French Open finals: Nadal vs. Wawrinka, Halep vs. Ostapenko

2010: bt Robin Soderling (SWE) 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 Nadal avenged his defeat to the Swede at Roland Garros 12 months earlier. The 25-year-old Halep is a much more established player.

RAFAEL NADAL IS one match away from a historic 10th French Open title after outclassing Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-4 6-0 at Roland Garros on Friday.

Stan Wawrinka had all sorts of leads against Andy Murray at the French Open but ultimately had to rally in a bruising five sets to reach a second final at Roland Garros.

Wawrinka took 16 of the first 21 points in the fifth set and went up 5-0. He persevered despite Murray’s splendid retrieving and variety.

On the following point, the Scot was forced to defend again and he turned the rally around with a jaw-dropping defensive lob before finishing the point with a forehand victor.

“So I will have for sure to play my best tennis“.

Nadal boosts a 17-1 record on clay this year to date, while Wawrinka’s record stands at 6-3. The Swiss star has won three Grand Slams and often steps up against the likes of Djokovic, Murray, Nadal and compatriot Roger Federer in top tournaments. “You need to, as I say, keep pushing yourself”.

Rafael Nadal’s favourite number is nine – but he will reconsider if he wins an unprecedented 10th French Open title today.

Nadal certainly won’t be taking Wawrinka lightly Sunday, though: He is a flawless 3-0 in grand slam finals, memorably topping the left-hander to open his account in Melbourne in 2014. He showed that again Friday.

While the head-to-head between the pair heavily favours Nadal at 15-3, the pair is tied at 3-3 since the beginning of 2014.

“It’s true that when he hits hard, he hits really hard”. Stopping him can be hard.

“Andy always makes you play another ball, he makes you play badly”, admitted Wawrinka.

Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua cruised through women’s doubles semi-finals to set up a final clash with the 2017 Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova.

It’s hard to believe that it has been three year’s since the Spaniard last won the title here – losing to Djokovic in 2015 before retiring though injury last year. Probably that was not helping him. He had the momentum after winning the fourth set and also the fresher legs.

The first set was extremely tight, and Wawrinka looked to have secured the crucial break in the 8th game with a venomous crosscourt passing shot.

However, even though Murray heads back to London one round earlier than previous year, he was determined to take the positives from the defeat given where he was coming into the tournament. This time, Wawrinka wore down the seemingly tireless Murray, also a three-time major champion. Wawrinka dropped two sets in the semi-final against Murray and has dropped a total of 78 games so far.

“I don’t care about the games I lost or not, or sets, or these kind of things”, Nadal said. “I did well considering”.

The fourth set was even as can be – neither held a break point – but Wawrinka stepped up in that tiebreaker by winning its final three points, the last with a run-around forehand return victor delivered from wide of the doubles alley. I have to be proud of that.

“When you play Rafa in the French Open, you’re never the favorite”, Wawrinka said.

“And I worked very hard in the match today”.

By the anticlimactic close of what Murray termed “a very high-intensity match”, he was complaining aloud about having “no legs”. A lot of long points.

“When you haven’t been playing loads, four and a half hours, that can catch up to you a little bit”. I only have myself to blame for the way I played coming into the tournament. He suffered a meltdown in the eighth, though, and Wawrinka pounced to steal his serve. Time and again Thiem threw everything at Nadal but there was no way past.

“I’ll have to play my best tennis if I want to have a chance to win, no matter who I play”, Wawrinka said. “He was very aggressive, and he never really let me install my game”.