Nadal enters French Open final, one win short of record 20 Slams

Nadal was beaten by the 12th seed a little over two weeks ago on the clay courts in Rome, but the 12-time French Open champion showed he is still the undisputed king of Roland Garros as he notched up a 10th win in 11 meetings over the Argentine.

A victory on Sunday for the 34-year-old left-hander will tie him with Roger Federer’s men’s singles record of 20 major titles. The Spaniard reached his 13th French Open final without dropping a set in this year’s edition. Schwartzman, playing his first Grand Slam semi-final, had two break points in the opening game.

But, Nadal saved both to win the game after battling for 14 minutes. The Spaniard went on to break the Argentine twice in each of the first two sets. The duo traded double service breaks in the third set before Nadal aced the tie-break without losing a point. Schwartzman found the net with a return to hand Nadal victory in three hours and nine minutes.

On Thursday, American fourth seed Sofia Kenin got the better of seventh seed Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 6-4, 7-5 and set up a women’s singles final with Iga Swiatek of Poland.