Nadal moves past Sinner to set up semifinal vs. Schwartzman

Defending champion Rafael Nadal, who is aiming for a 13th French Open crown, sailed into the semifinals in Wednesday’s early hours with a late-night win over Italy’s Jannik Sinner.

For his 98th win at Roland Garros, the Spaniard defeated Sinner 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-1 to set up a rematch with Diego Schwartzman on Friday.

The Argentinian bested Nadal in the Rome Masters quarterfinals last month for his first win against the world No. 2.

“I know this week that I can beat him,” Schwartzman said of Nadal. “I think after two days I’m going to be perfect in semifinal.”

Earlier, Schwartzman had eliminated third seed Dominic Thiem in a thrilling five-set match over five hours 7-6 (7-1), 5-7, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 on Court Philippe Chatrier.

In the opening tie-break, Schwartzman collected five unanswered points before moving in front of Thiem after the first set.

The Argentinian became frustrated when he missed opportunities in the third set after losing serve at 5-3 and in the following game, Thiem erased three set points with a string of sensational winners.

“He played three unreal points, amazing points, because he’s one of the best and he can do it,” Schwartzman said of Thiem’s effort.

“I had a lot of opportunities. That’s why I was really upset, really angry with me when I was close to win in those sets.”

Thiem has had an exhausting run since his maiden major triumph at the US Open and was clearly feeling the effects of the previous five sets against Hugo Gaston in the last round.

“I gave everything what I had out there,” Thiem said.

“It was an amazing match. Diego fully deserves it. He was probably a little bit fresher than me in the fifth set, so that’s why he won.”

Thiem used up every ounce of energy he had to chase down a second tie-break and move to 5-1 in front before stealing the third set with a smash volley after a series of extraordinary groundstrokes.

The two entered another deserved tiebreak in the fourth frame and Schwartzman clawed back from 3-1 down to edge ahead at 6-5 and forced a winner-takes-all decider.

Thiem’s tank emptied as the fifth hour of the match ticked over and he handed Schwartzman the match at 5-2 when he dumped two successive backhand returns into the net.

Nadia Podoroska had set up a historic day for Argentina in Paris earlier on Tuesday when the qualifier eliminated third seed Elina Svitolina, stunning the Ukrainian 6-2, 6-4.

Podoroska, who is ranked 131st in the world, had never played the French Open main draw or a top-10 player before.

The 23-year-old’s victory made history as she becomes the first female qualifier to make the semifinals.

“For me it’s very special because in all South America we don’t have too many tournaments,” Podoroska said.

She goes on to face another unseeded player in Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who knocked out top seed Simona Halep, after the 19-year-old beat another qualifier in Italian Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1.