The latest chapter in the long-standing rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will see the two tennis warriors fight it out for a place in the semi-finals of the French Open on Tuesday morning (AEST).
While the ‘Djoker’ marched into the last eight without dropping a set, Nadal was forced to dig deep, contesting just his third five-set match at Roland Garros after being taken to the distance by Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The Spaniard dropped his first set for the tournament when Auger-Aliassime broke early in the opening set, with the Canadian holding his advantage to the end to claim it 6-3.
But in typical Nadal fashion, the ‘King of Clay’ stormed back into the contest, taking the next two sets to appear headed for a regulation victory.
But the ninth seed won the fourth set by the same scoreline he won the first, 6-3, to force Nadal into a one-set shootout at Roland Garros for just the third time, and first since 2013.
At this point, Nadal’s experience helped him win the final set, ensuring he recorded the 22nd five-set victory of his grand slam career against 12 losses.
Auger-Aliassime joined John Isner (who in 2011 held a two-sets-to-one lead on the Spaniard in the first round) and Novak Djokovic (who lost their semi-final thriller by 9-7 in the final set in 2013) as the only players to stretch the ‘King of Clay’ at his Paris kingdom.
(Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Nadal’s battle was in contrast to Djokovic’s, who dropped only seven games in a straight-sets thrashing of Diego Schwartzman as he continues his bid to become the first man to complete a triple career grand slam.
All is now set for the 59th instalment of the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry, which stretches all the way back to their first meeting at Roland Garros in 2006, at which point the two men had a combined age of 39 and a combined major haul of one (Nadal’s 2005 French Open title).
Sixteen years on, the pair will meet on the red clay courts of Paris for a tenth time, with the combined age of the two men now being 70 (though Nadal turns 36 this Friday) and a combined major haul of 41 (Nadal’s 21 to Djokovic’s 20).
It will be the first time any two players face each other ten times at a single tournament.
While the two tennis greats clash in one top half quarter-final, the other will see Alexander Zverev face off against teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz.
Third seed Zverev put an end to the run of Spanish qualifier Bernabe Zapata Miralles with a straight-sets win, though the German was stretched in a first-set tiebreak that lasted 13-11.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz continued his impressive run through the draw with a straight-sets dismissal of Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov, the result seeing him through to his first quarter-final at Roland Garros, and second at a major.
(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
In contrast to the long-running Djokovic-Nadal rivalry, this will be the fourth meeting between Zverev and Alcaraz, with the younger Spaniard winning their most recent meeting in the final of the Madrid Masters earlier this month, and Zverev winning both encounters last year.
On the women’s side of things, Sloane Stephens and Coco Gauff set up an all-American quarter-final showdown after both registered thumping straight-set victories over Jil Teichmann and Elise Mertens, respectively.
Unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan advanced to her second French Open quarter-final after dispatching Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who had beaten Emma Raducanu and Angelique Kerber in earlier rounds, while Leylah Fernandez needed three sets to beat Amanda Anisimova.
Of the four women in the bottom half of the draw, only Stephens has reached the final at Roland Garros previously, when she lost to Simona Halep in 2018. She’s also one of only two to reach a major final, the other being Fernandez who reached the US Open final last September.
On Monday night (AEST), world number one Iga Swiatek will start a hot favourite to reach her third straight French Open quarter-final when she comes up against Zheng Qinwen, while Madison Keys is up against Veronika Kudermetova, who benefited from a third-round retirement by Paula Badosa.
In the men’s draw, Daniil Medvedev takes on former US Open champion Marin Cilic, and a win could see him set up a quarter-final clash with compatriot Andrey Rublev, who faces Jannik Sinner.
Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas is up against Holger Rune, and a win will see him face either Casper Ruud or Hubert Hurkacz as he closes in on potentially another semi-final showdown against Medvedev.