French Open men's semi-finals: Tsitsipas and Schwartzman aim for history

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are expected to make it to the final but they still have to make it through their hungry opponents.

Most tennis fans are expecting to see a French Open men's singles final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on Sunday. However, before then, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Diego Schwartzman will be doing their best to re-write history via major upsets.

The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, will be facing Schwartzman in tonight's first semi-final at Court Philippe Chatrier. The Spaniard is aiming for an unprecedented 13th French Open title and he is the clear favourite to bring home this year's crown. However, while Nadal has dominated the tournament and indeed, the surface for the past two decades, he is not without weakness.

Incidentally, Nadal was taken out of last month's Italian Open by none other than Schwartzman. Nadal skipped the U.S. Open due to COVID-19 safety concerns, and in order to focus on preparing for the French Open. The Italian Open was meant to be a warm-up event for Roland Garros. However, Schwartzman stood in his way in the tournament that was eventually won by Djokovic.

Argentina's Diego Schwartzman beat Nadal for the first time in 10 attempts in Rome last month AFP / Anne-Christine POUJOULAT

Schwartzman will be going into the semi-final match full of confidence. He will be looking forward to attempting back-to-back victories against Nadal. However, the man from Mallorca will have extra motivation to secure his 20th Grand Slam title to tie Roger Federer's tally.

Meanwhile, Djokovic is aiming to catch both Nadal and Federer. He now holds 17 Grand Slam titles of his own. Stefanos Tsitsipas is appearing in his maiden French Open semi-final and will be hungry for victory. The fifth seed has a tough task ahead of him, but Djokovic may have suffered an injury which he was visibly bothered about during his quarter-final victory against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta.

Djokovic dropped the first set but eventually bounced back to claim victory after four sets. Carreno Busta later said that the Serbian star's issues may have been more mental than physical. It remains to be seen if he will be fully fit when he faces Tsitsipas tonight.

The men's final will be on Sunday, Oct. 11.