Tennis-Merciless Nadal marches into French Open quarter-finals
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[June 08, 2021]
By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) -Claycourt king Rafael
Nadal overcame a wobbly start and issues with the stadium lights to
subdue Italian teenager Jannik Sinner 7-5 6-3 6-0 on Monday and book
a place in the French Open quarter-finals.
The Spanish defending champion, looking to claim a record-extending
14th Roland Garros singles title and become the only man to win 21
Grand Slam singles crowns, has won 35 consecutive sets in Paris.
World number 19 Sinner, who at 19 years old has been labelled as the
next big thing in tennis, hit a brick wall on court Philippe
Chatrier after leading 5-3 in the opening set.
Third seed Nadal will face Diego Schwartzman for a place in the
semi-finals after beating the Argentine in the last four last year.
Although the sun shone throughout, part of the match was played
under the floodlights.
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"I think the lights went on too early. The court is covered from one
side. When the sun was lower and hit the light, it created shadow on
the court. It was tricky," Nadal told a news conference.
"Honestly, I don't know why they put on the lights that early. We
have been playing without lights here in Roland Garros forever."
The 20-times Grand Slam champion still produced his best tennis when
it mattered most.
"I played against a very good player who has a great future and I'm
very happy with the win," Nadal said.
"I started playing well the first couple of games and then I played
too defensive for a few games and gave him the chance to step into
the court and play his shots. After that the match changed a lot."
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![](../images/060821PICS/merciless%20nadal_small.jpg)
Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates winning
his fourth round match against Italy's Jannik Sinner
REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
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Facing the ultimate challenge on clay,
Sinner struggled to get into the groove before cancelling out an
early break as Nadal experienced problems with his first serve.
Sinner, who lost to the claycourt master in the quarter-finals here
last year, found himself up a break after two Nadal double faults
and a few uncharacteristic errors.
Serving for the set, however, Sinner lost the game to love and Nadal
levelled at 5-5 on his opponent's 25th unforced error before
breaking to love again to seal the opening set.
After losing eight games in a row, Sinner stopped the rot with a
break, clinching it after rushing to the net to retrieve a drop shot
and delivering a stunning crosscourt passing shot.
Nadal quickly recovered to break again, however, and he served out
to take a two-set lead before securing his 104th match win at Roland
Garros.
The Spaniard has not lost at the Paris Grand Slam tournament since
2015 when he was knocked out in the last eight by Novak Djokovic,
his potential semi-final opponent.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)
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