On June 11, at 18-30 Moscow time, Djokovic will fight Nadal in the semifinals of Roland Garros. Will Novak be able to stop the "king of the ground"? Bookmakers do not believe in the Serb, and they expect a confident victory from Raphael.
Novak Djokovic
Djokovic is the world number one. In the current season, he won only one clay tournament, and even that very modest one - in Belgrade-2. At Roland Garros, Novak easily defeated Sandgren, Cuevas and Berankis, but in the 4th round he unexpectedly lost two opening sets to the young Italian Musetti. The intrigue, however, quickly died, because after that the Serb gave only two games: 6-7, 6-7, 6-2, 6-0, 4-0, refusal. In the 1/4 final, Djokovic faced Berrettini: 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5. The match was not easy for Novak, although he did not lose a single game on his serve.
Rafael Nadal
Nadal is ranked 3rd in the ATP rankings. In the current season, he won two clay tournaments (Barcelona and the "Masters in Rome"), and at Roland Garros he started with 4 confident wins in three sets. The opponents were Popyrin, Gasquet, Norrie and Sinner. In the 1/4 final, the Spaniard defeated Schwartzman, but unexpectedly lost the second set. Interestingly, after that, Rafa played flawlessly in the games on his serve: 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Personal meeting statistics
The score in personal meetings: 29-28 in favor of Djokovic. But at Roland Garros, Nadal has a clear advantage: 7-1. This year, the guys met in the final of the "Masters" in Rome, and the Spaniard was stronger: 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
Interesting facts:
- Nadal is a 13-time winner of Roland Garros.
- Djokovic is the 2016 Roland Garros champion.
- Rafa has not lost at Roland Garros since 2015 – 35 matches in a row.
- At Roland Garros, the Spaniard won 36 sets out of the last 37.
- The Spaniard has won 17 of his last 18 matches, while the Serb has won 13 of his last 14.
- For the second season in a row, Schwartzman reaches the semi-finals of Roland Garros.
Forecast from LiveResult.ru
This match is more expected than the final. Novak is in good shape, but this is not enough to beat Nadal in a 5-set match. The Spaniard is very tough, he can give up slack, he can make a number of mistakes and fail a set with a bang, but then he will turn on, get angry in a sporting way, and then he will not seem enough to any opponent. All this means that if the Serbian manages to impose the fight on Rafa, he still won't win more than one set, which means that the "king of the ground" can be safely taken with a small minus handicap.
Novak Djokovic
Matteo Berrettini
Ricardas Berankis
Pablo Cuevas
Tennys Sandgren
Alex Molcan
Federico Coria
Mats Moraing
Rafael Nadal
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Aslan Karatsev
Soon Woo Kwon
Daniel Evans
Richard Gasquet
Alexei Popyrin
Denis Shapovalov
Kei Nishikori
Ilya Ivashka
Grigor Dimitrov
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
