It’s legend vs. legend in the semifinals of the 2019 French Open men’s singles tournament, as rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will duke it out for the right to take one seat in the finals. Will Federer defy father time and take down the defending champion? Or will Nadal end Federer’s win streak against him? Going into the very highly anticipated match, the sportsbook favors Nadal, with -800 odds to make it through the Finals, while Federer is priced at +500.
The Greatest of All-Time is headed to the semifinals after suspenseful victory in the quarterfinals over countryman Stanislas Wawrinka to the tune of a 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 score. Federer put in play 63 percent of his first serves and won 77 percent of his first serve points. The man is still on top of his game even at age 37, but there’s some left to be desired of his play in the Wawrinka match. For one, Federer needs to be better at capitalizing on break point conversion chances, as he converted just two of 18 chances against Wawrinka. While Nadal leads the all-time head-to-head series between him and Federer, it’s the latter who has dominated of late. Federer has beaten the Spaniard in all of their past six meetings, though, all of those occurred on hard-surfaced courts.
No one seems to be capable of stopping Nadal . In his most recent outing, he booked a ticket to the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals. Nadal has yet to drop a set at the 2019 French Open, and don’t be surprised if he wins in the same manner against Federer. Nadal has finished all of his opponents from the first round to the quarterfinals in a quick manner, thus sparing his body of some heavy usage unlike Federer, who has had to sweat it out in a close battle with Wawrinka. Nadal simply dominated Nishikori, as he put 72 percent of his first serves in play and won 76 percent of his first serve points. Federer might also have had the mastery of Nadal in the past several meetings between them, but the King of Clay has been a problem most of the time was too hard to solve for Federer when the match is on a clay court In fact, Nadal is 15-2 in his career against Federer in clay court matches.
Writer’s Prediction
You heard it here – Federer upsets Nadal in five sets.
