Rafael Nadal Advances to 2020 French Open Semifinals with Win vs. Jannik Sinner

Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the 2020 French Open with a 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-1 win over Jannik Sinner on Tuesday at Roland Garros in Paris.

Nadal has now reached the semis in 13 of his 16 French Open appearances, and he improved his record to 98-2 in the tournament.

The 12-time champion had a bit of a scare when he dropped serve to fall behind 6-5, giving Sinner the opportunity to serve out the set. Sinner clearly wasn't overawed by the challenge of playing Nadal in the French capital.

Sinner quickly fell behind 15-40 before battling back to force deuce. Nadal still secured the break and went on to claim the tiebreaker.

Many probably expected this to be the moment Nadal would take control for good and cruise on to the semis. 

The 19-year-old quickly put to bed any notion he would lose his focus after the setback. He broke Nadal in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead in the second set. His serve was particularly effective in getting Nadal on the defensive right out of the gate, thus allowing Sinner to set the tempo of the point.

Nadal immediately broke back before holding serve in the sixth game to tie the set at three apiece.

The two proceeded to exchange service holds before Nadal earned his second service break of the set to jump ahead 5-4. He held firm in the next game to take a commanding two-sets-to-none advantage.

The result was largely academic at that point because nobody expected Sinner to reel off three straight sets against the greatest player in French Open history. 

Sinner's resistance finally started to crack in a big way to open the third as he lost serve to put Nadal in the driver's seat. Sinner's inexperience and the general gap between he and Nadal began to shine through.

Nadal will have worked harder than he liked, but he has some time to recover before he's due back on the court for Friday's semifinals. This might be the kind of test he needed as well after what was a pretty straightforward, drama-free run to the quarterfinals.

Based on his age and performance, this won't be the only time Sinner pushes one of the top stars hard at a Grand Slam event. Perhaps this will be one of the matches fans look back on in years ahead as a moment when his potential was impossible to ignore before he made a subsequent breakthrough.

What's Next?

Nadal will play Diego Schwartzman in the semifinals after Schwartzman upset third-seeded Dominic Thiem. The two have played 10 times in ATP Tour events, with Nadal winning nine of their head-to-head meetings.