Enlarge image
Novak Djokovic celebrates his semi-finals in Paris
Photo:
MARTIN BUREAU / AFP
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic made the dream semi-final at the French Open perfect.
Top favorite Nadal defeated the Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 0 in the quarter-finals.
World number one Djokovic defeated Italian Matteo Berrettini in the first Paris night session after some difficulties 6: 3, 6: 2, 6: 7 (5: 7), 7: 5.
Because of the impending start of the curfew in Paris, the game between Djokovic and Berrettini had to be interrupted for around 20 minutes. Shortly before 11 p.m., the spectators were asked to leave the stadium. The tennis fans acknowledged this with loud whistles and "We paid" chants. For Djokovic, the interruption after the lost third set came as it was called.
After the interruption, things continued unhappily for the Serb: After Berrettini caught him on the wrong foot, Djokovic slipped away and got a graze on his left hand.
The two-handed backhand injury seemed to bother him briefly, but then Djokovic fought his way back and prevented another tie-break with his third match point.
After winning the match, Djokovic literally freaked out, yelled several times in the direction of his box and hit his chest.
Duel of the Dominators
On Friday there will be the 58th duel between the two top players of the past few years.
Djokovic has recently won one more comparison.
In the final of the French Open last year, Nadal outclassed his arch rivals 6-0, 6-2, 7-5.
Also in the final of the Masters 1000 event in Rome, the 13-time Paris champion recently got the upper hand in three sets.
Against Schwartzman, Nadal showed at least one small weakness: After winning 36 sets in a row in the clay court classic, the Spaniard gave up one round again.
The other semifinals on Friday will be contested by Alexander Zverev and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Before that, the women's semi-finals are scheduled for Thursday.
There is also a debutante ball.
First, at 3 p.m., the Slovenian Tamara Zidansek meets the Russian Anastasia Pawljutschenkowa.
Then the Czech Barbora Krejcikova and the Greek Maria Sakkari play against each other (all games in the live ticker at SPIEGEL.de; TV: Eurosport).
hba / dpa
