Nadal insists he too feels ‘pressure’

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I don’t have any obligation to win, first thing. Second thing, if you don’t feel the pressure, it’s because you don’t love the sport... Pressure is good.

RAFAEL NADAL, Ahead of the semi-final

PARIS : Rafael Nadal insisted he still “feels pressure” and is “only human”, after battling back from a set down to beat Diego Schwartzman on Thursday and set up a French Open semi-final clash with Juan Martin del Potro.

It is the 11th time the 32-year-old Spaniard has reached the French Open last four, becoming only the third man in history to achieve the feat at a Grand Slam tournament, after Jimmy Connors at the US Open and Roger Federer at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

“I don’t have any obligation to win, first thing. Second thing, if you don’t feel the pressure, it’s because you don’t love the sport,” said Nadal, who has never failed to win the title in Paris after reaching the semi-finals.

“Pressure is good. You are able to control that. That pressure, that adrenaline, can be in a positive way.”

When asked why he still felt stress before resuming on Thursday despite all of his past achievements, Nadal said: “(Because) I am a human person. “Sometimes you play better, sometimes you are more nervous.” In dropping the opener on Wednesday, Nadal had lost a set at Roland Garros for the first time since a 2015 quarterfinal defeat by Novak Djokovic.

But he returned 30-15 up and serving to level the match after fighting back from a break down in the second set between rain delays the previous evening.

It took Nadal just two quickfire points to wrap up the set and leave the two players with effectively a best-of-three set match to play on Thursday. The top seed would have been delighted to return in his favoured hot conditions after gloom of night before.