Nadal, Djokovic set up showdown for French Open title

Rafael Nadal, practicing at Indian Wells last year, will play for
his 13th French Open crown. Photo copyright by Harjanto Sumali

   Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal struggled to put away gritty opponents today but survived to set up a dream French Open final.

   The top-ranked Djokovic had the tougher battle, subduing fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1 in 3 hours, 54 minutes in Paris.

   Djokovic, who held a match point serving at 5-4 in the third set, improved to 37-1 (including his U.S. Open default) this year. He reached the French Open final for the first time since completing a career Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2016 and the fifth time overall.

   "Novak showed once again what an incredible athlete he is and his ability on the courts," Tsitsipas, 22, said on atptennis.com. "It was difficult, for sure, playing him. He is one of the most difficult opponents I've faced in my entire life. I have huge respect for that. He gave me a really difficult time on the court.

   "Unfortunately, toward to end of the match, an injury that I had during my match in Rome came back. It was difficult to close the match in a fighting way, in a fighting spirit. But I tried my best despite all of this. I'm happy that I came back from two-sets-to-love down and tried to stay in the match as long as possible."

   Nadal, ranked second, eliminated 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (0) in 3 hours, 9 minutes after leading 3-1 in the third set.

   Schwartzman was coming off a 5-hour, 8-minute victory over third-seeded Dominic Thiem, who won his first Grand Slam title in the U.S. Open last month.

   The 28-year-old Schwartzman, who's listed at 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), will crack the top 10 for the first time on Monday, rising six places to No. 8.

   Nadal improved to 10-1 against Schwartzman, who shocked the Spanish star 6-2, 7-5 three weeks ago in the Italian Open quarterfinals. 

   Djokovic, 33, and Nadal, 34, will meet for the 56th time on Sunday at 6 a.m. PDT (NBC). Either Nadal will tie 39-year-old Roger Federer's men's record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, or Djokovic will pull within one of Nadal.

Novak Djokovic, practicing at Indian Wells last year, is one
of two players to beat Rafael Nadal in the French Open.
Photo copyright by Harjanto Sumali

   Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 29-26, but Nadal owns advantages of 17-7 on clay (8-7 in the last 15 encounters), 6-1 in the French Open and 2-0 in Roland Garros finals (both in four sets). Djokovic and Robin Soderling are the only players to beat Nadal in the French Open.

   Most notably, Nadal has won 12 French Open singles titles, including the last three, to Djokovic's one. 

   "To play against Novak, I need to play my best," said Nadal, who has not lost a set in the tournament. "Without playing my best tennis the situation is very difficult. I know this is a court that I have been playing well on for such a long time, so that helps. At the same time, he has an amazing record here, too, being in the final rounds almost every single time. 

   "He is one of the toughest opponents possible. But I am here to keep trying my best. I like to play in this scenario. I know I have to make a step forward. I think I did one today. But for Sunday, it is not enough. I need to make another one. That's what I'm looking for. I am going to work hard to try to make that happen."

   Djokovic acknowledged that Nadal "has lost twice in his entire career on this court. Obviously, the conditions are different than the ones that we are used to playing in May and June. That could be better for me, obviously the ball not bouncing as high over the shoulder as he likes it usually.

   "Regardless of the conditions, he's still there, he's Rafa, he's in the final, and we're playing on clay. Best-of-five playing him in the final at Roland Garros, I know that feeling."

   Women's final — Fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, 21, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., and unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland will meet for the first time as professionals on Saturday at 6 a.m. PDT (NBC).

   Kenin, who won her first Grand Slam title in the Australian Open early this year, and Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, took contrasting routes to the final. 

   Four of Kenin's six matches have gone to three sets. Swiatek, meanwhile, has not lost more than five games in a match, including a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of top seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep in the fourth round. 

   Swiatek defeated Kenin, who was born in Moscow and moved to the United States as a young child, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round of the French Open girls event in 2016. Kenin proceeded to win Northern California Challengers in Sacramento that year at 17, Stockton in 2017 and Berkeley in 2018.

Qualifier makes history; Diego downs Domi in marathon

Elina Svitolina, playing in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford,
lost to qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open quarterfinals.
Photo by Mal Taam 

   Both No. 3 seeds lost to Argentines today in the French Open, but one of the results was much more surprising.

   Nadia Podoroska shocked Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 in Paris to become the first female qualifier ever to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros and the first to do so in any Grand Slam tournament since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999.

