World No. 2 Rafael Nadal attempts to reach his ninth Madrid Open final when he takes on Greek youngster Stefanos Tsitisipas on Saturday night. It will be Rafa’s record 70th ATP Masters 1000 semi-final, as he looks to extend his record number of trophies at the elite level to 34.
Date: May 11, 2019
Match time: 9 PM local time / 3 PM EDT – New York, Montreal / 8 PM BST – United Kingdom / 9 PM CEST – Spain, France, Germany, Italy / Sunday – 5 AM AEST – Melbourne. To convert to your local time, use this website.
Rafa on playing Tsitsipas:
He’s playing well. He won last week in Estoril and he’s already won a lot of good matches this week. He comes to that semi-final with plenty of confidence. It’s going to be a tough one, I hope to be ready for it. I’ll need to play my best. Today was a good example. I need to continue tomorrow, that’s the goal.
Tsitsipas has faced our champ three times before, losing to him on the Spaniard’s favoured clay surface in the Barcelona Open final last May and then again in the Rogers Cup final in August. Earlier this year in Melbourne, Rafa again beat him; 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. The winner will play either top seed Novak Djokovic or Dominic Thiem in Sunday’s final. Tsitsipas is the player who has most wins on tour in 2019 (26).
Rafa is trying to reach his 50th Masters 1000 final (33-16). He is 8-2 in Madrid semi-final matches and 5-3 in finals. He only has been broken once this week, holding 26 of 27 service games (96%) while leading the tournament in return games won (40%, 10 of 25). He is looking to capture his first ATP Tour title since last August in Toronto.
GOOD LUCK & VAMOS RAFA!
Source: ATP Tour
Rafa will have to play Djokovic in the final. I hope he blasts him back to Serbia tomorrow free of charge😂
RAFA ROCKS
Wow, so happy to read fans’ comments that Rafa played a great match vs Stan. Way to go!
Hoping for a repeat performance against Stefanos tonight.
RAFAMAZING ROCKS
Well don Rafa you play so well I’m happy for you ,vampssssssssssss champ you can do it 💪🍾💪🎾🎾🎾😘😘❤️❤️❤️🎾🎾🎾💪💪💪❤️❤️❤️😘😘😘❤️🌎
Outstanding performance… strong, focused, precise and in total control… Beautiful to watch… Bring it on tomorrow and you will breeze into the finals…
Great performance. Very late starts, though. It was looking as if the Stephens-Bertens match was going to go to 3 sets, in which case tonight’s match would have started a good hour later than it did, and it was gone 10 o’clock Madrid time as it was!
Wow Rafa!
I don’t like that matches start so late, it doesn’t seem healthy to me, but it you have to, this was how to do it.
I was worried in the first few games that Rafa wasn’t able to return Stan’s serve. That didn’t last long.
I could say that Stan made too many unforced errors and that things didn’t go his way (there are some matches where that seems to happen for a player). But I can also say that Rafa is well and truly back in the swing of things. He was a joy to watch and it looked like he was enjoying himself too.
Well done Rafa, get a snack and a good sleep and carry on tomorrow where you left off today. The spark has been lit. Vamos!
Outstanding! Rafa played amazing, his best match on clay this year. So happy for him. Take rest and than all the best against Tsitsipas tomorrow. Go for it! Vamos Rafa <3
Well well well, what a performance against Stan💪💪💪 all the best for your next match champ. Vamos
Yes, I have already written to him Bravo 😀 in Spanish , followed the match on the DM site in Spanish. ☺ This time I was keen to watch as he was leading . 😉 Could be he was lucky to have late evening matches 🌑 gives him time to rest during the day.Same this evening Sat. ☺but I have a feeling he could fall as in the last 2 torneos Sat. 😯 as I was in Monte Carlo and down Sunday 😕 I pray for him as always. ☺ Fiona in Paris