Nadal eliminates Djokovic at Roland Garros, eyes 22nd Grand Slam title
ATP
The 59th match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was a great spectacle as the Spaniard won the match in four sets despite being the underdog.
Only a few times during his career, Nadal was not a favorite when entering the court at the Roland Garros, and in the quarter-final match against Djokovic this year, it was one of the cases.
Yet, the 21-time Grand Slam champion showed why he's a great champion and defeated his biggest rival. Since the match was played during a night session, the Spaniard should have had a slight disadvantage, but the match started going incredibly well for Nadal already in the first game of the match.
He broke the very first service game of his opponent and added another break later on to win the first set 6-2 in 51 minutes. It seemed that he might close the match sooner than expected as he had already a double break lead in the second set.
The Spaniard was up 3-0 and 30-15, but Djokovic showed probably his best tennis and eventually won the second set 6-4 after breaking Nadal three times.
The third set was once again dominated by the 13-time Roland Garros champion. Nadal started the set with a seven-point winning streak and he broke his opponent twice in this set as well and won it identically to the first one, 6-2.
Everything indicated that Djokovic could level the score once again as the Serbian already led 5-2 in the fourth set and was also serving for the set in the next game.
However, two set points were not enough for the World No. 1 player, as Nadal forced the tie-break, in which he prevailed to win the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) to set up a semi-final clash with Alexander Zverev.
