Rafael Nadal is just one win away from a 22e Grand Slam record: the Spaniard qualified for the Roland-Garros final on Friday after a match cut short by an injury to the right ankle of Alexander Zverev, forced to retire before the tiebreaker of the second set .
Nadal, thirteen times winner on Parisian clay since 2005, will play his fourteenth final there on Sunday against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8e) or the Croatian Marin Cilic (23e), opposed in the second semi-final.
Zverev retired while trailing 7-6 (10/8), 6-6 after a tussle lasting more than three hours. He violently twisted his right ankle at the end of the race after his final strike and was evacuated from the court in a wheelchair, in tears, before returning, with crutches, to formalize his abandonment.
“It’s very hard, I’m very sad for him,” reacted Nadal. “He was playing an incredible tournament, I know how much he fights to win a Grand Slam. He was really unlucky, but I’m sure in the future he will win, and not one, but many more. »
“Of course to be in the final of Roland-Garros once again is a dream, but at the same time, that it ends like this, to see him cry in the locker room, it’s a very difficult moment”, he said. he adds.
Qualified for the final on his 36th birthday, “Rafa” thus becomes the second oldest Roland-Garros finalist in history, after American Bill Tilden, 37 in 1930.
Before Zverev’s injury, the two players were playing a marathon match: after just over three hours of play, they had not yet completed the second set. Each of the two sets lasted the time of a football match.
The Mallorcan left-hander pocketed the first in a very hard fight, after facing four set points in a row in the decisive game (from 6-2 to 6-6).
The 25-year-old German had the best start to the match with a break on the start and leading 4-2. But Nadal picked up, then got three first set points at 5 games to 4. In vain. The Spaniard ended up finishing on his sixth chance in the tiebreaker.
In the second set, Zverev was unable to finish when he served 5 games to 3 to tie at one set all.
“It was a super difficult match, we had been playing for 3 hours and we hadn’t even finished the second set,” said Nadal. “It’s one of the biggest challenges on the circuit today to face him when he’s playing at that level. »