Nadal to play for 11th title
Defeats del Potro in straight sets
PARIS — Under pressure atthe outset, Rafael Nadal already had cast aside three break points in his French Open semifinal’s third game when, at 4-4, Juan Martin del Potro held another three. If Nadal’s march toward an 11th championship at Roland Garros was going to be stopped on this day, things were going to have to go del Potro’s way right then. Both men knew that fullwell.
“That,” del Potro would say later, “was my chance.”
Ah, but there’s a reason Nadal is 11-0 in semifinals at the French Open, a reason he is 10-0 in finals there — so far. He doesn’t cede a thing and he doesn’t let up. Nadal saved that second trio of break points Friday, held there, then broke in the next game to grab that set. It was part of a run in which overwhelmed the No. 5-seeded del Potro 6-4, 61, 6-2 and earn yet another spot in the title match.
In the final Sunday, Nadal will face No. 7 Dominic Thiem, 24, from Austria, who is the only man to beat him on red clay the past two seasons.
“He’s a big favorite against everybody,” said Thiem, who reached his first Grand Slam final by ending the run of 72ndranked Marco Cecchinato of Italy, 7-5, 7-6 (10), 6-1. “Still, I know how to play against him. I have a plan.”
Surely, so did del Potro. That crucial early juncture altered the course of things, though.
What went through Nadal’s mind right then?
“Just thinking ... that I have to hold. ‘I can’t give him the game. If he wins the game, OK. But I will not give [it to] him,’” Nadal said.
Women
In the women’s final Saturday, top-seeded Romanian Simona Halep will face 10th-seeded American Sloane Stephens. Halep, who is 0-3 in major finals, has won five of their seven matches — including the past four.