It was an epic battle between two of the greatest tennis players of the modern era – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal – at the Roland Garros on Friday. Despite being the favourite, Nadal’s efforts went in vain as he emerged second-best and could not make the summit clash at the French Open.
After the loss, a heartbroken Nadal admitted that he gave in his best, but one has to accept that ‘sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.”
“But if you want to win, you can’t make these mistakes. So that’s it. Well done for him. [It was] a good fight out there. I tried my best, and today was not my day,” he said.
Nadal reckoned he had a chance when he had set point in the third set but squandered it. The Spaniard felt had that gone his way then things could have been different.
“I had a big chance with set point, 6-5, second serve [in the third set]. That’s it. Anything could happen in that moment,” Nadal said. “Then I made a double fault, [missed an] easy volley in the tie-break. But it’s true that [there were] crazy points out there. The fatigue is there, too. This kind of mistakes can happen.
Nadal being a true sportsman hailed Djokovic and admitted that he deserved to win.
“[It] doesn’t matter. That’s tennis,” Nadal said. “The player who gets used to the conditions better is the player who deserves to win. So no doubt he deserved to win,” he further added.
With the 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Nadal, the World No 1 has set up a date with Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas. The final would be played on Sunday.