Carlos Moya, coach of World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, is breaking down the Spaniard's performances at Roland Garros for ATPWorldTour.com. Nadal is pursuing his 11th trophy on the Parisian terre battue. On Thursday, the defending champion defeated Argentina's Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals, where he'll face fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro for a place in the final. Moya lists five key takeaways from Nadal’s win over Schwartzman. Making The Most Of The First Rain Delay Going into the match against Diego, Rafa had some doubts because Diego has no obvious gaps in his game and he was playing to his full potential. Rafa had a hard time figuring Diego out during the match....
Diego Schwartzman has a new goal for the year, following his performance at Roland Garros. The Argentine star has his sights set on a place in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings. “If I put the target now, it's try to keep improving and try to be close to the Top 10,” admitted Schwartzman, after his quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal on Thursday. “When I started the year, it was not a goal for me. Now maybe, yes.” The 5’7” Argentine will climb to a career-best No. 11 on Monday, a remarkable rise up the ATP Rankings from No. 41 at Roland Garros last year. In 2016, Schwartzman was No. 63. Should Schwartzman break into the elite group, joining...
Marin Cilic praised Juan Martin del Potro on Thursday, but was disappointed that he couldn’t reach the Roland Garros semi-finals for the first time. “Out of past five Grand Slams, I [have] made the quarter-finals or better in four of them, so that's quite pleasing,” said Cilic, after his four-set loss to Del Potro in Paris. “I felt that today I could have won this match, as well. It's always very bitter at the end of the match to know you have chances and then you lose that one. I know that Juan is a great player, [a] very great quality player, but still, it's a pity to lose like this.” [ALSO LIKE] The Croatian, who is currently in fifth...
If you were Italy's Marco Cecchinato, who beat Novak Djokovic to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals on Tuesday, wouldn't you also be believing anything is possible? Defeat Dominic Thiem, a three-time Roland Garros semi-finalist, on Friday? “Why no?” Cecchinato said. Who cares that the last time Cecchinato beat Thiem was five years ago, during a Futures final, and on hard courts, a much different setting than where they'll play their on Friday, on Court Philippe-Chatrier, at Roland Garros, during a Grand Slam semi-final. [ALSO LIKE] But at least Cecchinato has some past experience to rely on against Thiem, who swept Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 earlier Tuesday to reach his third Grand Slam semi-final. Before Roland Garros, Cecchinato had never...
Alexander Zverev looked to the positives in spite of sustaining an injury during his first Grand Slam championship appearance at Roland Garros, which ended with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 loss to Dominic Thiem on Tuesday. “I won three five-set matches in a row [and] got to my first [major championship] quarter-final,” said Zverev. [It’s] all positive. [The] clay court season in general has been very positive. I lost three matches on the clay, all to great players. And I won two tournaments, made two [ATP World Tour] Masters 1000 finals. So it's all very positive. “I think if I get healthy again, I'll be ready to play good in the grass court season, as well... Grass is a surface that...