Category: Tennis

Rafael Nadal confirmed on Thursday he will miss Wimbledon to focus on the Paris Olympics, which will be played on the clay courts at Roland Garros.

The announcement came a day after Spanish tennis chiefs said 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal would team up with Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympics in the French capital, which start late next month.

Nadal, 38, lost in the first round at Roland Garros last month and indicated he was likely to skip Wimbledon, played on grass courts, where he was champion in 2008 and 2010.

The injury-plagued Spaniard, who has slumped to 264 in the world rankings, said after his exit to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev in Paris that switching surfaces would not be “smart”.

“It looks difficult to make a transition to grass, having the Olympics again on clay,” he said at the time.

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The former world number one, who won the Olympics singles title in Beijing in 2008, only returned to competition in April after missing most of the past 16 months through injury.

On Thursday, Rafael Nadal confirmed on social media that he would not be travelling to London to take part in the third Grand Slam of the year.

“During my post-match press conference at Roland Garros I was asked about my summer calendar and since then I have been practising on clay,” he tweeted.

“It was announced yesterday that I will play at the summer Olympics in Paris, my last Olympics.”

He added: “With this goal, we believe that the best for my body is not to change surface and keep playing on clay until then.

“It’s for this reason that I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon. I am saddened not to be able to live this year the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart, and be with all the British fans that always gave me great support. I will miss you all.”

Rafael Nadal, who teamed up with Marc Lopez to win the Olympic doubles title at the 2016 Rio Games, will warm up for Paris at the Bastad clay court tournament in Sweden, which starts on July 15.

The veteran, second on the all-time list of men’s Grand Slam winners behind Novak Djokovic, will form a doubles team at the Olympics with newly crowned French Open champion and reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz.

Both will also compete in singles at the tennis tournament in Paris, which starts on July 27.

Nadal, who has a 7-5 win-loss record this year, said before the start of the recent French Open that there was a chance he might not be back at Roland Garros but insisted he was still keeping the door “100 percent open” on continuing his career.

His withdrawal from Wimbledon, which starts on July 1, is a big blow for organisers, with Djokovic a major doubt after undergoing a knee operation.

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Poland’s Iga Swiatek extended her French Open reign on Saturday as she thrashed Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 in the final to win a third successive Roland Garros title.

World number one Swiatek dominated Italian 12th seed Paolini, a first-time Grand Slam finalist, needing just 68 minutes to capture a fourth crown in five years in Paris.

Swiatek has now won all five Grand Slam finals she has contested. Her other victory came at the 2022 US Open.

She is the fourth woman in the Open era to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen four times — after Justine Henin, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.

“It’s amazing to be here. I love this place. I wait every year to come back,” said Swiatek, who clicked into gear after saving a match point against Naomi Osaka in the second round.

“I was almost out of the tournament,” she said. “I also needed to believe this one is going to be possible, it’s been a really emotional tournament.”

Iga Swiatek becomes only the third woman to win the tournament three years running. Henin, in 2005-07, was the last to do so. Monica Seles also achieved the feat as a teenager at the start of the 1990s.

At 23, her four French Open titles is the same number Rafael Nadal, the record 14-time men’s champion, had at the same age.

For the 28-year-old Paolini it was a sorry conclusion, at least in singles, to an otherwise brilliant fortnight in the French capital.

The world number 15 had won a total of four matches in 16 Grand Slam appearances before advancing to the fourth round of the Australian Open in January.

While she fell short of emulating compatriot Francesca Schiavone, who won the 2010 French Open, Paolini could yet finish on a winning note with her and doubles partner Sara Errani through to Sunday’s final.

“I have to say congratulations to you, Iga,” said Paolini. “I think to play you here is the toughest challenge in this sport.”

“It was tough, but it was lots of fun,” she added.

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Paolini’s transformation this season into a player capable of challenging for the biggest prizes stemmed in part from quashing the mindset she needed “a miracle” to beat the best in the sport.

Yet the odds were heavily stacked against her going into the final, with Iga Swiatek unbeaten at French Open since a 2021 quarter-final loss to Maria Sakkari.

