Defeating Djokovic, Nadal touches the championship title

Rafael Nadal is very close to winning the 2013 Roland Garros championship, after a dramatic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 and 9-7 victory over Novak Djokovic in the "dream semi-final."

With this victory, the "king of clay" is also closer than ever to his goal of equaling the record of 8 titles at Roland Garros set by French legend Max Decugis nearly a century ago, in 1914.

Not only that, this victory also helped Nadal equal the record of 58 wins at the second most prestigious Grand Slam tournament of the year of "express train" Roger Federer.

This is also Nadal's 20th victory over Djokovic after 35 times the two players have met. If counting only on clay courts, the Spaniard has won a total of 13 victories after 16 meetings.

Rafael Nadal is close to his 8th Roland Garros championship. (Source: AP)

As for Djokovic, this defeat caused him to once again miss out on the Roland Garros championship - a title that would have helped him become the 8th tennis player in history to win all 4 Grand Slam titles.

Returning to the "dream semi-final," Rafael Nadal had the better start, winning the first set 6-4, with a break point in the 7th game.

In the second set, Nadal continued to be the one to break first to lead 2-1. However, Djokovic proved his mettle as the world number 1 tennis player when he broke twice and won 6-3.

In set 3, Nadal got lucky from the referee's wrong judgment to break and lead 2-0, before ending the set quickly 6-1.

In the deciding set against Djokovic, Nadal twice broke to take a 4-3, then 6-5 lead. However, the "king of clay" was unable to capitalize on the success to end the match, as Djokovic twice successfully broke and brought the set into a tie-break.

In the "shootout," Djokovic played very well and won 7-3, forcing his opponent to go to set 5 - the deciding set.

Riding high after a dramatic tie-break in four sets, Djokovic quickly got a break point and then won his serve game to take a 2-0 lead in the deciding set.

Facing a huge disadvantage after losing the break, Rafael Nadal still played calmly and firmly held his serve. The "king of clay"'s resilience and determination to win finally paid off when he won the break point to level the score at 4-4.



Novak Djokovic once again missed out on the Roland Garros championship.

Continuing the momentum from that winning game, Nadal played extremely well. He held his serve and took advantage of Novak Djokovic's mistakes. After 6 more level games to bring the score to 7-7, Nadal maintained his position to take the lead 8-7, before taking advantage of Djokovic's mistake to get the decisive break, ending the set at 9-7.

With a dramatic victory after 4 rounds and 37 minutes of play, Nadal has officially booked his place in the Roland Garros final for the fourth consecutive time. His opponent in the final match will be the winner of the second semi-final between David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga./.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT