Nadal defeats Djokovic… ‘Only 2 wins left’ until the 22nd major win
Enter 2022.06.01 (09:56)
Edited 2022.06.01 (10:15)
yunhap news
Rafael Nadal (5th place, Spain), the ‘soil shoe’, defeated longtime rival Novak Djokovic (1st place, Serbia) in the ‘preview final’ and only had two victories until the 22nd tennis major championship.
Nadal defeated Djokovic 3-1 in the men’s singles quarterfinals on the 10th day of the French Open (total prize of 43.6 million euros, regarding 58.6 billion won) held at Stade Roland Garros, Paris, France on May 31 (local time) following a bloody battle for 4 hours and 12 minutes. (6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6) made it to the semi-finals.
Nadal, who holds the record for the most men’s singles wins at major events (21), now increases the number of wins to 22 with just two more wins, widening the gap with Djokovic and Roger Federer (47th, Switzerland, 20 wins).
Nadal also maintained his pride as a ‘soil shoe’ by winning 110 victories (3 losses) at the French Open and continuing his strong side on the clay court.
He also succeeded in blaming the loss to Djokovic in the semifinals of last year’s competition.
Djokovic stopped Nadal from winning the tournament for the fifth time in a row last year and eventually won the championship.
With this win, Nadal narrowed the gap with Djokovic to 29-30 in his career record.
Nadal’s next opponent is Alexander Zverev (3rd place, Germany), who overcame Carlos Alkaras (6th place, Spain), who is called the ‘second Nadal’ and ‘holy’.
Nadal is 6-3 ahead of Zverev in his career record.
Nadal won 2-0 (6-3, 6-4) in the quarterfinals of last year’s men’s professional tennis (ATP) Tour Roma Open, the most recent match.
Nadal and Djokovic competed in “2 Days 1 Night” from 9 p.m. local time to over 1 a.m. the next day.
On the sub-ace, Djokovic hit 5-3 more, but Nadal had the upper hand in most other numbers, including a winner (57-48) and errors (43-53).
Djokovic admitted the defeat following the match, saying, “Nadal has shown why he is a great champion and how strong he is. There is no doubt that he deserves to win.”
Nadal said, “I’m still playing for a night like tonight. It’s really touching,” but “it’s still only the quarterfinals. The semi-finals remain. I will maintain a calm state.”
Zverev defeated Alkaras 3-1 (6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6) and advanced to the French Open men’s singles semifinals for the second year in a row.
In the final of the Madrid Open that ended last month, he properly blasphemed for the loss he suffered to Alkaras.
In the women’s singles, Koko Goff (23rd) defeated Sloane Stevens (64th, USA) 2-0 (7-5, 6-2) to advance to the semifinals.
This is the first time Gough has reached the semifinals of a major. His previous best performance was last year’s French Open quarterfinals.
Goff will face Martina Trevisan (59th, Italy) who defeated Leyla Fernandez (18th, Canada) 2-1 (6-2, 6-7, 6-3) in the quarterfinals in the quarterfinals.
[사진 출처 : 로이터=연합뉴스]
