The Roland Garros quarterfinals open for Rafa Nadal , after successfully closing his fourth mission in the Parisian tournament. One of the toughest obstacles on the circuit awaited the Manacorense, the emerging Jannik Sinner, whom he unhinged in a streaky match in which, although intermittently, Nadal dominated (7-5, 6-3, 6-0) with a great tennis that gives hope regarding the possibility of conquering his fourteenth Cup of the Musketeers.
Sinner reached the round of 16 firmly, after a sustazo in the first round against Herbert that was about to dismiss him from the tournament at the first change. The ice-cold Italian appeared for the second time in his prolific but meager career in the second week in Paris. In the previous one, in 2020, Nadal taught him in a game that at times had an enormous level. The duel of generations was repeated a round before, in the second round, in this 2021.
Nadal , clean on lost sets and feeling upbeat in his early Paris engagements, knew he would need one more march to defeat Sinner, and he activated it from the start. The first batch of serves was complete for the Spaniard, who, however, could not maintain the level in the following minutes. Jannik recovered his best version and turned the luminous one, from 2-0 to 2-4, which would be a 3-5 nothing positive for Rafa’s aspirations in the sleeve. And who knew then if in the party.
Nadal hits twice
However, Nadal had not lost the load to the game, and had an ace up his sleeve to stop Sinner’s progression. The combination of heights and rhythms, with the backhand cut as a changing element, caused the Italian to be forced to make decisions and analyze each shot differently from the previous one. He couldn’t handle such an exam. It was a game of streaks, of catching waves, and Rafa grabbed the first winner . The first set was his for 7-5.
Spurred on by proclaiming himself the winner of the first set’s chess match, Nadal reached tennis peak levels at the start of the second, in which Sinner isn’t that he couldn’t read his shots, but that he couldn’t even return them. Outstanding to the rest, Rafa broke Sinner’s serve up to two occasions to put a 4-0 that left the match virtually seen for sentence. The uphill was too steep, but young Jannik was not going to hesitate to make an attempt to climb it.
Focused despite the blows received by the best fighter on tennis clay, Sinner was confident in his chances and took advantage of Nadal’s relaxation on serve in the fifth game to snatch the set and lay the foundations for his comeback. The Italian also added his serve and was postulated as an alternative with a new break, in which Rafa , erratic at the service and with more double faults than desired, came to anger with himself.
Lunge, donut and victory
It was not easy to face the situation but, in order to take away the iron from the matter, it was just another ups and downs in a game in which he had signed up eight games in a row in the transfer from the first to the second set. The sixth break had to appear to make the dominance of the set good and said and done, Rafa activated his right again to put the tie and the seal on the part, with a reaction of a true champion.
The formula for the second set, in the beginning, had been more than positive in the form of a mattress to protect himself from later relaxations and Nadal , spurred on by a Sinner –now yes– stripped of all mental strength, was going to deliver the final blow to the meeting. Solving the problems at the service with blank games and with surgical precision on the break balls, the manacorense accompanied Sinner to the starting door , with a donut as a farewell gift in a new lesson from the honorary doctorate of Roland Garros.
