Clay court king Rafael Nadal will meet Swiss Roger Federer in a
rematch of last year's final at the French Open when the top two
seeds earned their victories over respective opponents in the
semifinals on Friday.
Nadal needed two hours and 28 minutes to brush past Serb Novak
Djokovic 7-5, 6-4, 6-2, while Federer won two tie-breaks and fought
from 4-1 down in the third set to sweep aside an adamant Nikolay
Davydenko 7-5, 7-6(5), 7-6(7).
"A match between the world number one and the world number two
is very special and interesting. It's going to be tough final of a
Grand Slam against one of the best of the history," Nadal said
after the match.
"He beat me the last time in Hamburg, so for that reason, maybe,
he's the favorite," he added.
"But I will concentrate on myself and the game, and I will fight
and struggle like a lion."
Federer, chasing the only grand slam title to elude him so far,
and Nadal, bidding to become the first man to win three successive
titles here since Bjorn Born in 1980, will clash for the twelfth
time lifetime and the third time this season.
The Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion Federer
pricked Nadal's aura of invincibility when he snapped the
Spaniard's 81-match winning streak on clay in last month's Hamburg
Masters final and will be eager to replicate the feat.
"Last year I came out of the blocks very, very strong with a
great first set but after that, I couldn't handle Nadal," said
Federer, who is in pursuit of an 11th major.
"So I hope this year's going to be different."
But Nadal still leads the series 7-4, including a 5-1 record
onclay. Nadal defeated Federer here two years ago in the
semifinals, the last time Federer failed to reach a Grand Slam
final.
Holder Nadal, who has never lost a match at Roland Garros, was
given a stern test by the young Serb in the first two sets, before
romping home to a straight sets win in the third.
In the opening set Djokovic was struggling to cope with Nadal's
deep top spin forehands early on and found himself two breaks and
5-2 down after seven gruelling games.
However, he showed tremendous guts to break Nadal twice on his
way to levelling the set 5-5, but like a true champion, Nadal then
captured another break to put an abrupt end to the upsurging
comeback.
At the end of next game, Nadal was able to do his trademark
punch in the air as he finally took the first set in 66
minutes.
Djokovic had an opportunity to take the 2-0 lead in the next
set, but Nadal saved three break points and never looked back. He
converted on three of his remaining four break chances in the match
to cement the win.
While world number one Federer had a much tougher time,
struggling with his serve throughout the match and gave up an
astonishing 17 break points, but Davydenko could only convert on
three of them with one in each set, and each time he was pegged
back by Federer, who was able to raise his game in time on the
keypoints.
"Anything could have happened in this match," Federer said with
a sigh of relief after snatching the hard-fought victory.
"It was tight until the end. I could have lost in three sets but
I won. He's an excellent player and that was a good test for me
before the final."
Federer is attempting to become the sixth man in history to win
all four Grand Slam titles in his career, most recently achieved by
Andre Agassi following his 1999 Roland Garros triumph.
He is also bidding, for the second successive year, to become
just the third man in history to win four majors in a row. Only Don
Budge and Rod Laver held all four titles at the same time.
The Swiss, who notched his 27th consecutive Grand Slam victory
and 30th match win of the season, broke his tie with Jack Crawford
for consecutive appearances in Grand Slam finals with his
victory.
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2007)
