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Mailbag: What We Learned from the 2021 French Open

A run through some post French Open questions…..

Mailbag

Wow, that semifinals match! It is being rightly hailed as one of the best of all time, and even Djokovic said it was one of his best three matches ever. I, however, feel that the first and fourth sets were not at super high level. What elevated was set No. 3. Oh my! When we think of other great matches talked about in the same vein—Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon ‘80 final, Federer-Nadal 2008 Wimbledon final, Nadal-Djokvic 2012 Australian Open final, Federer-Djokovic 2019 Wimbledon final—they were all (a) five-setters (b) it was the fifth set which elevated the match to an all-time status (although Borg-McEnroe fourth set breaker was awesome).