Rafael Nadal’s renaissance this season continues as he steamrolled past Roberto Bautista Agut to make it back to the French Open quarterfinals. Nadal lost just five games to Bautista Agut as he picked up yet another straight-sets win. That came on the heels of Nadal ceding a single game en route to a dominant victory in the previous round against Nikoloz Basilashvili. The King of Clay is now 21-1 on the surface this season.
There really hasn’t been any discernible weakness in Nadal’s game at Roland Garros. His service game has been on point thus far. He has been broken just three times overall, and has won over 70 percent of his second-serve points in each of his four matches. He’s also won over half of return points, and hasn’t committed more than 23 unforced errors in all four matches.
Nadal hasn’t made it to the French Open semifinals since 2014, but he should be expected to get past Pablo Carreno Busta with relative ease. Nadal is a perfect 3-0 in three career meetings against his fellow countryman. That includes two meetings on the clay courts of Rio de Janeiro.
Pablo Carreno Busta survived a five-set war in the round of 16 as pulled off a big upset of World No. 6 Milos Raonic, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 6-4, 8-6. With that win, the 25-year-old picked up a couple of career firsts: a first Grand Slam quarterfinal berth and a first win against a player ranked in the top-10. He had previously gone 0-16 against such players.
Carreno Busta’s French Open run is just the continuation of what has been a terrific season, particularly on clay. He won his first clay-court title at the Estoril Open last month, and also reached the Rio Open final, as well as the semifinals at the Argentina Open and the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo. He’s 20-7 overall on the surface this season.
It’ll obviously be an uphill battle for him to oust the resurgent Nadal, though. He’ll need to drastically improve his service game against Nadal, who has already broken his opponents 28 times in four matches thus far.
Writer’s Prediction
Nadal (-4,000) strolls past Carreno Busta in straight sets as he returns to the semifinals at Roland Garros.
