Rafael Nadal has defeated the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic in the semi final of the ongoing French Open. Nadal won the match in five sets by 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7.
It was a match between two of the all time greats and it was anticipated to be a nail biter. The speculations didn’t go wrong. The match turned out to be a real thriller. Both the players showed exceptional skills, but, at the end it was Nadal who soaked up the pressure better than his Serbian opponent.
This was the 35th match between these two players and Nadal defeated Djokovic for the 20th time.
In the opening set, Nadal took a lead of 4-3 by breaking his opponent’s serve in the 7th game. He didn’t lose his lead after that and served out the 8th and the 10th game to seal the first set by 6-4.
In the second set, Nadal didn’t begin that well and dropped his serve in the 5th game to get down by 2-3. There were no breakthroughs in the next 3 games and Djokovic was leading by 5-3 when the 8th game got over. The Serbian player broke Nadal’s serve again in the 9th game and that was the end of the set.
Nadal went nuts in the proceeding set. He got breakthroughs in the 2nd and the 4th game and was off to a lead of 5-0 in no time. Djokovic with a serve hold in the 6th game made the score 5-1, but, that was too little. Nadal didn’t have any problem whatsoever in winning his next service game and with that, he grabbed the set by 6-1.
In the fourth set, both the players lost their serve once in the first 12 games and as a result, the scores were tied at 6-6 when the 12th game got over. In the tie breaker, Djokovic managed to sneak two mini breaks early and went on to win it quite comfortably to take the match into the 5th set.
In the decider, Nadal dropped his serve in the very first game, but, he broke back in the 8th game to level the scores. The next 7 games went with the serve and Nadal was leading by 8-7 when the 15th game ended.
The Spaniard got a break opportunity in the 16th game and he pounced on that to wrap up the set and the match as well.
In the final match, Nadal will face his compatriot David Ferrer.