French Open 2021 Live Updates: Nadal vs Djkovic

In the final set, a trainer treated a blister on Nadal’s foot, and he struggled with his movement in the last games. But Djokovic was the better player for much of the night, pushing Nadal deep behind the baseline when all he wanted to do is come forward.

In the final moment, Nadal send a backhand wide. Djokovic looked to the sky, bent over and grabbed a bit of red clay and rubbed it on his shirt.

Djokovic now faces Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in Sunday’s final. Djokovic won the year’s first Grand Slam in Australia in February.

Then they started a stunning display of tennis, a roller-coaster duel in which Nadal grabbed the first set, and Djokovic battled to win the next two. The first three sets lasted three-and-a-half hours. The third, which Djokovic won 7-6 lasted 91 minutes.

As the set ended, the celebration turned to howls and catcalls as a stadium announcer began to make a statement that everyone expected to be a warning they would soon be headed for the exits. Instead, he announced that an exception had been granted and the 5,000 fans at Roland-Garros could stay to see the conclusion of what would either be a historic loss for Nadal or one of the great escapes the tournament has seen.

And suddenly a crowd of 5,000 sounded like one 10 times as large. There was chanting and singing in the aisles, hugs and high-fives after a mostly miserable year and a half for sports and much of the rest of the world.

The moment occurred two nights after officials cleared the crowd for the final games of Djokovic’s quarterfinal match against Matteo Berrettini of Italy. Djokovic also experienced the crowd being cleared to meet a curfew during an early round match against American Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open in February.

It was not immediately clear how tennis officials received permission to have the crowd remain past the curfew, which was extended from to 11 p.m. from 9 p.m. in June 9. France is hoping to eliminate the curfew early this summer.

With the crowd alternating chants of “Nole” and “Rafa,” the two pushed each other. Djokovic saved a set point at 5-6 with a drop shot that Nadal could reach but not handle. They went into a tiebreaker, and Djokovic was the more reliable force. Nadal lost the opening point on a double fault and then came the more uncharacteristic gaffe: a missed forehand volley into an open court that gave Djokovic a 5-3 lead. Nadal hit a drop shot winner on the next point, but that was his last winner.

Djokovic closed it out by tracking down another Nadal drop shot. Nadal’s desperate lob landed short, and Djokovic spread both arms wide shortly before 91 flashed on the electronic scoreboard. It had taken 91 minutes to break the tie and take a two-set-to-one lead. Djokovic left the court, and when Marc Maury, the stadium announcer, took the microphone and said “Ladies and gentlemen” the booing began, but unlike Wednesday’s night session, when fans were obliged to leave before it ended because of the 11 p.m. curfew in Paris, this announcement had a different message.

The government had agreed to let the fans stay until the end of the match. The boos turned to cheers and hugs. On to the fourth set.

Both players have complained to the chair umpire, Eva Asderaki-Moore, that they need more time between points in order to retrieve their towels. But Asderaki-Moore has already shown considerable lenience. Despite the rule allowing 25 seconds between points, according to NBC Djokovic has taken 29 seconds on average before his serve, and Nadal has taken an average of 31 seconds.

Asderaki-Moore has not called a time violation on either player, but seeing the seconds ticking down has added to the tension.

But the truth is that Nadal has won in all manner of conditions at the French Open, including last year when the tournament was postponed until late September and early October because of the pandemic. It was often cold and clammy and yet Nadal produced some of his finest tennis when it mattered most: routing Djokovic in straight sets in the autumnal final.

“As long as there is red clay on the court, conditions are good at Roland Garros for Rafael Nadal,” Jim Courier, the former French Open champion, said last week.

Tsitsipas, a passionate player and person who makes films in his spare time, fought back tears in an interview on the court after the match.

“All I can think of is my roots where I came from a small place outside Athens, my dream was to play here,” he said.

He is the first Greek player to make a Grand Slam final.

