THE Roland Garros quarter finals saw two huge battles, with none more so than the five hour long match between Diego Schwartzman and third seed Dominic Thiem. The close battle saw Argentinian Schwartzman reign supreme in a 7-6 5-7 6-7 7-6 6-2 marathon, heading into his maiden Grand Slam semi-final and taking on Rafael Nadal who defeated teenager Jannik Sinner in straight sets. 

Both Schwartzman and Thiem were firing from all cylinders from the get-go, giving little away throughout the first four sets, with Thiem biting back in the second and third to force at least a fourth set before Schwartzman was able to wrestle back momentum for another tight set, eventually wrangling a huge 6-2 final set to come away with the win. Intriguingly, both players sat on 62 per cent efficiency on their first serve, with Schwartzman’s second serve marginally better than Thiem’s though it was the unforced error count that really worked in the Argentinian’s favour, registering 19 less (62-81) and just three to Thiem’s 11 in the final set.

“Dominic is one of the best players right now in the world,” Schwartzman said post-match. “Winning the last Grand Slam, two times final here, we are friends – I have a lot of respect for him.” 

“In the second and in the third set, when I was close to winning those sets, I couldn’t do it,” Schwartzman said. “At that time I was thinking that today it’s not going to happen, because I had a lot of opportunities. Easy, tough ones, hard – every single opportunity was different and I didn’t take them.” 

Coming into the Roland Garros off the back of a Grand Slam victory at the US Open, Thiem admitted that he had been trying to conserve energy in the lead up to the tournament to recover and come into this match at his peak. While the Austrian showed plenty of resilience to maintain pressure on Schwartzman, the 12th seed fared better as the minutes ticked on

“I was doing it quite well, I had the feeling also today, I still could play at quite a high level for more than five hours, but he was also keeping it up until the end – he was probably a little bit fresher than me,” Thiem said.

“I think if I would have wanted to win that match, I should have done it in four… In the fifth set, he was just a little bit more fresh and better than me.”

“I mean, we both gave everything,” Thiem said. “Well, the thing in tennis is that there is one loser, one winner. Despite that fact I’m so disappointed, I’m still happy for him.”

Italian young gun Sinner brought the heat early against the King of Clay in Nadal, but was unable to maintain that early pressure eventually going down 7-6 6-4 6-1. While the first set took almost 80 minutes to crack, Nadal needed less than half of that for the final set, leading majority of the stats including serving efficiency (67 per cent) and receiving points (47 per cent), also hitting 37 winners for 33 unforced errors. 

“It was very tough during the first two sets and especially at the end of the first, Nadal said. “He was hitting the ball very hard and with the cold, the balls had less lift.”

While Sinner had an excellent start, serving for the first set and leading 3-0 in the second, Nadal used very ounce of his experience to bounce back better and win in crucial moments.

It was Nadal’s 100th Roland Garros match, sitting at an insane 98-2 record at the Grand Slam, and will hope to continue that exceptional record in his next match when he takes on Schwartzman – who he went down to in the Rome semi-final last month. Nadal is just one Grand Slam victory away from equalling Roger Federer‘s record of 20, making this match a huge one for both players involved.