At the end of the night, Rafael Nadal reminds Novak Djokovic that he is the king of Roland-Garros

Published on: 06/01/2022 – 01:23Modified on: 06/01/2022 – 01:35 Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic on Tuesday in four sets in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros. An intense match at the height of the legend of the two men. “Decimocuarta”: after Real Madrid, Rafael Nadal? The question now arises as the Spaniard dismissed world number 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros after a match of rare intensity. He will face Alexander Zverev in the next round, the penultimate stage before a possible 14th Mousquetaires Cup. The first game lives up to the rivalry between the two men. The two quarter-finalists surrender in quick succession for 10 minutes. Rafael Nadal gives himself two break points that Djokovic quickly erases. He finally cracks on the third. Behind, the “bull of Manacor” wins easily on his service. Novak Djokovic is struggling in this first set. In delicacy on his first balls, he also makes a lot of mistakes, regularly finding the net. He thinks he comes back to the surface with two break points in the 4th game but Nadal saves them. In the process, the Mallorcan doubled his advantage on the service of “Nole”. The set does not take long to follow (6-2) after 52 minutes. In the second set, bis repetita. A long first game of 13 minutes where Djokovic persists in saving break points (5!) before cracking. Then a Nadal who rolls up to 3-0. At this point in the match, a storm must have taken place in the head of the Serb and the fear of a past repeating itself, like the debacle of 2020. Novak is back But you don’t become world number 1 without having mental resources. A change of T-Shirt and “Djoko” leaves. He clears a break then rejoins at 3-2. A long game of 15 minutes follows where the two titans will make the stadium go through all the emotions. A Philippe-Chatrier finally awake and giving voice to the point of being called to order by the referee as to respect for the services. And while Nadal had four consecutive chances to win his serve, it was finally Djokovic who equalized on his fourth break point. in addition to a set which will determine the winner of the match, if not of the tournament… And, after 1h24, it is finally Djokovic who emerges victorious from this long fight, which raises questions about the length record of a set out of the 5th round (6-4). Nadal does not let go But when we could have expected to see Nadal crack, the king of the Porte d’Auteuil reminds Philippe-Chatrier why he is the man of Roland Garros. He made the entry break, added a second in the fifth game and took the set from Djokovic in 37 short minutes. Opposite, Djokovic falls back into his faults of the first set, multiplying the faults and the approximate balls. He recovers for a time by winning the first three games of the fourth set. However, when he seems set to win the round without difficulty, the machine jams. Rafael Nadal breaks on the 9th game. An equalizer at the best moment which forces the two men to decide between themselves in a tie-break. Rafael Nadal immediately takes the advantage, finding himself very quickly to lead 6 to 1. However, the balls of match are erased one by one by Novak Djokovic. His fans begin to hope until a last loose backhand down the line from the king comes to silence their hopes. Djokovic: “I gave the maximum. I could have played better. I had chances, but I lost against a player better than me tonight.”— Quentin Moynet (@QuentinMoynet) May 31, 2022 In 2021, their titanic clash lasted 4:11. This year, the two men will have offered one more minute of pleasure to all tennis fans. Rafael Nadal can rejoice, he has the opportunity to afford a 22nd Grand Slam title and his 14th in his garden at Porte d’Auteuil.