Tennis

Novak Djokovic stuns tennis world, hands Rafael Nadal rare defeat at French Open

Published Jun. 11, 2021 7:07 p.m. ET

It’s nearly impossible to beat Rafael Nadal at the French Open. Now, Novak Djokovic has done it twice.

Djokovic, the top seed, outlasted Nadal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2 in their French Open semifinal match on Friday, advancing to take on Stefanos Tsitsipas for the tournament title.

Nadal breezed through the first set, and it looked like their matchup might be a repeat of last year’s French Open final, when Djokovic succumbed in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5. But Djokovic fought back to take the second set, then held off Nadal in an epic third-set tiebreaker.

"This level of tennis tonight," Djokovic said. "Magic."

In the fourth set, Nadal ran out to a 2-0 lead, but it was all Djokovic the rest of the way, as the Serbian star won six straight games to close out the match.

"If you want to beat Rafa you have to play your best tennis and tonight was the night," Djokovic said.

The most stunning thing about Djokovic’s win is not simply that he beat Nadal – he is 30-28 in head-to-head matchups against the Spanish star – but that he beat the ‘King of Clay’ on a surface and in a venue where he rarely loses.

Coming into Friday’s meeting, Nadal, who had won the last four French Open titles, had won 105 times at Roland Garros and lost just twice. The first time came against Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009. The other was to Djokovic in the 2015 quarterfinals. That makes Djokovic the only player to beat Nadal more than once at the French Open, and the only person to beat him this late in the tournament.

Now, Djokovic will play in his third straight final of a Grand Slam tournament – he won the 2021 Australian Open in February and lost to Nadal in the 2020 French Open final. It will also give him a chance to close the gap on Roger Federer and Nadal in the race for most men's Grand Slam victories in tennis history.

Federer, 39, has 20 Grand Slam victories, and is apparently saving his body to chase No. 21 on his preferred grass surface at Wimbledon later this month – he rankled some tennis fans by pulling out of the French Open after winning a match last week.

Nadal, 35, who earlier this spring dodged questions about retirement, also has 20 Grand Slam wins, 13 of them coming at the French Open.

And Djokovic, 34, can raise his Grand Slam tally to 19 if he beats Tsitsipas in the French Open final.

It should be noted that women's stars Margaret Court (24), Serena Williams (23) and Steffi Graf (22) all have more Grand Slam championships than these three.

Nonetheless, the jockeying for legacies among this legendary trio of men's tennis stars only adds to the intrigue in the wake of Friday’s stunning Djokovic triumph, and the tennis world reacted with amazement.

Here is a sampling of the reactions:

Get more from Tennis Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic