Tendulkar hails Nadal for his concern towards Zverev during semis

PARIS: Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar lavished praise on tennis ace Rafael Nadal for his caring nature towards his rival Alexander Zverev during the semi-final of the ongoing French Open 2022 on Friday.

Olympic gold champion Zverev had to pull out of the semi-final against Nadal, due to an injury on his right ankle during the second set, here at the Philippe Chatrier court in Paris on Friday. The match ended in Nadal’s favour with a score of 7-6 (10-8), 6-6.

Taking to his Twitter, Sachin posted a picture of Nadal, talking and comforting an injured Zverev, and wrote, “The humility and concern shown by Nadal is what makes him so special.” Meanwhile, the 13-time champion Nadal stormed into the finals of the French Open on his 36th birthday.

Zverev won the toss and asked Nadal to make the first serve. The managed to break the serve and held his serve in the second game.

The Tokyo Olympic gold medallist made it 3-1 in his favour but Nadal bounced back to make the first dominant service of the game to make it 2-3. Zverev again held his serve to take a 4-2 lead.

From there the Spaniard clawed his way back winning three games on the trot to take a 5-4 lead in the opening set. Strong serves from Zverev made it 6-6 as the match went to a tie-breaker.

The tie-breaker was also a closely fought battle where the Spaniard despite trailing 2-5 made it 6-6 and won it 10-8 to take the opener 7-6.

In the second set, Rafael Nadal broke Zverev in the opening game but the German bounced back-breaking Nadal to make it 1-1. The 21-time grand slam champion took a 2-1 lead by breaking Zverev for the second time in a row and the 25-year old German also broke Nadal for the second time in a row to make it 2-2.

Zverev held his serve and broke the 13-time French Open for the third consecutive time in the second set to take a crucial 4-2 lead. The 36-year-old Spaniard fought back to make it 5-5. At 6-6, the second set also went to a tie-breaker.

In the second set tie-breaker both the players fought valiantly as the scores were tied at 6-6. The third seed Zverev screamed in pain when he went down on the baseline stretching for a ball on the final point of the 12th game of the second set. After some time the 25-year-old returned to the court on crutches and conceded the match. With this win, Nadal entered his 14th French Open final.

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