Tennis: Nadal overpowers Schwartzman to enter French Open semi-final

Spain's Rafael Nadal entered the French Open semi-final on Wednesday overpowering Argentina's Diego Schwartzman after losing the second set at the Roland Garros in Paris.

Rafael dropped the second set for the first time since 2019 as he battled Schwartzman who hit deep ground strokes after the first set was won by the Spaniard 6-3.

Nadal, 35, who is eying his 14th French Open championship changed gears in the third set as he came back strongly to break Schwartzman to take the set 6-4.

After gathering momentum, the French Open champion breezed past Schwartzman in the fourth set without dropping a game winning the quarterfinal 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

"It's always incredible for me to return to the semi-finals for another time," Nadal said, adding," Diego is such an amazing player with so much talent, today was a very difficult challenge."

Nadal will be eyeing his 21st career grand slam at the French Open although he still has two games to play and a potential clash against  Djokovic who takes on Italian ninth seed Matteo Berrettini later on Wednesday in a night encounter.

Nadal has now won an incredible 105 matches and lost just two at the French Open as he seeks to set new records in his favourite surface.