Photo : Roland Garros
UNBELIEVABLE.
No other words come to mind after Djokovic won his semi-final against 13-time and defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Every single tennis fan was glued to their screen.
Diego Schwartzman, who took Nadal to four sets in their quarter-final encounter, says: “Do we tennis players play the same sport as those two?” Laugh it off, Diego, laugh it off.
Apparently even Cher was watching it.
Every Nadal fan during the entire match:
And, in possibly the most absurd turn of events in the tournament (or possibly ever in tennis) the curfew in place in Paris was LIFTED for the Philippe Chatrier crowd. Un-be-lievable. You can’t come up with that.
And here’s a small tribute to how insanely good these guys are and how much they did for our sport. #Respect.
An emotional run (that is not over yet)
The final is set for the women at Roland Garros. No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova faces unseeded (but no less good in any way) Barbora Krejcikova.
Krejcikova, from the Czech Republic, was coached by 90’s great Jana Novotna, before the latter passed away in 2017 of cancer.
The finalist had some emotion-filled words for her former coach in every interview, and will be carrying this inspiration forward to the final which promises to be an awesome one!
Andy Murray has been watching a lot of tennis lately. 👀 And yes, it was a really amazing battle that sadly for Sakkari ended in a heart-breaking loss. Hoping she bounces back soon for Wimbledon!!
Tsitsipas and Sakkari – true greek epics
It’s not only sorrow for Greece, though, even with that tough loss in the semis for Sakkari. She and Tsitsipas have been incredible this tournament and this year in general!
Now of course, I won’t say to Sakkari “hey, look at the bright side” just yet. It was possibly her most difficult loss of her career.
As for Tsitsipas… A first Grand Slam final! Incredibly well earned after coming back from the frustration of squandering a two-sets-to-love lead to Zverev!! Congrats, Stef 😀
I have to wonder if he feels good that the match between Novak and Rafa was so physical, or bad because the level produced was out of this world.
The best interaction of the week
While Iga Swiatek didn’t make it all the way to the final (to my draw challenge demise) she did pick up a couple new fans along the way… and what an elite group of fans that is.
That was definitely one of the best twitter threads ever. Swiatek is super nice, Andy Murray is super nice, Andy Roddick is a role model, and Hantuchova is a fantastic human being.
Also, hope you get to eat some good desserts in your time off before the grass season, Iga! (I’m referencing this and this tweet. They are not from this week, but they are funny and delicious, respectively.)
