Novak Djokovic inflicted Rafael Nadal his second-ever Roland Garros defeat on Wednesday at the quarterfinal stage of the 2015 French Open, winning 7-5, 6-3, 6-1, ending the Spaniard’s 39-match winning run. His straight sets victory over the 9-time champion means The Serbian keeps his dream of winning an elusive Roland Garros crown alive.
Djokovic is bidding to become only the eighth man in history to win all four Grand-Slam titles. In all of their six previous meetings in Roland Garros Nadal was victorious against Djokovic, including beating him in the 2012 and 2014 final as well as an epic 2013 semi-final match.
In their most recent meeting on clay in Rome, Djokovic dominated baseline rallies by pummeling Nadal’s forehand with backhand approaches, something which the Serbian employed throughout the 2-and-a-half hour match on Philippe Chatrier.
In what was the 44th meeting between the pair, Djokovic started the match in blistering form, capturing eight of the first nine points to steal the first break of serve early on. The World #1 raced out to a 4-0 lead, but Nadal refused to let him run away with the set, breaking back in the following game.
Refusing to be bullied by his top seeded opponent Nadal fought back in the first set, winning 4 games in a row. Despite the Spaniard’s shaky start to the match, great champions often adapt to conditions and find ways to change the momentum. Nadal managed to save 2 set points and level the set at 5 all in the 10th game, which lasted a grueling 9 minutes.
Nadal saw off another pair of set points serving to stay in the set for the second time; however, Djokovic took his third chance in the game taking the epic opening set in 67 minutes.
In this rivaly the winner of the first set has gone on to claim 11 of the last 13 meetings. Djokovic claimed 77% first serve points won and a total 19 winners in the first set.
Both players held their nerve throughout the start of the second set whilst delighting fans on a gorgeous sunny afternoon in Paris. Some excellent play from Djokovic saw him put more pressure on the Nadal serve and suddenly grabbed his chance, breaking for 5-3. Djokovic showed his winning mentality and easily closed out the second set 6-3.
The telling statistic throughout the second set was the Spaniard’s first serve percentage, winning only 43% on his first serve. The top seed was dominant on his own serve in the second set, claiming 16 of 18 straight service points.
With Djokovic flying high on a 2 sets to 0 lead, something which no one had ever previously achieved at Roland Garros against Nadal before, the momentum was firmly with the man who has been taking no prisoners on his way to claiming his missing Grand-Slam title in the French capital.
Much like the first set Djokovic raced out to an early 4-0 lead in the third, however unlike the first set he did not let Nadal back in. Djokovic remained impressive on serve to win 5 games in a row. Nadal got his only glimpse of hope in the 6th game of the set, eventually holding to force the Serbian to serve it out, taking the set 6-1.
It was Djokovic’s first victory over Nadal at a Grand Slam championship since their famous 2012 Australian Open final contest. The Serb’s straight-sets thrashing of Nadal earned him a semifinal clash against either Andy Murray or David Ferrer for a place in his second consecutive French Open final. Djokovic is a combined 11-0 against the two of them since the start of 2014, making it very likely that we will see the Serbian competing on Sunday.
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