Rafael Nadal has reached the final of the French Open for the 14th time in his career. Alexander Sverrev He was forced to retire in the second set after being badly twisted in his ankle while chasing a ball and was taken out of court in a wheelchair.
After competing for more than three hours and failing to finish even two sets, Nadal won 7-6 (8), 6-6. To advance to the finals.
Nadal, who turned 36 on Friday, will now play his 14th record French Open Degree and 22nd major, his French Open win-loss record is now 111-3 (97%). After his victory at the Australian Open, he will try to win the first two big matches of the year and go halfway to the Grand Slam.
“Very hard, isn’t it?” Nadal said after Sverre’s retirement. “He’s very sad, honestly, he played an incredible match. He’s a very good colleague on the tour. I know how much he struggles to win a Grand Slam, but at the time he was very unlucky.
“The only thing I’m sure of is that he’s going to win not one, but more than one, so I wish him all the best.”
As it rained around Paris, the new Roland Corros roof was used for the first match for real effect this year, with interior conditions favorable to Sverre, removing elements from the equation.
With moisture under the roof, Nadal was sweating profusely in the second game, and when Sverre entered the baseline and effectively hit the conditions, Nadal’s topspin was blunted, and he struggled to impose on his opponent.
It started with a 92-minute opening set, the length of the entire football match, which made both moments of magnificence and horror identical.
For most of the first set, Sverev was on fire. He started the match service almost perfectly, smashing the first serve, more than 80% of whom knocked the ball out of the baseline, and Nadal was reduced to a spectator.
As the eighth game began, shares rose, however, as his familiar struggles unfolded through his second serve and forehand.
He lost his service, but then took a 6-2 lead at the tiebreak. That set would have ended against almost anyone, but instead Nadal saved all four set points. After Sverev badly missed an easy volley 3-6, Nadal pulled the winner of an outrageous angular forehand passing shot to the following point. While Nadal continued to struggle in his game, he climbed up to snatch the set from Sverre with the winner of the thunderous forehand down-the-line passing shot.
Nadal broke the serve early in the second set and was suddenly above the baseline. But in his five-set fourth-round match against Felix Agar-Aliasim, when he had a two-set lead at one point, he threw a series of tough service games as he picked up speed. What followed was a confusing, low-quality set that was sometimes hard to see.
The Spaniard struggled from the ground up, relying heavily on his drop shot instead of any strong ground, and Sverre made two double breaks at break points, including three double faults in a game while serving 5-3. Swerve, 5-4, had eight service breaks in the first nine games of set two.
While the pair were on their way to tiebreak, Nadal struck at game point on his serve, and Sverev chased a forehand and turned badly on his right ankle.
He immediately began to scream in pain, and he was immediately taken from the court in a wheelchair, a rare sight that immediately underscored the severity of his injury. Shortly afterwards, as Nadal walked out of the courthouse, Sverev returned to the court on crutches to greet the crowd.
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Despite reaching the final, Nadal will not be satisfied with his game after highlighting himself only in his endless fighting spirit and clutch game. However, in his on-court interview, a solemn Nadal made it clear that his performance at the time was not important: “It was a super tough match, over three hours, and we didn’t even finish the second set,” he said. Said. “So when to play against him is one of the biggest challenges on today’s tour.”
He continued: It is difficult to say many things today in this situation. Of course, as everyone knows, it’s a dream come true for me to be one more time in the Roland Corros finals, no doubt. But at the same time, to end that way … I was in a small room with Sasha before we got back to court. It’s very hard to see him crying there so all the best to him. ”
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