Paris:
21-time Grand Slam Champions Rafael Nadal has reached 14th French Open final of his career after Alexander Zverev pulled out of the semis due to in-court injury.
After winning the toss, Zverev asked Nadal to make the first serve. The Tokyo Olympic gold medallist made it 3-1 in his favour but Nadal bounced back to make the first dominant service of the game to make it 2-3. Zverev again held his serve to take a 4-2 lead.
From there on the Spaniard clawed his way back winning three games on the trot to take a 5-4 lead in the opening set. Strong serves from Zverev made it 6-6 as the match went to a tie-breaker. The tie-breaker was also a closely fought battle where the Spaniard despite trailing 2-5 made it 6-6 and won it 10-8 to take the opener 7-6.
In the second set, Rafael Nadal broke Zverev in the opening game but the German bounced back-breaking Nadal to make it 1-1. The 21-time grand slam champion took a 2-1 lead by breaking Zverev for the second time in a row and the 25-year old German also broke Nadal for the second time in a row to make it 2-2.
Zverev held his serve and broke the 13-time French Open for the third consecutive time in the second set to take a crucial 4-2 lead. The 36-year-old Spaniard fought back to make it 5-5. At 6-6, the second set also went to a tie-breaker.
In the second set tie-breaker both the players fought valiantly as the scores were tied at 6-6. The third seed Zverev screamed in pain when he went down on the baseline stretching for a ball on the final point of the 12th game of the second set. After some time the 25-year-old returned to the court on crutches and conceded the match. With this win, Nadal entered his 14th French Open final.
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