The German suffered a sprain in his right ankle and had to abandon the duel against the Spaniard for the semifinals of Roland Garros
At the Court Philippe-Chatrier, where Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev played one of the semifinals of the 2022 Roland Garros men’s tournament, All kinds of emotions were experienced. From the ecstasy for the great tennis that both offered to the shock generated by the injury of the German, who shrieked when he felt severe pain in his right ankle. Moments later, He went out on crutches, hugged his opponent and won a standing ovation from the entire audience.
The Spaniard Nadal had won the first set for the 10-8 in favor in the tie break and in the same way the second part was heading. At the same point that the Spaniard equalized 6-6, Zverev fell to the brick dust of the pitch and impressed everyone with his displays of pain. Precisely at the same moment that he hit the last out ball with his racket, he stumbled, lost his balance and was injured.
“Very sad for him . He was playing an amazing tournament. He is a great colleague on tour . All that he has struggled to win a Grand Slam tournament and has been unlucky. I am sure that he will win, not one, but more than one. I hope he recovers very soon”, Nadal declared after the action (they had played for 3 hours 15 minutes).
Zverev retired to the applause of the public (REUTERS/Yves Herman)
Sascha (3rd in the ATP ranking) He replicated his best performance in this edition of the French Grand Slam: he had already reached the semifinals last year, when he fell against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. He aspired to qualify for his second final of one of the four favorite tournaments, since in 2020 he played the decisive match against the Austrian Dominic Thiem in the United States Open.
Because of his On the other hand, Rafael Nadal will play the 14th Roland Garros final in his sporting career: the 13-time champion of the French powder – maximum winner in history – holds with this victory a record of 111 wins in this traditional contest and just 3 losses: he lost in 2009 against the Swedish Robin Söderling in the round of 16, in 2015 vs. Serbian Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and semifinals of 2021 also against Djokovic. In addition, he could not appear to play in 2016 against his compatriot Marcel Granollers due to injury. Rafa (35 years old and 5th on the planet), waits in the definition for the winner of the clash between the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Croatian Marin Cilic.