Image Fans wave Spanish and Serbian flags at the match. that threatened to send the crowd of 5,000 people home in the middle of an epic duel. It was a match that had everything, even a looming curfew of 11 p.m. It is a title he has won five times, and he has won 12 Grand Slam titles on hard courts, including three at the United States Open, which will take place in New York at the end of the summer. He won the Australian Open in February and he is the defending champion at Wimbledon, which begins in two weeks. It would also put him in solid position to win all four Grand Slams in a single year, something that no man has accomplished in more than 50 years. A win would bring him within one of Nadal and Roger Federer, who are tied with 20. Djokovic will be playing for his 19th Grand Slam singles title. Tsitsipas will be playing in his first Grand Slam singles final. “It is surely the greatest match I have played here in Paris.”ĭjokovic will face Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the final on Sunday. “The first thing I want to say was it was my privilege also to be on the court with Rafa for this incredible match,” Djokovic said. During this tournament, his fellow players speak of him with a kind of reverence usually reserved for legends of the past.Īnd that was how Djokovic spoke of his longtime rival moments after Nadal’s final backhand sailed wide.

There is a statue of Nadal outside Court Phillippe Chatrier. Nadal was 105-2 at Roland-Garros and had not lost there since 2015. In beating Nadal at the French Open, Djokovic pulled off what known as the hardest feat in tennis. The score, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3, reflected a wild match that produced some of the most remarkable tennis in years. That’s what Novak Djokovic said the other night about Rafael Nadal, the 13-time winner of the French Open and the man he would be facing in the semifinal in just under 48 hours.ĭjokovic needed his best, and then some, Friday night as he beat Nadal on the court he has treated like his living room since 2005. Image Djokovic gestured toward the crowd after a point in the fourth set.

Roland garros 2021 scores