In the history of sport, of all sports, there are legendary duels. Matches at the end of which you can say to yourself “I was there” or “I saw it” even if at the time when this one ended, there should not have been many people in front of the screens . An opposition between two of the best tennis players of all time is part of this story. This Tuesday on the night of Roland-Garros, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, 41 Grand Slam crowns between them, passed the ball for the 59th time in their indescribable career.
We would have preferred to see them face to face later in the week, in the final once again, but fate and the draw decided otherwise. It was in the quarter-finals that the two suns of the tennis world once again lit up the Central. On a rectangle of ocher earth where Nadal the magician has triumphed 13 times in his career and where Djokovic the wizard has won twice. Magical and bewitching: two qualifiers that go well with such a clash of the titans.
“To face Nadal is a colossal challenge, the biggest one can have at Roland-Garros, guaranteed Djokovic in the preamble. When we play here against him, it’s always a physical battle on top of everything else.
The rest is the aura, the prestige in these places of Nadal who does nothing like everyone else. It was said that he did not like playing at night, it was thought crippled with pain, handicapped by necrosis of the scaphoid bone, Muller-Weiss syndrome, of his left foot which no longer leaves him in peace. He himself thought that Djokovic could eat it raw. He said before the first ball: “With 2015 (loss 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in the quarters), these are the two times when Djokovic is the most clear favorite when I face him here. All the other times, I was either pretty favorite or it was 50-50. »
Yes, the Serb who hadn’t lost a set until then was announced as the winner before it started. It was all true. But it was still badly to know for the time this devil of Spanish extraterrestrial. The 59th confrontation between the two men turned to his advantage. Rafael Nadal won his 110th victory on Parisian soil (for only 3 defeats). And of course it was great.
Djokovic with reactions
The night was weird though. Djokovic, who had not lost a single set since the start of the fortnight, was swept away in the first set won 6-2 by the Spaniard. Was the Serb going to react? Not immediately: as in the first set, he lost his entry service. Under the “Rafa, Rafa” descended from the Central, Nadal did not let him breathe. Monstrous determination and precision in the exchanges, the Spaniard continued to press where it hurts. And the Serb suffered, curiously helpless for 90 minutes, until the animal finally woke up and Nadal, in the middle of the second set, also began to show some signs of fatigue.
Djokovic came back for the first time to win the second set 6-4, ball in the center after more than 2h15 of exchanges. At midnight, finding resources who knows where, it was nevertheless Nadal who offered himself the third set 6-2. The two thirty-somethings had been playing for more than 3 hours. And they didn’t want to end it.
The fourth set lasted a long, long time to prolong the night. Djokovic had it in hand and then Nadal nibbled his delay, game by game to afford a tie-break full of chills. A decisive game that Rafael Nadal came to pick (7-6, 7/4) late in the night, after a sumptuous game, necessarily unique and incredible. It was then 1:15 a.m. Novak Djokovic, the title holder, leaves the tournament in the quarter-finals. Rafael Nadal can still dream of a 14th title on this sacred ground. He will face Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals on Friday.
“Playing here in Paris against one of the best players of all time is always a big challenge,” said the Spanish champion at the end of the match. I’m happy to have picked it up and it was a magical match for me. “We were afraid tonight to attend the last match of the Spaniard on this ocher ground, he who now says that each match can be his last. His genius and the early evening without Djokovic let us still enjoy him a little. Djokovic will return to him but it is not in Paris this year that he will equal the record number of Grand Slam successes (21) of his evening opponent.