Rafael Nadal faces Matteo Berrettini in the US Open semi-finals, aiming to stay alive in his quest for a fourth title.
But the three-time champion will also be defending the honour of the big-three in men’s tennis.
Nadal is the favourite on paper as an upset-filled US Open reaches the semi-final stage where the honour of the big three in men’s tennis is also at stake.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal are the trio which has dominated the game ever since Federer won his maiden Wimbledon title 16 years ago.
So stark has been their dominance that there have been only five of the 65 Grand Slam finals since that 2003 match in which none of the three has featured.
The last was in the 2016 Wimbledon final in which Andy Murray beat Milos Raonic.
With Djokovic retiring injured in the last 16 and Federer ousted in the quarter-finals, Nadal is the last one standing as he heads into Friday’s semi-final against Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.
In-form Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov are contesting the other match.
The second-seeded Nadal advanced into his 33rd semi-final at the majors and eighth at Flushing Meadows against Diego Schwartzman.
He did waste big leads in the first (4-0) and second (5-1) sets before succeeding in straight sets.
“I need to play my best, and today I think I make a step forward, even if I lost my serve a couple of times,” Nadal said afterwards.
The winner of 18 Grand Slams will not underestimate the 23-year-old Berrettini who is in his first major semi-final after enjoying a splendid year with titles in Budapest and Stuttgart.
He was also in two further finals and was the 24th seed in New York.
“Berrettini is having a great year. He’s in semi-finals winning a lot of good matches. You can’t expect an easy opponent. You can’t expect an easy match,” Nadal said.
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