   Entering the fortnight, Podoroska, 23, was 0-1 in the main draw of majors, having qualified for the 2016 U.S. Open. A right wrist injury sidelined her for eight months beginning in July 2017. 

  "I worked a lot with my coach during the quarantine to improve in various aspects of the game, and I understand that thanks to all that work, I was able to get here," Podoroska, who has won 13 consecutive matches and 18 of her last 19 (including two minor-league tournaments), said in an on-court interview. "I trained a lot in my shots — my forehand, backhand, the serve. But what I improve most, I think it was my mentality."   

   In the next match on Court Philippe Chatrier, 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman topped Dominic Thiem, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in the last two French Opens, 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in 5 hours, 8 minutes to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.

   Schwartzman, only 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), twice was two points from losing in the fourth set. He will debut in the top 10 after the French Open, rising from No. 14 to at least No. 8.

   Thiem, 27, battled physical and mental fatigue after outlasting French wild card Hugo Gaston in five sets in the previous round and winning his first Grand Slam title in the recent U.S. Open.

   Schwartzman, 28, will take on the second-seeded Nadal, pursuing his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, on Friday.

   Nadal, 34, beat unseeded Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1 in a match that ended Wednesday at 1:25 a.m. Paris time. Sinner, who advanced to the second round of last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger one week after winning the Lexington (Ky.) Challenger, served for the first set at 6-5.

   Nadal, who has not lost a set at Roland Garros this year, fell to Schwartzman for the first time in 10 career meetings two weeks ago in the Italian Open.

   Podoroska, who will soar from No. 131 to a career high of at least No. 48, will face unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland for the first time on Thursday. 

   Swiatek, coming off a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of top seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep, outclassed qualifier Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander from Italy, 6-3, 6-1 in 78 minutes. 

   Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, has not lost more than four games in a set or more than five games in a match in the tournament. She joined Jadwiga Jedrzejowska in 1939 as the only Polish women to reach the French Open semifinals and will jump from No. 54 to a career high of at least No. 33.

   In a fourth-round match postponed one day by rain, unseeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., outlasted 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls singles champion, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. 

   Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural (2018) Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., will play fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion from Pembroke Pines, Fla. 

   Collins has never dropped a set in three career matches against Kenin, who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at 17, 2017 and 2018.

   Neither defending champion Ashleigh Barty (coronavirus concerns) nor U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka (hamstring injury) entered the French Open. Serena Williams, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, withdrew before her second-round match with an Achilles tendon problem.

   In the first round of boys doubles, unseeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman, and Felix Gill of Great Britain beat top-seeded Arthur Cazaux and Harold Mayot of France by walkover.

Djokovic breaks record; Halep breaks through

Novak Djokovic won the Italian Open for his 36th Masters 1000 title, breaking
the record he had shared with Rafael Nadal. 2017 photo by Mal Taam

   The temper is still there, but so is the phenomenal game.

   In his first tournament since being defaulted from the U.S. Open, top-ranked Novak Djokovic defeated eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 today for his fifth Italian Open title in Rome.

   Top-seeded Simona Halep won the women's title for the first time, beating second-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 2-1, retired (left thigh) in a matchup of 28-year-olds and former world No. 1s.

   Djokovic, who received warnings for smashing a racket in anger in the quarterfinals and uttering an obscenity in the semifinals, won his 36th Masters 1000 (the highest level besides the Grand Slams) crown to break a tie with Rafael Nadal for the record.

   The 33-year-old Djokovic, the only player to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments at least twice and the oldest player to win the Italian Open, passed his idol, Pete Sampras, with 287 weeks at No. 1 for second behind Roger Federer's 310.  

   Djokovic lost only one set in his five matches in Rome but was extended to a tiebreaker in the third round and lost the first three games (two service breaks) against Schwartzman.

   "It was a great week, a very challenging week," Djokovic, who improved to 31-1 this year, said in an on-court interview. "I don't think I played my best tennis throughout the entire week, but I think I found my best tennis when I needed it the most, the decisive moments today, yesterday, practically every match. That makes me definitely very satisfied and proud."

   Djokovic now turns his attention to the French Open, which begins Sunday. A four-time finalist at Roland Garros, he won the 2016 title to complete a career Grand Slam.

   Schwartzman, only 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), rose two spots to No. 13, two short of his career high in June 2018. The 28-year-old Argentine beat Nadal, a nine-time Italian Open champion, for the first time in 10 matches in the quarterfinals and edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in 3 hours, 15 minutes in the semifinals.

