French Open: Rafael Nadal Wants One Improvement Ahead Of Quarter-Finals

Rafael Nadal made it to his 12th French Open quarter-finals with a straight sets win over Germany’s Maximilian Marterer on Monday.

The Spaniard came through 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 in two hours and thirty minutes to record his 900th match win and book a place in the last eight. Nadal continues to be the overwhelming favorite to win an unprecedented 11th title at Roland Garros and maintain his status as the world number one.

The 32-year-old is just three matches away from the title and having not dropped a set thus far, there are few that will bet against him winning the title. However, Nadal is not taking anything for granted and made it clear he is only thinking of the next match rather than the next three.

The 16-time men’s singles Grand Slam champion dominated the opening two sets against Marterer on Monday dropping a combined five games. But he dropped six games in the final set and needed a tiebreaker to settle the match.

Nadal admitted after the match that he needs to improve his intensity going into the quarter-finals. The Spaniard admitted that him sitting back in the third set ensured he did not control the points like he did in the opening two sets.

“Well, I'm not thinking about three matches,” Nadal said after his win over Marterer on Monday, as quoted by the Express. “I’m just thinking about the next one.”

“I believe that I played well at some points or maybe I could improve the intensity of my game and remain aggressive throughout the match, because today I was okay until 6-3, 6-2, and I was dominating quite a lot of points," he said.

“But in the third set I was staying back. Well, you always have to work when you play with good players,” the Spaniard explained. “You have to take the initiative, try to control the points. But all matches are complex.”

Nadal will take on Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros. The duo has met each other on five occasions with Nadal holding a 5-0 lead. Their most recent clash was in the round of 16 at the Madrid Open when the world number one won in straight sets.

Nadal or Schwartzman will face one of Marin Cilic or Juan Martin del Potro in the semi-finals with the third seed and fifth seed reaching the last eight with wins over Fabio Fognini and John Isner respectively.

The dates for the quarter-final clashes are yet to be announced with a classic Nadal vs Novak Djokovic final still on the cards after the Serbian also progressed to the last eight on Sunday with a win over Fernando Verdasco.