In his sporty “living room”, the Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris, Nadal, who will be 36 this Friday, can still at least move up a gear. Many had ranked defending champion Novak Djokovic, who does not have to deal with a permanent injury, higher. But Nadal prevailed in four sets.Paris. “Bon soir,” Nadal said to the audience in a real night session around 20 minutes after 1 a.m. on Center Court. “It’s very emotional, it’s incredible for me to play here. Everyone knows how important this tournament is to me,” said Nadal, who has won an incredible 13 of his 21 major titles at Roland Garros. Now he “only” needs two victories to stretch the Coupe des Mousquetaires to the sky again.
“means everything to me”
But Nadal certainly didn’t think of that at the time. “It was a very tough match, Novak is undoubtedly one of the best players in history. There is only one way to beat him: to show your best until the last ball.” When asked by Platz interviewer Marion Bartoli about the special magic that connects Nadal with Paris and this court, the Mallorcan confirmed this once again. “Without a doubt, there is no other place like this for me. Feeling the love of the people here in Paris means everything to me.”
Of course, nobody but himself knows what pain the Spaniard, who has been suffering from Müller-Weiss syndrome (deformation of the metatarsal bone in the left foot) since 2005, felt that evening. Nadal only talks about it when he has to. And yet, before the cracker against “Djoker”, he had fought vehemently to prefer to play during the day rather than at night, in his “possibly last match in Roland Garros” ever. Interviewer Bartoli almost implored Nadal to play “many, many more matches” in Roland Garros regardless of the further course of the tournament. “I’ll see you in two days, that’s all I can say for now,” Nadal said. The fifth in the world rankings then meets Alexander Zverev for the tenth time and hopes for the seventh victory.
But he will still review the hit against Djokovic. It was 6:2,4:6,6:2,7:6(4) after 4:12 hours. When he heard the game time, Nadal turned almost in disbelief and looked at the match clock again.
Immense intensity
The game started immediately with tremendous intensity and a marathon game: After ten minutes and taking advantage of the third chance, Nadal managed to break the opening and while the first games lasted extremely long, things then went quickly. Another break to 4: 1 and after 49 minutes Nadal had surprisingly smooth set one in his pocket with 6: 2. At first it continued in this key: Another 12-minute game to start with. This time Nadal needed seven breakballs before he took Djokovic’s serve again. When he made a 6: 2, 3: 0 lead with a brisk second break, many Nadal fans were already in good spirits.
But Djokovic stalked his way to 2: 3 and then the sixth game alone lasted around 20 minutes: Nadal missed several chances to make it 4: 2, and now the “Djoker” used the fifth break ball to make it 3: 3. At 5: 4, Djokovic then used the second break and set ball to make it 6: 4 after 2:16 hours. Djokovic also opened the third round and for the third time Nadal got the 35-year-old Serb’s service. The Mallorquin improved again, Djokovic became a little more mistaken and so Nadal managed the second break to 4: 1. He did not let this advantage be taken from him. After 2:59 hours he made the lead 6:2 or 2:1.
In the fourth set, a quick break to 2: 0 seemed to get Djokovic on course for set five and at 5: 3 the world number one then had two set balls, but Nadal made the rebreak to 4: 5 and actually after 2: 5 the 5th set :5. And nothing really came of the fourth five-set duel between the two active tennis legends in the 59th edition of this classic. The match was decided in the tie-break, Nadal was in the lead 6-1, but only used the fourth match point.
Once again, a peculiar special statistic between Nadal and Djokovic had come true. In 59 matches now, the player who won the first set has won the game 51 times, and that includes 16 of the past 17 matches.
Source: Nachrichten
