Rafael Nadal is the King of Clay for a reason. On Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the 2022 French Open, he proved why. Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, beat his greatest rival, 2021 French Open champion and current world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 in a match that lasted four hours and 12 minutes.
Just how epic was this match? Well, it was the 59th time Djokovic and Nadal have faced each other head-to-head. Djokovic now has the 30-29 advantage after Tuesday. However at Roland Garros, Nadal has had the decisive advantage of eight wins and two losses.
On Tuesday, Nadal broke Djokovic seven times. Where Djokovic struggled was on his second serve percentage of which he only won 46% of his points. Nadal took control of the set early in the first, second and third sets. Djokovic came back to win the second set after losing the first three games in the set, but was beaten by Nadal in sets number three and four.
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In the fourth set, Djokovic was serving for the set, but was broken by Nadal. Then in the fifth set tiebreaker, Nadal took control by winning six of the first seven points, before beating Djokovic 7-4.
Nadal will next play Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev of Germany in the semifinals. Zverev came through with an impressive win of his own, as he beat rising Spanish star 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. It was a bounce back win for Zverev, who lost convincingly to Alcaraz 6-3, 6-1, in the final of the Madrid Open on May 8.
