The French Open is live on NBC on Saturday and Sunday for the men's and women's finals and the championship matches over the weekend as Rafael Nadal takes on Novak Djokovic after the semis at Roland Garros and the matchup has a live stream from the NBC Sports Live Extra website and starts up after Djokovic beat Ernests Gulbis on their side of the draw and that comes before Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep play in the women's final on Saturday before the men on Sunday it's Rafa vs. Dojo.
Nadal comes into the match playing very well at the tournament and that's no surprise with his history, as he has only lost one match during his career at the French Open. Nadal got off to a slow start against David Ferrer in the quarterfinals and he dropped his first set of the tournament, but he was easily able to bounce back and now he is looking to get to his fifth straight finals and if he wins that would be a mark no one else has. Nadal already has a number of those marks, including his eight titles and now he comes in with a 64-1 record and that one loss was years ago to Robin Soderling, who is out of tennis.
Djokovic is coming on strong as he tries to win his first Roland Garros title and it's likely he will have to go through Nadal to do it. The two have played in the finals on clay before, with Djokovic winning the title in the lead up to this tournament over Nadal, but that was three sets and this is Roland Garros for Nadal.
Last year Nadal played Ferrer in the final and this time around he ended up meeting him in the quarters of the tournament and while it got off to an inauspicious start, Nadal was able to turn things around and ended up winning fairly easily. Rafa dropped the first set for his first lost set of the tournament this year and part of the reason was that his serve was not quite working early on for him. Things settled down and once he got his serve back he was into his groove and took the match.
Ferrer likely learned from his past matches with Nadal that the only chance he has to beat him is to try and strike early while being aggressive since Rafa has so much endurance he can outlast nearly anyone. As Nadal won the second set Chris Fowler on ESPN remarked that the light may not last if the two keep going back and forth, as the start of the match had been pushed back for rain. Nadal, as if hearing him from above, made quick work of the next two sets and just like that the match was over and he was into the semifinals.
Check here for the Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray live stream coverage from the French Open.
