PARIS — Rafael Nadal insists he can’t know for sure whether any match at Roland Garros might be his very last at a place he loves, a place he is loved.
For now, if he keeps winning and keeps performing the way he did during his monumental quarterfinal victory over longtime rival Novak Djokovic, Nadal will have more chances to play.
With a mix of brilliant shot-making and his trademark resilience, Nadal got past the top-seeded defending French Open champion Djokovic, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4), to move a step closer to his 14th championship at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament and what would be a 22nd major trophy overall, adding to records that he already owns.
“To win against Novak, there is only one way – to play at your best from the first point to the last,” Nadal said. “Tonight has been one of those magic nights for me.”
For anyone lucky enough to be there, too, or even anyone watching from afar.
The match began a little past 9 p.m. Tuesday and concluded more than four hours later, after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Nary a game, a point, a stroke or, indeed, a step came with a hint of insouciance. Both men gave their all. Nothing came easily.
The bracket said this was a quarterfinal, yes, but it felt like a final, from the quality of play to the quality of effort, from the anticipation that preceded it to the atmosphere that enveloped it.
The only missing ingredient: There was no trophy handed to the winner.
Nadal’s 3-0 lead in the second set did him no good; Djokovic ended up taking it.
Djokovic’s 3-0 lead in the fourth did him no good, even though he served for it at 5-3, even standing one point from forcing a fifth twice. Nadal saved those set points and broke there, then ran away with the closing tiebreaker, seizing a 6-1 edge and never losing focus after his first three match points went awry.
“Always playing against him is an amazing challenge,” Nadal said. “All the history we have together, today was another one.
This showdown was the 59th of their careers, more than any other two men have played each other in the Open era. Nadal narrowed Djokovic’s series lead to 30-29 while improving to 8-2 against his rival at Roland Garros.
Nadal is now 110-3 for his career at the place. Two of those losses came against Djokovic, including in last year’s semifinals.
This year, Nadal made sure Djokovic remains behind him in the Slam count with 20.
Nadal turns 36 on Friday, when he will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
When the subject of Nadal’s future was brought up during his on-court interview, he smiled.
“See you, by the way, in two days,” Nadal said. “That’s the only thing that I can say.”
ZVEREV OUSTS ALCARAZ
A lot of folks were predicting that 19-year-old rising star Carlos Alcaraz would leave this French Open as the champion. He might someday. Not yet. Instead, it’s Zverev who still has a shot at his first Grand Slam title.
Zverev put an end to Alcaraz’s 14-match winning streak by holding him off to win, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7), on Tuesday night, reaching the semifinals at Roland Garros for the second year in a row.
“I told him at the net, ‘You’re going to win this tournament a lot of times, not just once,’” said the third-seeded Zverev, the runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2020 and the gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. “I hope I can win it before he starts … beating us all.”
Alcaraz entered the quarterfinals with a tour-leading four titles and 32-3 record this season, 20-1 on clay. That includes a victory over the 25-year-old Zverev in the final of the Madrid Open on May 8 – which followed Alcaraz’s wins against Nadal and Djokovic there, making the teen the first player ever to beat both of those greats at the same tournament on the surface.
At Roland Garros, sixth-seeded Alcaraz was trying to become the youngest semifinalist since Nadal at 19 in 2005.
Zverev, though, managed to fix a notable blemish on his resume: The German began the afternoon with a 0-11 record in Grand Slam matches against opponents in the top 10 of the ATP rankings.
“At the end of the day,” Zverev said, “I knew that I had to play my absolute best tennis today from the start on.”
He sure got that start he wanted, staking himself to a two-set lead by using every bit of his 6-foot-6 frame to move into position for his free-swinging, ball-stinging groundstrokes.
Alcaraz, in contrast, was not at his highest level, accumulating 32 unforced errors over the first two sets alone, 17 more than Zverev in that span. Alcaraz finished with 56, Zverev with 34.
The spectators at Court Philippe Chatrier seemed to have their favorite from early on, regaling Alcaraz by singing his first name and responding with approval to his fist pumps and shouts of “Vamos!” – particularly as he made more of a match of things by cleaning up his strokes and using his usual array of drop shots to great effect.
After dropping the third set, Zverev served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth but got broken when Alcaraz ripped a backhand winner that left him screaming and pumping his fist – and riled up the crowd.
Then, in the ensuing tiebreaker, Alcaraz held a set point at 6-5.
“The match,” Zverev said, “was turning his way.”
Except Alcaraz plopped a backhand into the net, and soon Zverev had his first match point at 7-6, which he relinquished with his own netted backhand.
A soft drop volley earned a second chance to close it out, and this time Zverev did so with a backhand return winner.
In women’s action earlier Tuesday, 18-year-old American Coco Gauff and 28-year-old Martina Trevisan of Italy each reached their first Grand Slam semifinals.
The 18th-seeded Gauff beat 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up Sloane Stephens, 7-5, 6-2, while the 59th-ranked Trevisan eliminated U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3.