Novak Djokovic rallied to beat Rafael Nadal in an epic French Open semifinal. “It was certainly the greatest match I’ve ever played in Paris,” Djokovic said in French on court.
PARIS—France had lived under various pandemic restrictions for 16 months before Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic took the court at Roland-Garros on Friday night. But nearly four hours into one of the most epic tennis matches in recent memory—right as the country’s 11 p.m. curfew threatened to send a frenzied crowd home—French authorities did the most French thing imaginable: they made an exception.
“If you want to win against Rafa, on his court, you really have to play your best tennis,” Djokovic added. “And tonight was really my best tennis. I don’t know if I have the words to describe the pressure—the pressure of playing against him here.” As they inch closer to overtaking Roger Federer’s mark of 20 major titles, it’s already clear that Nadal vs. Djokovic is this generation’s permanent struggle. No two men have met more often on tour in the Open era, which dates back to 1968. After 58 meetings as professionals, counting Friday, they know each other’s games inside and out. Nadal has long suffered from Djokovic’s relentlessness at tournaments around the world. Djokovic had long admitted that the Parisian clay belonged to Nadal.
Nadal attributed the shift in part to the changing conditions inside the stadium over the course of the match. This is the first edition of the French Open to feature night sessions and the king of clay felt that the cooler temperatures as the match progressed played to Djokovic’s strengths — mainly by taking some of the sting out of Nadal’s topspin.By the end of the set, the specter of the party ending began to creep in.
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