DHAKA: Rafael Nadal overcame a spirited challenge from Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman to win 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in the US Open quarter-finals on Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, staying on course for a fourth title at Flushing Meadows and 19th major championship to move within one of Roger Federer’s all-time record.
The second-seeded Spaniard squandered double-break leads in the first and second sets, but recovered to win each of them with exquisite shotmaking and his trademark steel before closing out the match after two hours and 47 minutes, reports the Guardian.
“When he is under confidence he’s very difficult to stop,” Nadal said after reaching the semi-finals of a major tournament for the 33rd time. “Of course I made some mistakes, but I’m super happy the way I accepted the situation and I accepted the challenge. Here I am in the semi-finals. It’s super important to me. It means everything.”
Nadal led 4-love in the opener before an abruptly wayward forehand enabled the 5ft 7in Argentine to level at 4-all, prompting chants of “olé, olé, olé” from the rollicking late-night crowd in Queens. It was the same for the second set, where a sudden glut of misfires from the forehand side allowed Schwartzman to push it to 5-all from 1-5 down.
But the muscular Mallorcan, who pounded 35 winners and broke serve eight times, was able to clamp down on the critical points in each session to stake a commanding two-sets-to-none lead over the 27-year-old from Buenos Aires.
“Like a lion in the jungle,” Schwartzman said. “He’s a fighter. He knows how to play the important moments every single time. I played [him] eight times, and every important moment he played better than me.”
The 33-year-old was visited early in the final set by the trainer, who spent the changeover rubbing cream into his left forearm. He spent the next several games flexing the other forearm on the baseline, but fears of cramping were quickly dispelled as he won the last four games on the trot to wrap up a competitive but straightforward third and book a spot in the last four, where he will be the betting favourite to add to his 2010, 2014 and 2017 titles at the season-ending major.
“Physically I am fine,” said Nadal, who has reached the semi-finals of all four majors in the same year for the second time in his career and first since 2008. “Today was a very heavy day. Big humidity. I am this kind of player where I sweat a bit. Sometimes under these conditions it’s tough, but honestly I am happy that I had some critical moments at the end of the second and the beginning of the third.”
After both Federer and top-seeded Novak Djokovic were eliminated in upsets earlier in the week, Nadal’s win on a humid New York night ensured at least one of the sport’s Big Three would be represented in the semi-finals for a 62nd consecutive grand slam tournament.
The world No 2 advances to a Friday meeting with 24th-seeded Matteo Berrettini, who outlasted Gael Monfils in a five-set thriller earlier on Wednesday to become the first Italian man to reach the US Open semi-finals since 1977. The winner of their match will face either fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev or 78th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov in Sunday’s final.
“Berrettini is having a great year,” Nadal said. “He’s in semi-finals, winning a lot of good matches, so what you can expect in a semi-finals of a grand slam match? You can’t expect an easy opponent. You can’t expect an easy match.”
BDST: 1345 HRS, SEP 5, 2019
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