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Reuters
Tennis-My body said ‘No’, says French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova came close to claiming a maiden Grand Slam title in her 52nd appearance in the main draw of a major, but after Saturday’s French Open final she said she was ultimately betrayed by her own body. She fought throughout but bowed out with a 6-1 2-6 6-4 defeat as her Czech opponent, Barbora Krejcikova, won her first Grand Slam title. Actually in the third set during the Sabalenka match, I said to myself, ‘If I win this match, I’m going to cry’.
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Reuters
Tennis-Nadal concedes best player won after losing to Djokovic in Paris
Rafael Nadal was his usual gracious self despite suffering his first defeat at Roland Garros since 2015 as he went out to world number one Novak Djokovic in the the French Open semi-finals on Friday, saying his opponent had deserved his victory. It was only 13-time champion Nadal’s third defeat here since his debut in 2005 and the first time in 115 best-of-five-set matches on clay that he had lost after taking the opening set. With the temperature dropping as the sun started to set, Nadal’s usually devastating top spin was less effective and top seed Djokovic started an unlikely comeback after losing the first five games to win 3-6 6-3 7-6(4) 6-2.