Nadal and Alcaraz seek the Spanish semifinal in Paris

MADRID, 30 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish tennis players Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz will seek this Tuesday to meet in the semifinals of Roland Garros, the second 'Grand Slam' of the season, although for this they will have to leave the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the German Alexander Zverev, respectively, on the way.

The Parisian 'great' reaches its final week and with the Balearic and the Murcian as the only two strengths of national tennis. Only one will reach the theoretical final because they are on the same side of the draw, where there are also two serious contenders like the one from Belgrade, defending the title, and the one from Hamburg, who has completed a good tour on land.

Without a doubt, the 'highlight' of the day will be the one that precisely closes it. Despite the message from the 13-time champion of the tournament that he did not like to play too much at night, the organizers have placed him in the closing turn of the Philippe-Chatrier against a rising Djokovic.

Nadal, after passing the test that the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime gave him in the round of 16, will have to battle against conditions that do not favor him so much when dealing with the number one in the world, with whom he will experience his 59th confrontation , at the moment with 30-28 for the Serbian.

Both will face each other for the first time this season and for the first time in almost a year. Their last duel was in the Chatrier, then in the semifinals and also with the match entering the night, with victory for 'Nole' in four sets by 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 , after more than four hours.

Djokovic, despite not being able to do much of the season, has reached the Parisian 'Grand Slam' at a good level, where he has not yet lost a set, something that only the Slovakian Alexander Molcan has come close to, who led the one from Belgrade to a tie-break.

The first to try to reach the penultimate round will be El Palmar, who will have a new duel with Zverev a month after beating him authoritatively (6-3, 6-1) in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, his first victory after three clashes since last year he lost both on the indoor court in Vienna (6-3, 6-3) and on the hard court in Acapulco (6-3, 6-1).

The German will play with the lesson learned and will surely raise his level, although the conditions of the Caja Mágica should favor him more than those of the French capital. The third seed in Paris has had a lot of work to reach the top eight and with many more hours of tennis in his legs.

For his part, Alcaraz, for the first time in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, wants to take advantage of his opportunity. The Murcian, except in his second round match against Albert Ramos, where he was on the verge of elimination and in the only match in which he has dropped sets, has been very solvent.

His tennis is being of a very good level, especially since he won the fourth set against the Catalan, and also his victory in Madrid should reinforce his confidence to overcome this barrier and stay one step away from his first final in a 'Grand Slam. '.