Riding a 20-match winning streak in Paris, and a winner of 18 straight matches this year after titles in Madrid and Rome, Swiatek quickly set about her business.

She powered an ace to hold in the opening game and had Paolini backpedalling down break point, but the Italian ground out a gutsy hold and then broke Swiatek when the Pole flayed a forehand long.

That triggered a searing riposte from Iga Swiatek, who broke to love to get back on serve and then surged 4-2 in front after Jasmine Paolini coughed up a costly double-fault.

“I got broken at the beginning, so it wasn’t maybe perfect, but I think the level was pretty high,” said Swiatek.

She had her opponent constantly scurrying around the court and the errors began to stack up for Paolini, who conceded the first set with a weak groundstroke into the net.

With Swiatek firmly in the ascendancy, Paolini looked lost for answers as the top seed oozed confidence and repeatedly took control of the rallies.

Had it not been for an astonishing recovery against Osaka in the second round, Iga Swiatek would have suffered her earliest exit at the French Open.

Instead, that fright served to ignite her title aspirations, reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions — Marketa Vondrousova and Coco Gauff — in particular powerless to stop the Swiatek offensive.

Iga Swiatek had difficulty putting away Karolina Muchova last year when heavily fancied, but there was no such trouble 12 months on as the Pole dismantled Jasmine Paolini to underline her burgeoning status as the ‘Queen of Clay’.

The three games won by Paolini were the fewest in the final here since Henin obliterated Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2 in 2007, which also coincided with the Belgian’s fourth Roland Garros title in five years.

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Carlos Alcaraz beat incoming world number one Jannik Sinner 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Friday to reach the French Open final and continue his bid for a third Grand Slam title.

Alcaraz, 21, will play fourth seed Alexander Zverev or two-time Roland Garros runner-up Casper Ruud on Sunday after becoming the youngest man to reach Grand Slam finals on all three surfaces.

“It’s one of the toughest matches I’ve played for sure,” said Alcaraz.

“The toughest I’ve played in my short career have been against Jannik. I hope to play many, many more like this.”

“You have to find the joy in suffering,” the Spaniard added.

Alcaraz has won both of his two previous major finals — at Wimbledon last year and the 2022 US Open. Victory on Sunday would see him head to the Australian Open next January seeking a career Grand Slam.

Both Alcaraz and Sinner arrived in Paris under an injury cloud, gradually finding their best level over the course of the tournament to set up a meeting billed as the match “everybody wants to see”.

The ninth chapter of an enthralling rivalry destined to shape the future of the sport was the youngest Grand Slam semi-final pairing since Andy Murray beat Rafael Nadal at the 2008 US Open.

It was their first Grand Slam meeting since a spectacular five-set quarter-final two years ago in New York, and while perhaps not as exhilarating this one was no less gripping.

Carlos Alcaraz, who was hampered badly by cramp in last year’s semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic, had said that playing Jack Sinner was like running a marathon, and it was the Spaniard doing much of the chasing early.

Sinner pinned Alcaraz on the back foot straight away as he broke in the very first game, blending impenetrable defence with searing groundstrokes as he went on the attack.

After holding with ease the Australian Open champion belted a forehand winner for another break opportunity in the third game, sweeping 3-0 in front following an Alcaraz miscue.

Alcaraz finally got on the board in the fifth game before retrieving a break, but he handed it right back and Sinner bagged the first set when the Spaniard dumped a drop-shot into the net.

Jack Sinner began the second set in identical fashion, earning another break after a loose Carlos Alcaraz service game and consolidating for a 2-0 edge on a picture-perfect day in Paris.

Alcaraz belatedly spluttered into life though as Sinner struggled to maintain his sky-high standards from the opening set and presented his rival three break points with a double-fault.

A brilliant cross-court winner hauled Alcaraz back on serve, with the Spaniard soon accelerating 5-2 ahead following another break as Sinner sprayed his forehand wide.

Sinner temporarily slowed the Alcaraz charge, ending his five-game winning stretch, but the third seed levelled up the match the next game.

