Nadal charges into French Open semis after ‘dangerous’ late finish.
Nadal hits out at late finish after reaching the last four
PARIS: Rafael Nadal reached his 13th Roland Garros semi-final with a straight sets win over Italian teenager Jannik Sinner but claimed it was “dangerous” to finish at 1.30 in the morning when the temperature had plummeted to 12ºC.
Nadal, the 12-time champion, defeated 19-year-old Sinner 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-1 to clinch a 98th victory in his 100th match at the French Open.
He will next face Diego Schwartzman, the diminutive Argentine over whom he holds a 9-1 career advantage, as he moves closer to equalling Roger Federer’s all-time record of 20 majors.
However, Nadal, more accustomed to the bright sunshine of Mallorca than the autumn chill of a French Open pushed back four months due to the coronavirus pandemic, was unhappy with organisers who scheduled five matches on the main Court Philippe Chatrier.
“I know footballers play under these conditions, but they are all the time moving,” said Nadal after the latest ever finishing match at the tournament yesterday.
“We stop, we come back, we stop on the changeovers. I think this is a little bit dangerous for the body with these very heavy conditions.”
Nadal and Sinner only got on court at 10.30pm after Schwartzman and Thiem had taken five hours to decide their quarter-final.
The sparse and shivering crowd that greeted them wore thick coats, scarves and hats.
“I don’t know why they put five matches on Chatrier. It’s a risk,” added 34-year-old Nadal, who finished his news conference at 2.10am local time.
Argentine 12th seed Schwartzman defeated US Open champion and third seed Thiem in a five-hour epic to reach his first ever Grand Slam semi-final. The 28-year-old Schwartzman triumphed 7-6 (7-1), 5-7, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
It was one marathon too many for Thiem, the runner-up in Paris for the last two years, who had needed five sets and three and a half hours to down Hugo Gaston in the fourth round.
“Dominic is one of the great players. He is my best friend and I have a lot of respect for him,” said Schwartzman. “So this win is very important for me. In the second and third sets, I was going a little crazy and I was screaming at myself because I had so many chances.”
Thiem had been attempting to reach a fifth successive semi-final in Paris.
However, despite crunching 65 winners to his opponent’s 47, he committed 81 unforced errors in a match which featured 19 breaks of serve and at five hours and eight minutes was the second longest of the tournament. “I was over the limit today,” said Thiem. “At the net I just told him that he deserves it. I think he’s for the first time top 10 with that win.
“That’s also great achievement.”