Another gripping fortnight on the terre battue of Roland Garros is nearly in the books, with two former titlists set to square off for the Coupe des Mousquetaires. There have been no shortage of storylines throughout the first 14 days of the tournament and the same can be said for Sunday's championship between third seed Stan Wawrinka and fourth seed Rafael Nadal. Nadal has been careening towards a date with destiny, marching into a 10th final in the French capital without dropping a set. As ruthless as the Spaniard had been in streaking to the titles in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid, he has been arguably even more impressive at Roland Garros, relinquishing just 29 games - an average of just...
What was supposed to be a blockbuster semi-final battle on Friday at Roland Garros ended up being a disappointing blow for Dominic Thiem, but the loss doesn’t erase his accomplishments on clay this season. The Austrian found himself overpowered against Nadal and suffered a straight-sets defeat. But while Thiem was upset by a third loss to the Spaniard this season, he was more disappointed with his performance. The sixth seed hit 34 unforced errors and faded out in the final set, only winning nine points as Nadal cruised to victory. “I think he played a good match today. I was not on top of my game and that was the result everybody saw,” said Thiem. “It's nice to be in...
The backhand was beautiful, as always. But what impressed Stan Wawrinka the most about his 6-7(6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1 Roland Garros semi-final victory on Friday against Andy Murray was his mental toughness and the fight he showed against the top seed. Wawrinka fell behind two sets to one after Murray answered the Swiss star's impressive second set by taking the third set. But Wawrinka, who had lost to Murray during the 2016 Roland Garros semi-finals, stayed in the match and squeaked out the fourth set tie-break. Wawrinka then ran away with the fifth set to reach his second Roland Garros title match. Four hours. Five sets. One victor. How @stanwawrinka got revenge on Murray.#RG17 pic.twitter.com/yXhXQv73mn — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June...
Rafael Nadal is one victory away from a historic 10th Roland Garros title, but he’s more focused on Sunday’s championship battle against Stan Wawrinka than any of the statistics or implications accompanying it. The Spaniard put in a flawless performance on Friday, dropping just seven games against Dominic Thiem in their semi-final to set up the match against Wawrinka. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 15-3 and has won five of their six meetings on clay. However, the Swiss star’s victories against Nadal have come in some of their most important matches. Nadal lost his most recent Grand Slam match against Wawrinka in the 2014 Australian Open final, but the nine-time Roland Garros champion said it won’t be on...
Although Andy Murray wasn’t able to reach his second Roland Garros final after falling to Stan Wawrinka in five sets on Friday, the high-quality battle proved Murray is back in business. Few people would have pegged the Brit to be a set away from a major final at the start of the tournament. He arrived at Roland Garros with a tame 4-4 record on clay this season, and struggled in his first two matches in Paris against Andrey Kuznetsov and Martin Klizan. But the World No. 1 turned the corner in his third round victory against Juan Martin del Potro and continued to improve with each match. Against Wawrinka, Murray hammered 36 winners and hit plenty of flashy shots throughout...