The early onslaught from Sinner felt a distant memory as Alcaraz pounced to break for a 2-1 lead in the third set, flicking a sublime backhand passing shot beyond a powerless Sinner.

Yet the momentum was quickly back with Sinner.

He ripped a blistering one-two combination of forehands to get back on serve and then resisted four break points in a lengthy fifth game before holding for 3-2.

Sinner received a massage from the physio for apparent cramp in his right forearm, but he brushed off any physical issue as he hammered a backhand return past Alcaraz to break again.

A tame Alcaraz forehand into the net handed Sinner the third set. A sense of calmness enveloped the fourth, with not a single break point on offer until a sizzling Alcaraz backhand brought about a set point.

He didn’t flinch and sent the match to a decider with a winner into the open court.

Alcaraz’s approach to grind Sinner down coupled with timely shotmaking allowed him to strike the critical blow in the second game of the fifth set.

Sinner, while visibly flagging more than his re-energised rival, did not go down without a fight, but Alcaraz finally put him away after four hours of another seismic showdown.

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Novak Djokovic said he doesn’t know if he will be fit for his French Open quarter-final after injuring his knee in a five-set win over Francisco Cerundolo on Monday.

The world number one outlasted Argentine 23rd seed Cerundolo 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 for his record 370th win in a Grand Slam match as he reached a 15th consecutive French Open quarter-final.

The world number one is due to play Casper Ruud on Wednesday for a place in the semi-finals. Whether he takes to the court against Casper Ruud, the player he defeated in last year’s Roland Garros final, remains to be seen after Djokovic said he would undergo medical tests to determine to extent of the damage to his right knee.

“I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow if I’ll be able to step out on the court and play. You know, I hope so. Let’s see what happens,” said Djokovic.

“I guess we’ll do some more screening and tests and checkups tomorrow, as well. We have done some with doctor right now after the match. Some positive news but also some maybe concerns, so let’s see tomorrow.”

After a four-hour, 29-minute win over Lorenzo Musetti that ended at 3:07am on Sunday morning in the previous round, the 37-year-old Djokovic was again tested to his physical limits while being impeded by a balky knee.

The Serbian rolled through the opening set but a slip in the third game of the second led to Djokovic taking a medical timeout, and he repeatedly received treatment at subsequent changeovers.

“I started feeling the pain and asked for the physio treatment and the medical timeout and tried to take care of it. It did disrupt me definitely in play,” said Djokovic.

Cerundolo, attempting to reach his first quarter-final at a major, threatened to spring an upset as he capitalised on Djokovic’s discomfort to move two sets to one in front.

The Serbian had already complained about the state of the clay in his match against Musetti, calling for it to be swept at more regular intervals.

He again took aim at the court for “screwing up” his knee and looked to be heading for his earliest French Open exit since 2009 when Cerundolo surged 4-2 ahead in the fourth set.

As he has done countless times, Djokovic displayed his immense powers of recovery to retrieve the break of serve, holding his own in the next game before unleashing a bellowing roar to whip up a crowd that sensed the three-time French Open winner was not done just yet.

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“At one point I didn’t know, to be honest, whether I should continue or not with what’s happening,” said Djokovic.

“I got the medications, and then after the third set was done, I asked for more medications, and I got them.

“That was the maximum dose that kicked in, as I heard now from doctor after 30 to 45 minutes, which was just about the time kind of end of the fourth when things started to really improve for me.”

Djokovic saved a break point to nudge 6-5 ahead and Cerundolo eventually was the first to blink, the top seed capitalising on a fourth set point to force a decider.

It felt almost inevitable Djokovic pinched a break to open the fifth set. Cerundolo did not go away though, scrambling his way back on serve before Djokovic again vented his ire at the court conditions after an awkward tumble.

“Well done, supervisor and everybody,” he said sarcastically. “Not slippery at all.”

An attempted passing shot from Cerundolo had Djokovic at full stretch doing the splits, an indicator of the tremendous quality still produced from both players despite a gruelling battle that spanned four hours and 39 minutes.

Djokovic pounced on his opportunity when it arrived in the eighth game, ripping a forehand winner that clipped the baseline to earn the vital break before he sealed another incredible victory.

