TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – When the French Open draw came out and it was projected that Rafael Nadal (1) and David Ferrer (5) could meet in the quarterfinals, the buzz was on for this matchup despite Nadal’s overwhelming success against Ferrer. Well Nadal in this instance, gave Ferrer a set and the possibility of taking another advantage only to comeback in crushing form to move into his 9th French Open semifinals, 4-6 6-4 6-0 6-1. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
When the French Open draw came out and it was projected that Rafael Nadal (1) and David Ferrer (5) could meet in the quarterfinals, the buzz was on for this matchup despite Nadal’s overwhelming success against Ferrer. However, Ferrer had recorded a rare clay court victory over Nadal in April at the Monte Carlo ATP Masters 1000 event so this accounted for the excitement. It was the first time in a decade that Ferrer had recorded a win on clay against his countryman. He also did so in straight sets. This matchup was also a repeat of last year’s final, which of course saw Nadal picking up his 8th French title. Nonetheless, despite all the hoopla and fanfare about this encounter, it was a complete letdown unless you are a Nadal fan. The match turned out to be something like the “Maria v Serena one-side rivalry matches”: Williams allows Sharapova a slight edge; game points and break points here and there, the rare service break and even rarer still, a set advantage and then unleashes on her a tennis fury so intense that even Williams’ fans are cheering for Sharapova. Well Nadal in this instance, gave Ferrer a set and the possibility of taking another advantage only to comeback in crushing form to move into his 9th French Open semifinals, 4-6 6-4 6-0 6-1.
Nadal won the toss and elected to receive. He won the first two points of the match and looked to be on the hunt for the early break. However, Ferrer went on to hold serve. He looked far more energetic on court than usual, which is saying a lot as the Spaniard is always alert. He was aggressive and attacking the Nadal backhand and soon had break points in the 4th game for a 3-1 lead. Nadal was not to be so easily broken as it would take 5 break points before Ferrer was able to convert. The world’s number 1 broke back immediately and held serve for 3-3. They remained on serve until the 10th game when Nadal was serving to stay in the set. Ferrer went all out and fought “tooth and nail” with Nadal for that game. He would not let any point go idly by as he extended the rallies and was coming out on top. Nadal himself looked winded but Ferrer remained springy. On set point, Ferrer would not stop running and putting the ball back into court. He refused to allow Nadal to boss around the point and with a clutch running forehand, Ferrer broke Nadal and won his first set against him at the French Open.
The tennis crowd was on fire and the tennis world came alive for it looked like Ferrer had figured out how to play successfully against Nadal. However, that all quickly dissipated as Ferrer was broken early in the 2nd set. Nadal would maintain this break advantage throughout the set and fend off three break points to take it 6-4. Considering all of Nadal’s achievements at the French Open, besides the fact that he rarely loses sets here, it should be noted that whenever he has lost the first set on those few occasions, he went on to win the match without dropping another. Perhaps Ferrer became aware of this statistic because him dropping the 2nd set, despite the match being even, proved to be too much of challenge for him to overcome: “Rafael started playing a lot better, making fewer mistakes, and then it’s like I threw in the towel. I don’t usually do this, but I thought, I’m not going to be able to come back into the match. I thought, No, no, not against Rafa. He’s such good a player.”
Ferrer more than threw in the towel; he threw in his spirit and any sense of knowing how to play tennis at all. Over the course of the next hour or so of the match, Ferrer would win one more game; 0-6 1-6. Going back to the 2nd set, he lost, 13 of the next 14 games. Truth be told, he almost lost 14 straight games but one suspects Nadal was showing rare mercy for his friend Ferrer, his fans and the flabbergasted crowd that he allowed himself to be broken in 4th game of the 4th set. Nadal had this to say of the end result: “[G]iven the last two sets, the third and the fourth set, it really shows that David didn’t really play well during these sets. The score shows that I played well, but also he made mistakes.” During this “Horrible Hour” when the last two sets were played, Ferrer had 9 winners and 28 errors. So erratic was Ferrer at this time that Nadal only needed to hit 8 winners and made 3 errors. In fact, those three errors came in the final set when he generously dropped serve. Ferrer mustered 9 points on his serve in those last two sets. Thus Nadal moved through to his 9th French Open semifinals in emphatic style.
In assessing the match, Nadal had this to say, “Well, I think at the beginning David was playing with a higher intensity than me. Is true that I started first two points playing well, but then I make a lot of mistakes with my backhand…I decide to go more inside to return in the second set, and I decided to play much more times with my forehand…And then after the second set, I don’t know, I think David play with more mistakes than usual, and I continue playing with my forehand…I was playing with no mistakes.” Nadal will take on in the semifinal another of his rivals Andy Murray (7) who beat Gael Monfils (23) in 5 sets 6-4 6-1 4-6 1-6 6-0 to the disappointment of the French crowd. Nadal is 14-5 against Murray, having never lost any of those encounters on clay though he was pushed to the brink by the Scotsman recently in Rome.
