“The match with Djokovic may be my last match here,” Nadal said Sunday. “I know Roland Karros during the day, I like to play during the day. I’ve been through a difficult situation on my feet and I do not know what’s going to happen in my life.
Despite that request, the French Open organizers did not believe it or perhaps there were contract obligations to Amazon Prime Video, which owns the night-session rights in France.
As the remarkable semifinal between the two at last year’s French Open became one after starting in the afternoon, no. 59 will be a night match.
“Unfortunately, every year they play here a round earlier,” said Djokovic’s coach Koran Ivanisevic. “It was the final two years ago. It was the semifinals last year and the quarterfinals now, but it’s the best quarterfinals in French Open history.
Their previous two quarterfinal fights at Roland Garros weren’t really a big shake-up. In the first match of 2006, their first encounter at any level, Djokovic retired with an injury after losing the first two sets.
In 2015, Djokovic became the second person to beat Nadal in a protracted fall with Nadal, defeating him 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in the final, as he did in the final. An era for Natalie at the French Open. Has won four more times.
But Djokovic became the first player to beat Natale twice at the French Open last year, culminating in intensity and shotmaking 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2. Nadal struggled with his foot and Djokovic’s skill in the third set, before fading into fourth.
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