“Basically the whole fifth set was almost without any pain, which is great, you know. But then the effect of the medications will not last for too long, so I’ll see,” said Djokovic.

For Cerundolo, so close to the biggest win of his career, it was an agonising reminder of Djokovic’s enduring greatness.

“He always finds a way to come back and play his best tennis at the toughest moments and at the end of every match,” said Cerundolo.

“I did my best. I was so close, but I couldn’t win it. He show again why he’s the best.”

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Rafael Nadal’s record-breaking French Open career came to its likely end on Monday when the 14-time champion slumped to a demoralising first-round defeat against Alexander Zverev.

Nadal, who turns 38 on June 3, went down 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to world number four Zverev, suffering only his fourth loss in 116 matches at Roland Garros since his 2005 title-winning debut.

It was the first time he had been defeated in Paris in the opening round and will again lead to questions over his long-term future in the sport.

“I don’t know if this is the last time I will be here, I am not 100% sure but if it is then I wanted to enjoy it,” said Nadal.

“The feelings today are difficult to describe in words.”

Plagued by injuries, which had limited him to just four events since January last year, former world number one Nadal is now 275 in the rankings and was unseeded in Paris.

However, he insisted on the eve of the tournament that he was “100% keeping the door open” on his future in a sport which has brought him 22 Grand Slam titles.

In a repeat of the 2022 French Open semi-final, which Rafael Nadal won when Zverev quit with ankle ligament damage, the Spaniard had his chances.

He was a break of serve up in the second and third sets, only to be pinned back on both occasions by his in-form 27-year-old opponent.

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Chants of “Rafa, Rafa” had loudly echoed under the roof of Court Philippe Chatrier which was shut tight against the torrential rain sweeping across the grounds and bringing havoc to the schedule.

They subsided to silence when Nadal was broken to love in his opening service game and he was left to regret his inability to convert two break points in the fourth game.

Rafael Nadal saved two set points in the ninth game but surrendered the opener after 50 minutes when he buried a loose forehand into the net.

It was only the fourth opening set he had lost at Roland Garros.

Nadal broke for the first time in the match to lead 3-2 in the second set but couldn’t back up the advantage and handed the break back to three-time semi-finalist Zverev as he served for the set.

A tense tie-breaker followed which the German claimed, buoyed by stretching to 5/3 on the back of a gruelling 19-shot rally.

Nadal dug deep and with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek having watched from the packed stands, he broke and held for 2-0 in the third set.

However, Zverev again roared back to level at 2-2 before a besieged Nadal had to save four break points in a 13-minute fifth game to stay in contention.

The effort was too much and a composed Zverev was soon 4-3 up and the match was over when Rafael Nadal fired a forehand wide and long.

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World number one Novak Djokovic fell to 44th-ranked Czech Tomas Machac, 6-4, 0-6, 6-1, in the semi-finals in Geneva on Friday ahead of his French Open title defence.

Djokovic, 37, took a wild card to the Swiss clay-court tournament in a bid to reverse an alarming dip in form ahead of Roland Garros where the 24-time Grand Slam champion has won three times.

“I have no reaction right now, I just fought for every ball,” said 23-year-old Machac.

“When you play against Novak you just hope. You just try to play your best and see what it looks like.”

Novak Djokovic, bidding to reach his first final of the season, received a medical timeout at the end of the first set.

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The Serb will head to Roland Garros where he faces Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round having won no titles this year.

Machac, competing in his maiden tour-level semi-final, rallied from a break down in the first set and after failing to win a game in the second powered back in the third set.

“I’m looking forward to playing in a final for the first time,” said Machac who will face two-time champion Casper Ruud or Italian Flavio Cobolli in the title match on Saturday.

Ruud, the world number seven, was the runner-up in the last two French Open finals, including a defeat to Novak Djokovic last year.

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Rafael Nadal was drawn to face world number four Alexander Zverev in a blockbuster opening match at his farewell French Open tournament on Thursday.

Defending men’s champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will face French veteran Pierre Hugues-Herbert in his opener.

Nadal, who has won Roland Garros on 14 occasions, is unseeded after injury saw his ranking plummet to 276.

