Published on : 01/06/2022 – 01:23Modified : 01/06/2022 – 01:38
Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic on Tuesday in four sets in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros. An intense match at the height of the legend of the two men.
“Decimocuarta”: after Real Madrid, Rafael Nadal? The question now arises as the Spaniard dismissed world number 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros after a match of rare intensity. He will face Alexander Zverev in the next round, the penultimate stage before a possible 14th Mousquetaires Cup.
The first game is at the height of the rivalry between the two men. The two quarter-finalists go back to back for 10 minutes. Rafael Nadal gives himself two break points that Djokovic quickly erases. He finally cracks on the third. Behind, the “bull of Manacor” wins easily on his service.
Novak Djokovic is struggling in this first set. In delicacy on his first balls, he also makes a lot of mistakes, regularly finding the net. He believes he is coming back to the surface with two break points in the 4e game but Nadal saves them. In the process, the Mallorcan doubled his advantage on the service of “Nole”. The set does not take long to follow (6-2) after 52 minutes.
In the second set, repeated twice. A long first game of 13 minutes where Djokovic persists in saving break points (5!) before cracking. Then a Nadal who rolls up to 3-0. At this moment of the match, a storm must take place in the head of the Serb and the fear of a past which repeats itself, like a debacle of 2020.
Novak is back
But you don’t become world number 1 without having mental resources. A change of T-Shirt and “Djoko” leaves. He clears a break then rejoins at 3-2. A long game of 15 minutes follows where the two titans will make the stadium go through all the emotions. A Philippe-Chatrier finally awakened and who gives voice to the point of being called to order by the referee as to the respect of the services. And while Nadal had four consecutive chances to win his serve, it was finally Djokovic who equalized on his fourth break point.
As the minutes go by and the games go by, ever more contested, this set looks more and more like a set that will determine the winner of the match, if not the tournament… And, after 1h24, c t is finally Djokovic who emerges victorious from this long fight, which raises questions about the record length of a set out of 5e some (6-4).
Nadal doesn’t give up
But while we might have expected to see Nadal crack, the king of the Porte d’Auteuil reminds Philippe-Chatrier why he is the man of Roland-Garros. He made the entry break, added a second in the fifth game and took the third set from Djokovic in 37 short minutes. Opposite, Djokovic falls back into his faults of the first set, multiplying the faults and the approximate balls.
He recovers for a time by winning the first three games of the fourth set. However, when he seems set to win the round without difficulty, the machine jams. Rafael Nadal breaks on the 9e game. An equalizer at the best time which forces the two men to decide in a tie-break.
Rafael Nadal immediately took the lead, quickly finding himself leading 6-1. However, the match points were erased one by one by Novak Djokovic. His fans begin to hope until a last loose backhand down the line from the king comes to silence their hopes.
Djokovic: “I gave my all. I could have played better. I had chances, but I lost against a player better than me tonight.”
— Quentin Moynet (@QuentinMoynet) May 31, 2022
In 2021, their titanic clash lasted 4:11. This year, the two men will have offered one more minute of pleasure to all tennis fans. Rafael Nadal can rejoice, he has the opportunity to afford a 22nd Grand Slam title and his 14th in his garden at Porte d’Auteuil.