By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday June 7, 2020
Faced with a stern challenge, Rafael Nadal reacted in the typical way: ratcheting up his focus and galloping to a straight-set win at Roland-Garros.
Nadal had to battle to earn the opening set, but by midway through the second he was off to the races and clamped down a 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 win over Jannik Sinner and a spot in the quarterfinals, where Diego Schwartzman awaits.
Nadal, who has won 34 consecutive matches at Roland-Garros and 35 consecutive sets, explained his difficulties in the opening set, when he went from a break up to a break down and had to scramble do steal away the lead.
“I had a bad game with 2-0 and with the wind helping, so that was a big mistake,” he said. “Then I started to play too much against his backhand and too far from the baseline. So then I give him the chance to be inside the court and to have the control of the point from inside. From that position he's dangerous.”
Sinner won four games in a row to lead 4-2 in the opener, but Nadal fought back and eventually broke to love to level at 5-all.
From there it was a Nadal parade to the finish. In total, Nadal claimed 16 of the final 19 games to improve his career record at his favorite stomping grounds to 104-2.
Sinner, who also lost to Nadal in straight sets in the quarter-finals in 2020, was not pleased with his performance.
“I was expecting more from my side,” he said. “In the other way, today—yeah, today he played better than me. I mean, we can stay here one hour to talk about, but at the end of the day he played better than me. He deserved to win.”
The 19-year-old Italian admitted that he has a long way to go after his latest lesson from the great Spaniard, who improves to 3-0 lifetime against Sinner.
“I'm excited to play against him, because it's a huge test, you know, on what you would like to win in one way,” he said. “But in the other way, you know, like today, it gives me the answer that I already said it before, that the way is very long still. Yes, maybe I would have won the first set, but you still have to win two more sets, so the way is long.”
Nadal’s way is more direct. As the heavy favorite in Paris, he’ll look to continue his mastery over Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals. The King of Clay has won 10 of 11 matches against the Argentinean, but Schwartzman did put a dent in Nadal’s armor last year when he topped Nadal at Rome.
But he wasn’t able to savor the victory for long as Nadal exacted revenge in last year’s semi-finals before going on to topple Djokovic in the final for his 13th French Open title.
“I think at the beginning of everything match against Rafa, you have to walk on the court thinking to win the match, to have opportunities, to get opportunities, and think about something else and not think about Rafa in the other side of the net,” Schwartzman said. “If you think many about the four, five hours you are going to play, if you think about everything about Rafa in Roland Garros, he's very difficult to play. You know, you have to go on court, think about the tactic, think about how to play your best game. I think when the matches start with close score, it's a little bit easier the start, and then you start to think another thing on court.”