Rafael Nadal faced 19-year-old Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros quarter-finals on October 6.

In 2005, Nadal entered the quarter-finals of Roland Garros in the first place, before being crowned. It wasn’t until 15 years later that the clay Grand Slam saw a player reach the top eight on his debut. That person was Jannik Sinner, Nadal’s rival in the last match at Philippe Chatrier main field today.

The defending champions Next Gen ATP Finals beat two stars in the Top 15 en route to the Grand Slam quarter-finals for the first time. This is considered a great promotion for the 19-year-old player, when at Roland Garros last year, Sinner did not even have a high enough rank to win qualifying tickets.

Over the first four rounds, Sinner lost only one set. The Italian player defeated David Goffin, Benjamin Bonzi, Federico Coria and Alexander Zverev for the first time against Nadal.

Nadal commented that Jannik is young and he’s making progress every week. He thinks this will be a big challenge for himself. Nadal practiced with Jannik a few times and saw great potential in him. Jannik hits the racquet very quickly and is capable of hitting great shots.

In pursuit of Roger Federer’s 20 Grand Slam record, Nadal carefully prepared for Roland Garros this year, although cold and humid autumn weather did not support his play style. The 34-year-old only lost 23 games on his way to his 14th quarter-final match in Paris. He is only three victories from Federer’s historic milestone.

Since the beginning of the tournament, Nadal has won 60% of his score in rally series of four or less rackets. He won 65% of series with 5-8 touches of the racquet, and won 65% of series of durable balls with nine or more hits. This is better than the Nadal average over the past three years on the ATP Tour, which shows he is adapting well to the unfamiliar conditions in Paris this year.

As a competitor in the 100th match of Nadal at Roland Garros, Sinner also does not lack confidence in himself. Playing against Nadal at Roland Garros has never been easy. Sinner must approach the game with a good attitude if he wants to be on the same level as Nadal.

The winner of the match between Nadal and Sinner will meet Dominic Thiem or Diego Schwartzman in the semi-finals. Best friends are in very high form. Thiem has 11 wins, stretching from the US Open to present. Schwartzman is runner-up at the nearest 1000 clay ATP tournament in Rome, where he defeated Rafael Nadal last month.