He and Zverev met in the semi-finals in 2022 when the German was forced to retire after suffering a serious ankle injury.

Nadal, the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, will turn 38 next week and this season will be his last on tour.

He holds a 7-3 winning head-to-head record against Germany’s Zverev with five of those victories coming on clay.

Zverev, 27, arrives in Paris on the back of lifting the Rome Open title last weekend.

“I’m going to play the French Open thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” said Rafael Nadal after a second round exit in Rome last week.

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against Djokovic who will be chasing a fourth French Open title.

“I imagine that looking at the draw, Nadal is not going to be delighted,” said French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

“Zverev is in very good shape, obviously it looks very complicated. But Nadal is a warrior, an extraordinary competitor. It’s Rafa so anything is possible.”

Djokovic turned 37 on Wednesday and marked the occasion by winning the 1,100th match of his career in Geneva.

The Serb has yet to win a title in 2024 with runs to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Monte Carlo Masters his best performances.

Following Thursday’s draw, Djokovic is seeded to face Zverev in the semi-finals.

World number two Jannik Sinner, who took Djokovic’s Australian Open title in January, faces Christopher Eubanks of the United States.

Third-seeded Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2023, plays a qualifier.

Sinner and Alcaraz are seeded to meet in the semi-finals but both men have been suffering from injuries which forced them to skip the Rome event.

Andy Murray, the 2016 runner-up, is also competing at the tournament for the final time.

The 37-year-old tackles 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, 39, in a battle of grizzled Grand Slam veterans.

The pair have met 22 times in a two-decade rivalry with Murray boasting a 13-9 edge.

Three of those clashes have come at Roland Garros with Murray winning in the semi-finals in 2016 while the Swiss came out on top in the last-four in 2017 and first round in 2020.

In the women’s draw, top seed and world number one Swiatek will take on a qualifier with Osaka facing Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in their openers before a potential second round clash.

Swiatek is bidding to win a fifth major and fourth French Open title.

“It feels like home here,” said Swiatek who arrives at the tournament with clay-court titles in Madrid and Rome under her belt.

Former world number one Osaka, now ranked 134, has never got past the third round in Paris. Bronzetti, the world number 48, has yet to win a main draw in two visits.

Osaka, 26, has endured a bittersweet relationship with the French Open.

In 2021, she was fined for opting out of mandatory media commitments before withdrawing from the competition after just one match insisting she was protecting her mental health.

Osaka missed the 2023 edition due to being pregnant before giving birth to a baby girl in July.

Swiatek, meanwhile, is bidding to become the first player to lift three successive women’s titles in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka starts against 101-ranked Erika Andreeva of Russia.

Third seed and US Open champion Coco Gauff faces a qualifier in the first round and is seeded to face Swiatek in the semi-finals.

Double Australian Open champion Sabalenka is seeded to take on former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the last four.

Defending men’s champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will face French veteran Pierre Hugues-Herbert in his opener.

Rafael Nadal, who has won Roland Garros on 14 occasions, is unseeded after injury saw his ranking plummet to 276.

He and Zverev met in the semi-finals in 2022 when the German was forced to retire after suffering a serious ankle injury.

Rafael Nadal, the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, will turn 38 next week and this season will be his last on tour.

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He holds a 7-3 winning head-to-head record against Germany’s Zverev with five of those victories coming on clay.

Zverev, 27, arrives in Paris on the back of lifting the Rome Open title last weekend.

“I’m going to play the French Open thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” said Nadal after a second round exit in Rome last week.

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against Djokovic who will be chasing a fourth French Open title.

“I imagine that looking at the draw, Nadal is not going to be delighted,” said French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

“Zverev is in very good shape, obviously it looks very complicated. But Nadal is a warrior, an extraordinary competitor. It’s Rafa so anything is possible.”

Djokovic turned 37 on Wednesday and marked the occasion by winning the 1,100th match of his career in Geneva.

The Serb has yet to win a title in 2024 with runs to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Monte Carlo Masters his best performances.

Following Thursday’s draw, Djokovic is seeded to face Zverev in the semi-finals.

