French Open: Rafael Nadal, Halep to play for semi-final berths

Courtesy: Reuters

Paris: World number one Rafael Nadal will continue his quest for record 11th French Open title, when he crosses swords with Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals of the men`s singles event on Wednesday.

The Spanish tennis maestro heading into the clash on the back of an easy straight sets win over Maximilian Marterer, beating the German 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 to reach the last-eight of Roland Garros for the 12th time.

Schwartzman, on the other hand, rebounded strongly from two-sets down to thrash Kevin Anderson of South Africa 1-6, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-2 in nearly four hours to reach the quarter-finals for the second time in the last three Grand Slam tournaments that 25-year-old Schwartzman has made the quarter-finals.

Nadal and Schwartzman have met each other five times previously, with the Spaniard clinching all of those matches and dropping just one set in the process during the fourth round at this year`s Australian Open.

Elsewhere, top-seed Simona Halep will also look to book her place in the semi-finals of the women`s singles event when she faces 12th seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarter-final clash later today.

While Halep defeated Belgium`s Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-1 in her round-of-16, Kerber also eased past seventh-seed Caroline Garcia of France 6-1, 6-3 to storm into the quarter-finals.