Schwartzman leading Nadal as rain halts play
Tactical change helps Halep reach French Opens semis Muguruza rolls over Sharapova
Jewish Argentine Diego Schwartzman ended French Open favorite Rafael Nadal’s run of winning 37 consecutive completed sets at Roland Garros, taking the opening set of their quarterfinal match 6-4 on Wednesday.
Play was interrupted due to rain for a first time with defending champion and No. 1 Nadal trailing 11-seeded Schwartzman 2-3 in the second set on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Nadal broke back to take a 5-3 lead in the second set and was leading 30-15 on his attempt to serve out the set before a second spell of rain halted play for the evening.
Despite only standing 5-feet-7-inches (1.7 meters), the 25-year-old Schwartzman possesses a stinging forehand and used it aggressively to rock 16-time major winner Nadal.
He hit 20 winners as Nadal’s winning streak at Roland Garros, going back to his 2015 quarterfinal defeat by Novak Djokovic, was ended.
Nadal, 32, who spent almost three months out of the game after the 2016 French Open with a wrist injury, needed treatment on both of his wrists at the end of the first set.
The world No. 1 went a break down at 2-1 in the second set, only for Schwartzman to hand it straight back to love
But the inspired Argentine broke Nadal again to claim a 3-2 lead.
Then came the hour-long rain break, which disrupted Schwartzman’s momentum and allowed Nadal to regroup.
In Wednesday’s other men’s quarterfinal, on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro were level at 5-5 in a tight first set before play was suspended.
On the women’s side, top seed Simona Halep fought back to triumph in a bruising French Open quarterfinal against Germany’s Angelique Kerber and stand two wins away from her first Grand Slam title.
The Romanian, who lost in last year’s final at Roland Garros, defeated Kerber 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2 to book a clash with Garbine Muguruza in the last-four.
World No. 1 Halep made a slow start, misfiring on her first serve and spraying her groundstrokes wide early on in a duel that lasted more than two hours, before steadily wearing down her opponent.
“I rushed too much at the beginning,” Halep told a news conference. “It was tough because her ball is very low, and you don’t have many chances to finish the points from there.”
Going into the second set, Halep changed her tactics
“I didn’t play flat any more, more topspin, and I made her run a little bit more,” she said.
Halep, who has lost all three of her Grand Slam finals – including the Australian Open, to Caroline Wozniacki, in January – arrived in Paris on a hot streak, reaching at least the quarterfinals in her last nine clay-court tournaments and losing only one set on her way to facing Kerber in Paris.
But it was the German who started the stronger, out-hitting her rival with lethal accuracy, to win the first four games as Halep struggled to find her serving rhythm and peppered the lines with unforced errors.
Slowly the normally aggressive baseliner clawed her way back into the contest, winning three straight games as both players struggled to hold serve in a marathon opening set.
Kerber eventually prevailed in a tiebreak, but Halep came out all guns blazing in the second, firing baseline bullets at her opponent, who tried to cling on against the onslaught.
But by the third set Halep had broken the German’s defenses – and her resolve – as she banged in 76 percent of her first serves, with only half the unforced errors of her opponent.
“It’s tough against her. It shows me that I have enough patience, I have enough power inside to stay calm,” Halep said.
Halep’s win knocked Caroline Wozniacki out of the race to be No. 1 in next week’s rankings, and set up a winner-takes-all match against Spain’s Muguruza in Thursday’s semifinal.
A Grand Slam win in Paris would bring redemption for Halep, who lost in the 2017 French Open final against Jelena Ostapenko after leading by a set and three games.
Muguruza thrashed Maria Sharapova as a second top-of-the-bill showdown in three days failed to materialize.
Sharapova’s eagerly-awaited fourth-round clash with Serena Williams never even made it on court on Monday as her American nemesis pulled out an hour before the scheduled start with a pectoral injury.
This time the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd got a match, if not a contest, as Muguruza roared to a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
Sharapova, back at the clay-court slam for the first time since 2015 following a doping-ban, walked on court with two French Open crowns to Muguruza’s one and a 3-0 head-to-head record against the reigning Wimbledon champion.
An hour and 10 minutes later the 31-yearold was walking off after her worst French Open spanking since she managed only two games against Dominika Cibulkova at the same stage in 2009.
“I just didn’t feel free, and I felt there was a lot of force behind all the shots and that it wasn’t coming natural to me – didn’t have the rhythm,” five-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova told reporters.
There was no great show of elation from Muguruza at the end. She clearly still has business to attend to as she eyes a follow-up to her 2016 title on the Parisian clay.
“I think I had a good performance today, a very serious, solid match. I’m happy with that,” the 24-year-old said.
“Four years ago my experience was different. I think I’ve developed a lot as a tennis player.”
Muguruza is yet to drop a set in the tournament but she is expecting a tougher test against last year’s runner-up Halep on Thursday.
“I think she’s right now probably the best player. Well, she’s No. 1,” she said. “I’m excited to play a good semifinals and it’s good that it’s tomorrow.” (Reuters) On TV: French Open late-round action (live on Eurosport from 4 p.m. and Eurosport 2 from 5:45 p.m.)