   Halep recorded her 14th consecutive victory and 19th in her last 20 matches. The Rome runner-up in 2017 and 2018, she lost her opening match there last year to Marketa Vondrousova, who was 19 at the time.

   "I've finally won it," Halep, who will turn 29 on Sunday, gushed in an on-court interview. "I love this tournament, and I play well here almost every year – besides last year, of course.

   "I started my rise up the rankings at this tournament in 2013, so I've always dreamed of having this title. I'm really happy that it happened today."

   Halep has reached three French Open finals, winning the first of her two Grand Slam titles in 2018. Pliskova, the runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, said she hopes to be ready for Roland Garros.

   WTA Tour — Japan's Nao Hibino, who won the inaugural Stockton (Calif.) Challenger in 2015 at 20, beat eighth-seeded Sloane Stephens, a 27-year-old Fresno product, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg. 

   Stephens, the runner-up to Halep in the 2018 French Open, has lost in the opening round of eight of her 10 tournaments this year.

Diego digs deep to reach first Masters 1000 final

   It would have been easy for Diego Schwartzman to suffer a letdown after shocking Rafael Nadal on Saturday.

   Instead, the 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 141-pound (64-kilogram) Argentine gutted out a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) victory over Denis Shapovalov of Canada today in the semifinals of the Italian Open in Rome.

   Shapovalov, seeded 12th, served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, which lasted 1 hour, 27 minutes. Schwartzman, seeded eighth, ultimately prevailed in 3 hours, 15 minutes to reach his first Masters 1000 (the highest level besides the Grand Slams) final. 

   Schwartzman, ranked 15th, is scheduled to face top-ranked Novak Djokovic on Monday not before 8 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel). If the 28-year-old Schwartzman wins, he will crack the top 10 for the first time. If he loses, the 14th-ranked Shapovalov, 21, will do the same.

   "I have two dreams tomorrow," Schwartzman said on atptour.com. "One is winning a tournament like this, and the second one is (being in the) top 10. I need to play more than my 100 percent. I don't want to say (it will be) impossible, because it's not. I know I can beat him, but it's going to be very difficult."

   Djokovic, who won the last of his four Italian Open titles in 2015, beat unseeded Casper Ruud, a semifinalist in the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger in 2018 at 19, 7-5, 6-3 to improve to 30-1 this year. 

   Djokovic, 33, advanced to his 10th Italian Open final. He is 4-0 against Schwartzman, including a 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3 win in the Rome semifinals last year. 

   Top-seeded Simona Halep is set to play second seed and defending champion Karolina Pliskova in the women's final at 5:30 a.m. PDT in a showdown of 28-year-olds and former world No. 1s.

   Halep, the Rome runner-up in 2017 and 2018, outlasted ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 for her 13th consecutive victory and 18th in her last 19 matches. Both players have been ranked No. 1 and won two Grand Slam singles titles, coming at the French Open and Wimbledon.

   Pliskova, the runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, outplayed 12th-seeded Marketa Vondrousova, a finalist in last year's French Open at 19, 6-2, 6-4 in an all-Czech affair. Vondrousova, a left-hander, had left-wrist surgery last summer and sat out for the rest of the year. 

   The second-ranked Halep, who will turn 29 on Sunday, is 7-4 against Pliskova, ranked fourth, but Pliskova has won three of the last four encounters. They have split two clay-court matches, including Halep's 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win in the semifinals of the 2017 French Open.   

   In today's men's doubles final, fourth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina edged unseeded Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-4, 5-7 [10-8] for their third title of the coronavirus-shortened season.

   Granollers, the singles runner-up in the $100,000 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger in 2018, won his second Italian Open title in his fourth Rome final. He took the 2012 crown with compatriot Marc Lopez.

   Top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic claimed the women's doubles title, dominating unseeded Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany and Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2, 6-2. Hsieh and Strycova improved to 21-1 this year with four titles.

Schwartzman shocks Nadal; Italian has Ruud awakening

Rafael Nadal lost to Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 7-5 today in the Italian Open
quarterfinals in Rome. Nadal, who was seeking his third straight title in the
tournament and 10th overall, had been 9-0 against the diminutive Schwartz-
man. File photo by Mal Taam

   Raise your hand if you saw this one coming.

   In a monumental upset, eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina defeated second-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-2, 7-5 today to reach the Italian Open semifinals in Rome for the second consecutive year.

