Rafa Nadal beat Diego Schwartzman to enter his 11th French Open semi-final.
Rafael Nadal's quest for a record 11th Roland Garros title continued as the No.1 seed defeated World No.12 Diego Schwartzman to enter the semi-final of French Open 2018 on Thursday. The match began on Wednesday and it was the newcomer who took the first set before rain had suspended the match.
When the play resumed on Thursday, Nadal making full use of the dry conditions, turned tables around, giving Schwartzman no chance of making a comeback. Any kind of interruption in a sport can create issues for a player but the way Nadal maintained his focus, stamina and energy through these interruptions spoke volumes about his game. He just needed less than two hours to seal the quarter-final as he took away the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Schwartzman, who won the Rio Open earlier this year on Clay Court, thoroughly deserves the credit for pushing Nadal outside his comfort zone and breaking his run of 37 unbeaten sets in Paris since 2015. The 10-time champion had not conceded a set in Paris since 2015, when he was beaten in the quarter-finals by Novak Djokovic. In 2016, Nadal won two straight-set matches, then withdrew before the third round because of an injured left wrist. Last year, he took the trophy without dropping a set.
The first set against Schwartzman certainly would have shocked the reigning champion, who was broken three times in the first set and then in the second as well. Had Schwartzman won the match, he would have become just the third player to defeat Nadal in 86 single matches at the French Open.
On Wednesday, when Nadal got his wrists wrapped between sets, there were speculations about yet another wrist injury for the top seed but later on it was revealed that Nadal did that only to soak up the sweat. He will play the winner of the quarter-final between Marin Cilic and Juan Martín del Potro on Friday.
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 "Rafael Nadal in action on Thursday")
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