Defending champion Novak Djokovic will take on 13-time winner Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals of the French Open 2022 on Tuesday.
Tennis enthusiasts will relive one of the sport's greatest rivalries in the Open era on Tuesday when defending French Open champion Novak Djokovic will take on 13-time winner in Paris Rafael Nadal in a blockbuster quarter-final clash at the Roland Garros.
Ahead of the high-octane match, the Spanish ace appealed to the organisers of the French Open to change his clash with the World No.1 to the daytime. However, the plea has fallen on deaf ears with the match set to go ahead in the evening as planned.
Nadal has struggled to recover from a chronic foot injury, which threatens to bring the curtain down on his illustrious career. However, the 21-time Grand Slam winner battled through the discomfort across five sets to beat Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last-16, and that victory set up his meeting with Djokovic.
The quarter-final tie between Nadal and Djokovic will be played under the lights tomorrow, although the 'King of Clay' had said he would have preferred to put on a show in different conditions, even as he hinted that given his situation, it could well be a tough challenge to beat the World No.1.
"The match with Djokovic could be my last here, and I know Roland Garros by day, and I would prefer to play by day. I don't have a [recent] test against him because my last match against him was here last year, I think, so I didn't play this kind of match for the last three months," Nadal told reporters ahead of Tuesday's clash.
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"It's going to be a big challenge for me. I think he's already won the last nine matches in a row, winning in Rome and now winning here in straight sets every match. He will be confident. I know what my situation is, and I accept it well, and I'm going to fight for it. I can't complain much. I am in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros," the Spaniard added.
"Two-and-a-half weeks ago, even if I had good hopes, positive hopes after Rome, I didn't even know if I would be able to be here. So I'm just enjoying the fact that I am here for one more year and, being honest, every match that I play here, I don't know if it's going to be my last match here in Roland Garros in my tennis career. That's my situation now," the 13-time French Open winner remarked.
"Of course, I went through a tough process again with my foot, so I don't know what can happen in the near future with my career. But that's why I'm just trying to enjoy as much as possible and fight as much as I can to keep living the dream that is keeping playing tennis and being back in a very advanced round of Roland Garros playing against the world number one. That's it. I hope to be able to give myself a chance to play at the highest level possible, and then let's see," Nadal concluded.