RAFAEL Nadal will aim for his 13th Roland Garros title tomorrow when he takes on seventh seed Alexander Zverev after both players won their respective semi-finals in the 2020 ATP Roland Garros fantasy tennis tournament today. Nadal would have been expecting to face off against nemesis Dominic Thiem for the third consecutive year, but Zverev had other ideas, winning against the world number three a day after disposing of world number two, Novak Djokovic.

Nadal made yet another Roland Garros final with relative ease, dropping just five games against Chilean Cristian Garin in an hour and 49 minutes of action. Having lost to Garin two starts ago, the Spanish world number one got up 6-1 6-1 6-3 for the third time in four matches. He was always favourite at his favourite tournament, but Garin could never be completely dismissed. Unfortunately for the Chilean, Nadal was just on song and was too good for the entirety of the contest.

It was a different story for Zverev who went into his semi-final with third seed Thiem as the underdog, but came away with a four-set win. The German world number seven won 6-2 7-5 4-6 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes to make his way into the Grand Slam final. It will be Zverev’s first ever Grand Slam final, and it will be a baptism of fire taking on the greatest clay courter of all-time. But with two wins against the other top three players, Zverev heads into the clash full of confidence.

Zverev’s task is made tougher having only ever beaten Nadal once, which was on hard court last year at the ATP Finals. In the previous five encounters – including four on clay – the world number one has got up, making him an overwhelming favourite for the final tomorrow.

SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated [19] Cristian Garin (CHI) 6-1 6-1 6-3
[7] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated [3] Dominic Thiem (AUT) 6-2 7-5 4-6 6-4