Rafael Nadal wins dramatic battle against Felix Auger-Aliassime at Roland Garros

It was a 5-setter and it was Rafael Nadal who won after battling the Canadian Auger-Aliassime for over four hours 3-6 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3.

This was one of the best matches of Felix Auger-Aliassime's career, but he could still dethrone the king of clay in the arena where he dominated for the last 15 years. Felix started bravely and he caught Nadal by surprise, quite a big one. He was up 3-1 and then 5-1 but ultimately won the set with 6-3. Nadal struggled with the return and he was simply out of funk in this one.

Things changed in the next two sets as Nadal finally found a good rhythm. He served better, the backhand was on point and the forehand did what made it legendary for such a long time. A combined 19-9 winner to error ratio in those two sets did plenty of damage and Felix could not handle it. His ratio was negative in both sets, which was simply not good enough.

In the fourth set, AUger-ALiassime pulled another geat which stunned Nadal quite a bit. The Canadian was quite aggressive and he attacked Nadal who could not keep up. He committed far too many mistakes and despite pulling the early break back, Auger was able to hold on and win it 6-3. The final set features good play by both but towards the end, it was Nadal who was finding solutions.

He took a break at 4-3 in a game where Auger simply made a few poor choices. Nadal then finished it off with 6-3 in the final set for the huge win which he celebrated vigorously. A good match but now comes Novak Djokovic in the French Open quarterfinal.