable of having beaten Nadal twice at Roland Garros. The other was against Sweden’s Robin Soderling in the round of 16 in 2009.
Djokovic comes to this match without losing a single set and after having clearly beaten this Sunday Diego Schwartzmann (N.16) by 6-1, 6-3 and 6-3 in just two hours and a quarter of the match.
Source: Ambito
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