Djokovic hands Nadal 3rd loss in 108 French Open matches
Paris: Sprinting, sliding and stretching, anticipating each other's moves for four sets and more than four hours, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal produced a masterpiece in the French Open semifinals.
Djokovic, as it happens, is one of only two men in tennis history who knows what it takes to beat Nadal at Roland Garros. And now Djokovic has done it twice this time ending Nadal's bid for a 14th championship there and record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title overall by coming back to win their 58th career matchup 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Friday night.
Just one of these nights and matches that you will remember forever, said the top-seeded Djokovic, who trailed 2-0 in the closing set before reeling off the last half-dozen games to reach his sixth final at the clay-court major tournament.
Definitely the best match that I was part of ever in Roland Garros, for me, and (one of the) top-three matches that I ever played in my entire career considering quality of tennis, playing my biggest rival on the court where he has had so much success and has been the dominant force in the last 15-plus years, Djokovic said, and the atmosphere, which was completely electric.
It was Nadal's third loss in 108 matches at a tournament he won each of the last four years, including by beating Djokovic in the 2020 final.
Nadal's first defeat at the French Open came against Robin Soderling in 2009; the next against Djokovic in 2015.
Each time you step on the court with him," Djokovic said, "you know that you have to kind of climb Mt. Everest to win against this guy here.
And to think: There wasn't even a trophy at stake in this one. That will happen Sunday, when Djokovic, a 34-year-old from Serbia, faces Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 22-year-old from Greece.
The fifth-seeded Tsitsipas edged sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 earlier Friday to reach his first Grand Slam final. It's Djokovic's 29th as he seeks a second title at the French Open and 19th major championship overall to pull within one of the men's Slam mark shared by Nadal and Roger Federer.
Tsitsipas already had given away all of a two-set lead in his semifinal Friday when he double-faulted to trail love-40 in the opening game of the fifth. But Tsitsipas steeled himself to win five consecutive points, then broke to go up 3-1.
I'm someone who fights. I was not willing to give up yet. I think I did few things right that worked in my favor, said Tsitsipas, who entered the day 0-3 in major semifinals.
It was a breath of fresh air, that first game, he said. I felt revitalized.
His semifinal offered a measure of drama. But in truth, Tsitsipas-Zverev was merely an opening act before the headliners.
Nadal and Djokovic really riled up the raucous crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier.
Midway through the third set, Djokovic won a 23-stroke point with a forehand winner and windmilled his arms a half-dozen times, earning a standing ovation and chants of No-vak! No-vak! On the very next point, Nadal produced a forehand winner and screamed, prompting chants of Ra-fa! Ra-fa! and a wave in the stands.
Nadal acknowledged fatigue might have been a factor during his poor play in the tiebreaker, including a double-fault and a flubbed volley.
Mistakes can happen, the 35-year-old from Spain said.
But if you want to win, you can't make these mistakes.
That set alone lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes, and an 11 p.m. nationwide curfew in place because of COVID-19 was approaching. Djokovic's previous match had been delayed more than 20 minutes while the audience limited to 5,000 people under coronavirus restrictions was cleared out of the stadium, but an announcement was made Friday to let everyone know the government agreed to let them stay until the end of the match.
Earlier chants in French of We won't leave! were replaced by choruses of the national anthem and cheers of thanks for President Emmanuel Macron.
Nadal noted afterward that playing in the cooler night air meant balls bounced lower, lessening the effect of his lefty forehand's heavy topspin.
That's more favorable for him, the conditions, Nadal said.
By the way, doesn't matter. That's tennis. The player who (gets) used to the conditions better is the player who (deserves) to win. So no doubt, he deserved to win.
The intensity was palpable from the outset of the evening, and Nadal zoomed to a 5-0 lead, reminiscent of last year's final, which he won 6-0, 6-2, 7-5. That was only the fourth shutout set lost by Djokovic in 341 career Grand Slam matches up to that point and the first in a major final.
There wouldn't be another Friday, because Djokovic made two key tactical adjustments moving much further back than usual to return serve and deciding to focus on serving toward Nadal's backhand and quickly made clear this would be a classic between two of the greatest ever at what they do.
They defended in ways rarely seen. Found the right mix of power and touch. Conjured up impossible-at-first-glance winners that no one else would try, let alone successfully employ. Returned as well as anyone, combining to generate 38 break points.
No two men in the professional era, which dates to 1968, have played each other more than this duo (Djokovic now leads 30-28). They know each other, and each other's strengths and weaknesses and patterns, so well.
Back-and-forth they went from game to game, point to point, shot to shot. Through exchanges that lasted 10 strokes, 20 strokes, more, they created marvelous points, too many to count or recount.
They forced each other to come up with the goods over and over again, in a version of Can you top this? And the answer, over and over again, was Yes!
Neither would give up or give in.
Djokovic shrugged off his early hole. He saved a set point while down 6-5 in the third. Nadal recovered from the dropped tiebreaker to steal a break at the beginning of the fourth.
But Djokovic broke back to 2-all and was on his way. omething clicked, Djokovic said.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
