Final Four Set at the French Open
Shocking developments in Paris: Someone almost won a set against Rafael Nadal.
It took incredible serving from Nicolas Almagro (72% on first serves, three aces, no double faults, 58% of second-serve points won), lots of winners (17), loads of running and many long, long rallies. It was a lot of work — hard work, even grueling work and, as usual, thankless work, because it all went for naught. The final score was 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-3 for Nadal.
Nadal has returned to the French Open semifinals for the seventh time in his career, and he hasnt lost a set yet at Roland Garros. As superb as Almagro was, Nadal was better. More consistent. More powerful. More complete. Hes now 50-1 in his career here, with the lone loss coming in 2009 to Robin Soderling in the fourth round.
Im proud of what I did, Almagro said in Spanish. I fought against Rafa, but he played a perfect match. And he needed to be.
Indeed, everything seems to be working for Nadal. Hes serving well, not missing many backhands and hitting his usual barrage of forehand winners. His defense has been superb. Still, hes likely to face two of his toughest tests ever in Paris in the next two rounds: David Ferrer and perhaps Novak Djokovic in the final. Nadal last played Ferrer in Paris in 2005 and hasnt played Djokovic here.
Ferrer won the most entertaining match of the afternoon, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 over Andy Murray. He had never reached the semifinals in Paris despite a distinguished clay court career. Murray, a semifinalist last year, struggled with a bad back leading up to this tournament, and he berated himself throughout the match (much of it not fit for print). Ferrer can do that sort of thing to a player. He is, in a word, a pain. Relentless. Oppressive. Bothersome from start to finish. He broke Murrays serve 10 times in the match. I lost to a better clay‑court player than me tonight, Murray said.
The mens semifinals now include the best four clay-court players in the world: Nadal against Ferrer, and Djokovic against Roger Federer. Ferrer said an upset is possible. But if not, he and Nadal will remain friends.
It’s just a tennis match, he said in Spanish. We both want to win it, so I’m going to do everything I can. Then we can play with our PlayStations together, no problem.
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