Advantage Nadal, storms into 14th French Open final after Zverev is exhausted

Paris: Rafael Nadal reached the final of Roland-Garros for a record 14th time after third seed Alexander Zverev suffered a very deep ankle injury in the second set, here on Friday.
The World No. 5 was leading 7-6(8), 6-6, having forced another tiebreak but in losing the point, Zverev rolled his ankle and had to be wheeled off the court.
Zverev returned a few minutes later, but gave up and Nadal stormed into the final after a turbulent three-hour 12-minute strife in which he saved four set points in the opener and came from 2-4 down in the second.
Nadal will play the winner of the second semifinal between eighth seed Casper Ruud of Norway and former US Open champion Marin Cilic.
Nadal knew it was unlikely to be an easy faceoff with the World No.3, especially after coming into the match, having won an emotionally surcharged and exhausting battle against World No.1 Novak Djokovic.
The stats also weighed in favour of Zverev who had won 6-3 in the previous meetings. And exactly things unfolded as Zverev broke the Nadal serve in the opening game.
Nadal found it hard to get heavy topspin to send the ball high, but much to his disappointment it fell into the hitting zone of Zverev, thanks to the closed roof due to rain.
Not only that, the German was serving astonishingly well, bottling up Nadal and stepping up gas by firing winners on both sides. He moved ahead to 4-2 but Nadal broke back for 4-4 as Zverev faltered, a double fault when he was going for a big second serve betraying his nerves.
At 5-4, Nadal had three set points but Zverev saved them courageously, keeping up the attack. The two men then held to force a tiebreak and Zverev surged clear, giving himself four set points at 6-2.
It was then that the Nadal of the previous round, when he downed Djokovic in a four-hour plus epic, awoke. Zverev missed a volley by an inch and Nadal produced two stunning passes and levelled at 6-6.
At 7-6, Nadal had a fourth set point but couldn’t take it. At 8-7 he had another but couldn’t take it. Finally, at 9-8, he came up with another brilliant forehand pass on the run to take it.
Zverev looked emotionally spent as he sat in his chair while Nadal left court for a change of clothes and when Nadal broke in the opening game of the second set, it felt like the match was virtually over.
Nadal tried to put his foot down, becoming more aggressive but was missing and Zverev broke back.
A 44-shot rally, which he won when Zverev missed a backhand, put Nadal ahead again but once more, he was broken as the set reached 2-2.
From then on, the second set became an odd affair, mistakes from both men with both struggling to hold serve, especially Nadal.
Zverev broke for 4-2 only to double fault and hand the break back. The German then broke Nadal for the fourth straight time to go up 5-3. But serving for the set, he began with a double fault and though he led 30-15, he hit two more double faults to let Nadal back in again.
Finally, Nadal held serve for the first time, lifting both his arms up above as he put a volley away to level at 5-5.
Nadal then found another brilliant forehand pass to go up 0-30 but Zverev held and it was then Nadal’s turn to hold, which he did, but as he clinched the game, it was the yell of Zverev which caught everybody’s attention.
The German could not put any weight on his right foot and left the court but inevitably, the match was over. He came back onto court on crutches and the match was done. (UNI)