French Open Round up | Rafael Nadal to play Roger Federer in epic semi-final
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Both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer won their respective matches in the French Open to set up a mouth-watering semi-final against each other on Friday. Meanwhile, Johanna Konta got the better of Sloane Stephens while Markéta Vondroušová outplayed Croatia’s Petra Martić in straight sets.
Nadal was up against Japanese ace Kei Nishikori and the sail was as smooth as it could be. The Rolland Garros emperor won 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 in straight sets with the World No. 7 finding it very difficult to keep up.
Federer, on the other hand, had a tough nut to crack against compatriot Stan Wawrinka. The battle of the Swiss aces went on for four sets with Wawrinka winning the second set 6-4 after Federer took the first one 7-6 (4-7).
Following the recent trend, the World No.3 was going down as the game was going to stretch but Federer showed real grit and composure to come back and win the next two sets 7-6 (7-5) and 6-4. Nadal and Federer have played on clay 15 times with Nadal winning a massive 13 of those clashes. And the Spaniard won all their seven meetings in best of five set matches on clay at Roland Garros.
The upset of the day came in the women’s quarter-final match between Konta and Stephens when the American World No.7 lost 1-6, 4-6 to the British World No. 26. In other match Vondroušová got the better of Croatia’s Petra Martić 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 in straight sets.
