Roland Garros, here are the men’s semifinals: Friday’s program in Paris

Five years after the only time, Nadal and Zverev find themselves in a Grand Slam. It was 2017, Australian Open, third round match. It is enough to read the year and the tournament to understand what we are talking about: it was the edition of the unexpected and epic final between Roger and Rafa – seeded number 17 and 9 respectively – with Federer’s victory in five sets. That match was the third marathon of the tournament for the Spaniard: his first against Zverev, then number 24 in the world, defeated after four hours of play (4-6 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-2). He was an ambitious and immature Sascha, now he is ready to try to win the first major of his career and arrives at the appointment after the brilliant victory against Alcaraz. Then as now, however, Nadal amazes everyone: stronger than the passing of time and physical problems. Stronger than his opponents, including Djokovic.

Previous

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The match between the two will start no earlier than 14.45: the day on Philippe Chatrier – the central court of Roland Garros – will be opened by the men’s wheelchair tennis semifinal, with Fernandez and Kunieda on the court against Houdet and Peifer starting at 11. balance between Nadal and Zverev is six wins for the Spaniard against three for the German, which becomes 4-1 on clay: Sascha won against Rafa in the penultimate match between the two, in the quarter-finals in Madrid last year ( 6-4 6-4), before the Spaniard always took revenge in the quarterfinals but in Rome (6-3 6-4). Since then, the two have never met again.

The other challenge

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After Nadal-Zverev, here is the second semifinal: Casper Ruud against Marin Cilic. Unexpected challenge, daughter of the many surprises in the lower part of the board: if the Norwegian is now a guarantee (especially on clay) and is looking for the first great result in a Grand Slam, the Croatian has reached the third semifinal in his career in a Major when in few would have bet on him. Ruud goes on autopilot, Cilic has dug into his past to rediscover old feelings. Previous? Two to zero for Casper, who won in 2020 on Rome in the round of 16 (6-2 7-6) and on Canadian hardcourt last year in the second round (6-3 3-6 6-3). The second semifinal will begin after Nadal-Zverev and in any case not before 17.30: the two matches are visible on Discovery + and Eurosport.