TENNIS | FRENCH OPEN
Paris in the spring? It must be Nadal-Federer.
E-Mail Article
Printer-Friendly
3-Column Format
Translate
Share Article
Text Size
PARIS: The manner and methods were certainly different as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer secured their latest rendez-vous in the French Open final.
Nadal, still undefeated at Roland Garros, was often at the summit of his suffocating art on Friday, producing one of the most convincing performances of his career to defeat an often dispirited Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Federer, meanwhile, had to scramble to shake free of the unseeded Frenchman Gael Monfils in the second semifinal, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. Often tight at pivotal moments, Federer, the world's number one player, hurt his own cause by missing a number of volleys from close range and even a number of mid-court forehands, and if the Swiss had not managed to save all six break points he faced in the fourth set, he and Monfils might still be playing.
But the essential was getting through on this cloudy, gusty day in Paris, and Federer will now get his latest chance to win the only Grand Slam title he lacks. Once again, the force of nature blocking his way is Nadal, who has stopped him here the last three years and who stopped him in the final in 2006 and 2007.
"It's the ultimate test to play Rafa in the final here on clay," Federer said. "I've played a good tournament here this year. I know inside that I have the capacity to beat Nadal, so let's see what happens."
Today in Sports
The 59th-ranked Monfils, a former world junior champion who arrived in Paris as a rank outsider after experiencing little success this season, was an elastic-limbed, defensive marvel on Friday. One of his nicknames is "Sliderman", and again and again in the final three sets, he hunted down Federer's spinning forehands and backhands and even dived after a few: spending more time in the dirt than a British tabloid writer. But he also played offense when necessary, slamming 10 aces with his big serve and keeping Federer off balance with his own, flatter forehand.
"He's a great talent; I've always said it," Federer said. "He fought and hung in there, and it almost paid off. I'm very relieved."
Yet Federer was the more constant aggressor: a good warmup for the tactics he will likely employ against Nadal if the Spaniard does not keep him pinned too deep with his topspin. Federer also put 71 percent of his first serves in play, another figure he will need to match against the Spaniard. And despite all his gaffes at the net, the bottom line is that Federer won 76 percent of the points when he pushed forward.
But Nadal's play on Friday still should look ominous to Federer fans. Not even Djokovic, the rising power in men's tennis, could manage to take a set off the Spaniard. All he could do was get close: recovering, improbably, from a two-break, 0-3 deficit in the third set to push Nadal into a tiebreaker.
But Nadal, on this surface and in this place, is a history-gobbling intimidator, capable of making his half of the court look unsettlingly small to the overmatched, overwrought man on the other side of the net.
Nadal swept aside Djokovic's lone set point with a forehand winner and then swept aside Djokovic in the tiebreaker after roaring to a 6-0 lead. He finished off his latest triumph in Paris with an overhead and then fell on his back in the clay: the sort of extravagant gesture usually reserved for a championship.
"It wasn't a final, but it was very important for me," Nadal said after his victory. "I was still fighting for my second spot in the rankings."
Last month in Hamburg, in a much closer semifinal, Nadal also held onto his number two spot behind Federer by beating Djokovic. But this was a best-of-five-set encounter, and Nadal's record on clay in that format is now an astonishing 40-0 over the course of his career.
He is now 27-0 at Roland Garros and has yet to drop a set in the tournament. Can he truly be stopped by Federer, who has only beaten him once on clay in nine matches?
"Everything is possible, but the way he plays now, it's really tough," the third-seeded Djokovic said of Nadal. "He's a favorite in every match he plays against whoever he plays on this court. He never lost here. Of course sometimes the people wonder, 'Is it possible or not?' But everything is possible. Nobody's unbeatable."
To manage it, Djokovic clearly would have required the performance of his young, 20-year-old life. Though he showed flashes of bold brilliance and seemed to adjust to Nadal's intensity and wicked spins in the later stages, he was too far from his best to make a dent in the Spaniard's well-earned aura of invincibility.
Latest News