Tsitsipas has now beaten two players ranked in the top six to reach the final and has dropped just a single set in six matches.

Tsitsipas was in control from the beginning of match, breaking Zverev in his first service game and cruising for an early lead. Zverev, 24, a lanky and powerful player who has made the semifinal round in four of the past five Grand Slams, stepped up in the second set, surging to a 3-1 lead, only for Tsitsipas to raise his game even higher.

With Zverev searching for tight angles, Tsitsipas chased down every shot. And when he reached the balls, he showed off every ounce of creativity.

He has the power to exert intense pressure on an opponent, a sneaky backhand drop shot, and at 6-foot-4, an intimidating net game. Exerting all three at once, he reeled off five straight games to take the second set as Zverev got sloppy, spraying his strokes wide and long.

Lots of responses and frankly lots of agreement. Number one, clearly, was the 2012 Australian Open final, which had fluctuating quality but unassailable quantity at 5 hours and 53 minutes. It left both men struggling to stand at the awards ceremony even if Djokovic had the requisite energy to rip his shirt from his body after closing out the 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 7-5 victory at Melbourne Park.

It was the longest Grand Slam singles final in recorded history. Matches were not routinely timed in the sport’s earlier days, but it is difficult to imagine any went longer considering how long Nadal and Djokovic take between serves and how short the changes of ends were before the advent of television coverage.

“It was obvious on the court for everybody who has watched the match that both of us, physically, we took the last drop of energy that we had from our bodies,” Djokovic said. “I think it was just the matter of maybe luck in some moments and a matter of you know wanting this more than maybe the other player in the certain point.”

It was their first five-setter against each other, and Djokovic actually collapsed to the court late in that set after missing a backhand to end a 31-stroke rally. “That’s the first knockdown I’ve ever seen in tennis,” said Jim Courier, who was commenting on the match for Australian television.

Fans also forget that the match finished indoors after rain forced the retractable roof in Rod Laver Arena to close at 4-4 in the fourth set. It ended at 1:37 a.m. and Djokovic later saw the sun rise at his hotel before finally going to sleep, but not before watching the highlights of his victory.

Nadal, presumably, was less eager to relive the moment, but he did have perspective.

“I lost a match, but it was perhaps the final that I lost that hurts the least, because I did all I could,” Nadal said. “I fought with everything I had.”

Both Djokovic and Nadal dropped a set in their quarterfinal match, with Djokovic dropping the third set in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 win over the ninth-seeded Matteo Berrettini, while Nadal dropped the second set in his 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over the 10th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, ending a streak of 36 consecutive sets won by Nadal.

The one area where Djokovic has a considerable advantage over Nadal statistically during this tournament is serving: Djokovic has landed 68 percent of his first serves, compared with 62 percent for Nadal, and has been broken only three times in 81 service games through five matches, compared with 11 of 74 service games dropped by Nadal.

While either Djokovic or Nadal will be considerable favorites, neither Tsitsipas nor Zverev should be overlooked. Both won titles in the run up to the French Open, with Tsitsipas triumphing in Monte Carlo and Zverev winning in Madrid, where he scored a third straight victory over Nadal. Tsitsipas, similarly, beat Nadal on the clay of Madrid in 2019, and lost to him in a competitive three-set final this year in Barcelona.

Djokovic also has designs on the record, however. He currently has 18 Grand Slam titles, and could reach 21 this year if he wins in Paris, as well as Wimbledon and the United States Open. Djokovic is less than a year older than Nadal, but his ability to contend on both grass and hard courts likely increases his chances of finishing on top when all is said and done.

Federer, of course, isn’t necessarily done either: he pulled out of the French Open after his third round win so he could better on the grass court swing, where he could claim his own 21st Grand Slam title at Wimbledon next month.

Though there is still much to play for, one thing seems certain: Sampras will occupy an increasingly distant fourth place, and all three men have a ways to go before they equal Serena Williams’s Open era record of 23 titles.