Djokovic & Nadal to meet in French Open semis

Paris, Jun 10 (AP): Novak Djokovic wheeled toward his guest box in a nearly empty Court Philippe Chatrier as midnight neared and let out one yell, two yells, three, four.
Once two points from a straight-set victory and seemingly well on his way to a French Open semifinal showdown against Rafael Nadal, Djokovic had to deal with so much that went awry: consecutive unforced errors that gave away a tiebreaker; a 21 1/2-minute delay while spectators left because of a COVID-19 curfew; a face-down tumble that drew blood from his left palm.
Still, the top-seeded Djokovic held on and moved on, pulling out the quarterfinal victory against No 9 Berrettini 6-3 6-2 6-7 (5) 7-5 on Wednesday night. “This match had it all: falls, crowd, break. It was a lot of intensity. I just felt under tension the entire time,” Djokovic said.
“The reaction (at) the end was just me liberating that tension that was building up for the entire match.”
Now comes a semifinal on Friday against a familiar foe in a rematch of last year’s Roland Garros final, but a round earlier: Nadal, who is 105-2 in the clay-court tournament.
“We know each other well,” the third-seeded Nadal said. “Everybody knows that in these kind of matches, anything can happen.”Nadal’s French Open set streak ended earlier Wednesday. His pursuit of a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title and what would be a 14th in Paris alone remained very much intact, however.
Nadal shrugged off dropping a set at his favorite event for the first time in two years by whipping violent forehands punctuated with fist pumps and yells of “Vamos!” en route to a 6-3 4-6 6-4, 6-0 victory over 10th-seeded Diego Schwartzman.