World number two Jannik Sinner, who took Djokovic’s Australian Open title in January, faces Christopher Eubanks of the United States.

Third-seeded Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2023, plays a qualifier.

Sinner and Alcaraz are seeded to meet in the semi-finals but both men have been suffering from injuries which forced them to skip the Rome event.

Andy Murray, the 2016 runner-up, is also competing at the tournament for the final time.

The 37-year-old tackles 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, 39, in a battle of grizzled Grand Slam veterans.

The pair have met 22 times in a two-decade rivalry with Murray boasting a 13-9 edge.

Three of those clashes have come at Roland Garros with Murray winning in the semi-finals in 2016 while the Swiss came out on top in the last-four in 2017 and first round in 2020.

In the women’s draw, top seed and world number one Iga Swiatek will take on a qualifier with Osaka facing Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in their openers before a potential second-round clash.

Swiatek is bidding to win a fifth major and fourth French Open title.

“It feels like home here,” said Swiatek who arrives at the tournament with clay-court titles in Madrid and Rome under her belt.

Former world number one Osaka, now ranked 134, has never got past the third round in Paris. Bronzetti, the world number 48, has yet to win a main draw in two visits.

Osaka, 26, has endured a bittersweet relationship with the French Open.

In 2021, she was fined for opting out of mandatory media commitments before withdrawing from the competition after just one match insisting she was protecting her mental health.

Osaka missed the 2023 edition due to being pregnant before giving birth to a baby girl in July.

Swiatek, meanwhile, is bidding to become the first player to lift three successive women’s titles in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka starts against 101-ranked Erika Andreeva of Russia.

Third seed and US Open champion Coco Gauff faces a qualifier in the first round and is seeded to face Swiatek in the semi-finals.

Double Australian Open champion Sabalenka is seeded to take on former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the last four.

READ: Rafael Nadal falls to Hubert Hurkacz in Rome Open second round

Rafael Nadal will bring down the curtain on his 19-year French Open career with the likelihood of adding to his 14 titles greatly diminished before he leaves behind a record and reputation unlikely ever to be matched.

The great Spaniard, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, won his first title at Roland Garros as a teenager in 2005. A week on Monday, he will celebrate his 38th birthday.

A former world number one, who is now at 276 in the world, Nadal has only played 15 matches since January last year as a hip injury and then a muscle tear were added to a depressing history of physical ailments which have forced him to miss 12 Grand Slam tournaments in his career.

Whether or not the 2024 French Open becomes number 13 will soon become apparent as the draw for the event takes place on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m going to play the tournament thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” explained Nadal after a second-round exit in Rome last week.

“And if 100 per cent is not enough to win a match, I’ll accept that. But I don’t want to step onto court knowing that I have no chance. If there’s a 0.01% chance, I want to explore that and give it a go.”

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against career-long rival Novak Djokovic.

He is also held in remarkably high esteem.

At his first training session on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros on Monday an estimated 6,000 people turned up to watch, many chanting his name.

“We have to enjoy the time he has left on court, evaluate it, and be aware that it’s very unlikely that something like that will happen again,” said coach Carlos Moya during the recent Madrid Open.

“Personally, I’m never on court when he enters or leaves, but I am this year because I like seeing the love he gets from the people when he steps on court.

“He’s one of the great stars of this sport, he’s about to retire, and it’s really amazing to see that.”

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Nadal isn’t the only A-list talent under a Paris cloud ahead of the tournament starting on Sunday.

Defending champion and record 24-time Grand Slam title winner Djokovic, whose three titles in Paris put him alongside Gustavo Kuerten, Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, is enduring a title dry spell unseen since 2018.

Back then, he also reached May without a trophy before crashing to a shock last-16 defeat at the French Open to unheralded Marco Cecchinato of Italy.

This season, Djokovic has lost his Australian Open title and has yet to make a final on tour.

Adding injury to insult, he was hit on the head by a falling water bottle in Rome, a freak accident which he claimed caused nausea and dizziness.

In an attempt to gather a degree of clay-court confidence ahead of the French Open, Djokovic, who turns 37 on Wednesday, grabbed a late wild card in the ongoing Geneva tournament.

