No excuse for defeat, I made mistakes: Nadal

World No. 3 Spain’s Rafael Nadal has said that he has no excuse for the defeat at the hands of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the French Open semi-finals here. He also said that he lost because of his mistake. Djokovic defeated 13-time champion Nadal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 in a four-set match. The Serbian player won the match that lasted four hours and 22 minutes.

Nadal, who holds a 105-2 (win-lose) record at the French Open, previously had a 7-1 record against Djokovic. In the final, Djokovic will now face Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has lost only one set this year.
Nadal said after the match, this is the game. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I tried to give my best. I failed to capitalize on the opportunities that I got.

“I had a big chance in the third set with set point, 6-5, second serve. That’s all. Anything could have happened at that time. Then I made a double fault, missed the tie-break easily. But it is true that was the turning point. Such mistakes can happen due to fatigue.

Djokovic had earlier defeated Nadal in the quarter-finals of 2015 as well. Nadal, who won his first French Open title in 2005 and his last French Open title in 2020, has lost the tournament only three times during this period.