“I am aware that it may be my last game in this tournament,” Rafael Nadal admitted ahead of tonight’s French Open quarter-final against his great rival Novak Djokovic, but even then that sense of finality was nothing new.
It was there throughout Nadal’s five-set epic against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the previous round, as the Spaniard was pushed into a fifth hour on a foot that is a constant source of pain. For a moment, there was a threat that Nadal’s illustrious story at Roland Garros would find its closing chapter on the middle Sunday of a tournament he has won 13 times. Instead, there was only gratitude that a 59th career meeting with Djokovic had been secured and with it, the opportunity to battle on against injury and time had been granted.