Between them, Nadal and Djokovic have carved up the last eight French Open titles while 2009 was the last time a final at Roland Garros did not feature at least one of them.

World number two Jannik Sinner, the man who succeeded Djokovic as Australian Open champion, has been laid low by a hip injury which caused him to skip the Rome Open.

The 22-year-old Italian reached the quarter-finals of the French Open on his debut in 2020 where he was defeated by Nadal in straight sets.

Sinner has an extra incentive to progress deep in Paris as he could depose Djokovic as world number one.

Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning Wimbledon champion, also skipped Rome to nurse an arm injury.

The world number three took the first set off Djokovic in their semi-final last year before body cramps saw him slip to defeat.

The Spanish crowd-pleaser admitted that his sudden and dramatically diminished physical state was caused by the fear of facing Djokovic.

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Germany’s Alexander Zverev equalled compatriot Boris Becker’s record by reaching an 11th Masters final on Friday when he ended the Rome Open giant-killing run of Alejandro Tabilo.

World number five Zverev, who lifted the Rome trophy in 2017, battled back to see off the Chilean 1-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 in their semi-final.

The 26-year-old Tabilo had shocked Novak Djokovic in the third round and the 32nd-ranked player showed little fear of Zverev until he began to play more passively in the second set tie-break.

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Third seed Zverev then raced through the decider to make the Rome final for the third time.

“I was just hanging on in the second set. I brought my energy up. I was really just hanging on and waiting and the patience was kind of good today,” Zverev said on court.

“He hit me off the court in the first set and I did not play well at all, but he was a big reason why. He gave me no rhythm and I am happy I turned it around in the tie-break and ran away in the third set.”

In Sunday’s final, he will take on either another Chilean in Nicolas Jarry or Tommy Paul of the United States.

By making Sunday’s championship match, 27-year-old Alexander Zverev has tied Becker’s record for the most Masters finals by a German since the series began in 1990.

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Iga Swiatek won her 11th straight clay-court match on Thursday as the top seed moved closer to another record with a 6-4, 6-3 semi-final defeat of Coco Gauff at the Rome Open.

World number one Swiatek now stands one victory away from duplicating the Madrid-Rome clay trophy double achieved by Serena Williams 11 years ago.

The 22-year-old Pole defeated third-seed Gauff for the 10th time in their 11 encounters, with her only loss in the series coming last summer in a Cincinnati semi-final.

Iga Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam winner due to defend her Roland Garros title starting a week from Sunday, will play the Saturday Rome Open final against either second-seed Aryna Sabalenka or American Danielle Collins.

The top seed spent one and three-quarter hours in dispatching Gauff, the reigning US Open champion.

Iga Swiatek ended with 26 winners and broke four times.

“I’m not thinking about statistics or history,” she said after the victory. “I’m just playing day by day.

“It’s easier that way, it lets you play more freely.

“I’ll just try to play as good as possible in the final, no matter who it is.

“I won’t be thinking of any records, there is still work to do.”

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On the men’s side, American Paul reached a clay court semi-final for the first time in his career with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 upset of Hurkacz.

The 14th seed is the first American to reach the final four at the Foro Italico since Reilly Opelka in 2021.

The momentum-shifting quarter-final came down to the wire, with a 15-minute final game capping off nearly two and three-quarter hours on court.

Paul finally came through on his fourth match point as Poland’s Hurkacz sent a return long.

The match featured 13 breaks of serve, with Paul advancing with 29 winners and 41 unforced errors; and Hurkacz having 22 and 44 respectively.

“I started well but it got away from me in the second and start of the third,” Paul said. “I had to stick around in the match.

“I found the energy to get it going again. I was hitting my forehand bigger and with more intensity because Hubii can really crush the ball.”

Paul will wait for an opponent from sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Chile’s Nicolas Jarry.

Hurkacz, who knocked Rafa Nadal out in the Rome second round, was unable to get his massive serve up to speed as he faced Paul, winner over defending champion Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round.

Hurkacz won the clay title in Estoril last month and suffered only his third loss on clay this spring.

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