   They are the only two semifinal appearances in a Masters 1000 tournament, the highest level besides the Grand Slams, in the 28-year-old Schwartzman's career.

   Nadal has won nine Italian Open titles, including the last two, and had been 9-0 against the 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 141-pound (64-kilogram) Schwartzman.

   Today's second set featured five consecutive service breaks until Schwartzman held serve for the match on his second attempt.

   "For sure, it's my best match ever," Schwartzman said on atptour.com. "I played a few times against the three big champions in tennis. I never beat them until today. I'm very happy."

    The second-ranked Nadal, 34, was playing in his first tournament since winning Acapulco for the third time in February. He chose not to play in the U.S. Open because of coronavirus concerns.

   The 15th-ranked Schwartzman is scheduled to play 14th-ranked Denis Shapovalov of Canada for the first time on Sunday not before 10 a.m. PDT (Tennis Channel).

   Shapovalov, a 21-year-old left-hander seeded 12th, beat 15th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in the Battle of (One-Handed) Backhands. Shapovalov reached his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal in the recent U.S. Open.

   Meanwhile, both No. 4 seeds lost to 21-year-olds in contrasting fashion.

   Unseeded Casper Ruud of Norway edged Matteo Berrettini, the last remaining Italian, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in 2 hours, 57 minutes in Rome to reach his first Masters 1000 semifinal.

   On the women's side, 12th-seeded Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic dismissed Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, the 2017 and 2018 Italian Open champion, 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour, 20 minutes.

   Ruud, a semifinalist in the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger in 2018 at 19, improved to 12-2 on clay this year. He reached two finals in three tournaments on the South American swing in February, winning his first ATP title in Buenos Aires and finishing as the runner-up in Santiago.

   Ranked a career-high No. 34, Ruud has surpassed his father Christian, who peaked at No. 39 in 1995.

   Berrettini, a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, was attempting to become only the second Italian to reach the Rome semifinals since 2000. Filippo Volandri advanced to the semis in 2007.

   Ruud is set to take on top-ranked Novak Djokovic for the first time on Sunday not before 5 a.m. PDT. Djokovic, who won the last of his four Italian Open titles in 2015, topped German qualifier Dominik Koepfer, the runner-up in the $81,240 Aptos, Calif., Challenger last year, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to improve to 29-1 this year.

   Djokovic, who was defaulted from his fourth-round match in the U.S. Open, smashed his racket on the clay court after he was broken at love to even the second set at 3-3.

   "It's not the first nor the last racket that I'll break in my career," Djokovic, who received a warning from the chair umpire, told reporters. "I've done it before, and I'll probably do it again. I don't want to do it, but when it comes, it happens. 

   "That's how, I guess, I release sometimes my anger, and it's definitely not the best message out there, especially for the young tennis players looking at me, and I don't encourage that — definitely."

   Before the Italian Open, the left-handed Vondrousova had only two wins in seven tournaments since reaching the Adelaide quarterfinals in January in her first event of the year. She advanced to last year's French Open final, losing to Ashleigh Barty. After falling in the first round at Wimbledon three weeks later, Vondrousova underwent left-wrist surgery and missed the last half of 2019.

   Vondrousova, ranked No. 19, is set to face fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova, the second seed and defending champion, on Sunday not before 7 a.m. Pliskova, a former world No. 1 and the runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, outplayed 11th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

  Pliskova defeated Vondrousova 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of last year's Miami Open on a hardcourt in their only previous meeting.

   In Sunday's other women's semifinal, top-seeded Simona Halep is scheduled to meet ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza at 3 a.m.

   Halep, the Rome runner-up in 2017 and 2018, beat unseeded Yulia Putintseva, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist, 6-2, 2-0 (retired, lower back) for her 12th consecutive victory and 17th in her last 18 matches.

   Muguruza outlasted unseeded Victoria Azarenka, the U.S. Open runner-up to Naomi Osaka, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a matchup of two-time Grand Slam singles champions and former world No. 1s.

   Both Muguruza and Azarenka won doubles titles in the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic, and Azarenka won the singles crown at Stanford 10 years ago.

   Muguruza is 4-2 against Halep, but the Romanian has won both clay-court clashes. The players have much in common, although the 6-foot (1.82-meter) Muguruza is six inches (15.2 centimeters) taller. Halep also has been ranked No. 1 and won two majors, the same ones as Muguruza (the French Open and Wimbledon).