Back to his brilliant best, Rafael Nadal dispatched Diego Schwartzman in their two-day showdown to book his place in the Roland-Garros semi-finals for the 11th time.
Schwartzman caused a shock on Wednesday when he did the almost-impossible – taking a set off Nadal at the French Open. It was the first time in 37 sets that the Spaniard had lost a set at Roland-Garros.
The issue for Nadal was that he couldn’t hold serve; he was broken three times by the Argentinian.
The second set wasn’t much different than the first. Schwartzman got the advantage in the third game by breaking Nadal for the fourth time in the match, but he handed that break right back.
The exact same thing happened in the fifth and sixth games as neither player could drive his advantage home.
Then the rain came down.
After the break, Nadal came out firing, holding serve in the seventh and breaking Schwartzman for a third time in the set before play was suspended for the day.
It took Nadal almost no time to wrap up the second set when play got under way on Thursday.
Nadal looked to be back to his best by breaking Schwartzman in the very first game of the third and holding to love on his own serve to take a 2-0 lead.
Nadal’s struggles on his own serve looked to have been a thing of the past as Schwartzman struggled to win a point.
In the fifth game, Nadal broke the Argentinian again to extend his lead to 4-1. Nadal had to save four break points while serving for the set, but he eventually took it 6-2 for a 2-1 lead.
Schwartzman played better in the fourth, but Nadal was dialled in, pummelling returns to break at love in the third game and once more in the fifth.
A match point came and went at 5-1 as Nadal picked up the intensity with the finish line in sight, but Schwartzman rose to the task, even bringing up a break point of his own as the Spaniard served for the match at 5-2.
The crowd chanted ‘Diego’ in tribute to his spirited resistance, but Nadal finally won the fourth set to book his place in the Roland-Garros semi-finals for an 11th time with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Nadal will face Juan Martin del Potro for a place in the final after the Argentinian overcame Marin Cilic 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 to reach his first French Open semi-final in nine years.
This is what Nadal had to say after the match:
