Nadal sets up dream final against Federer
Second seed Nadal, the winner here for the past two years, swept to a 7-5 6-4 6-2 victory over the sixth seed in two hours and 28 minutes in his semi-final.
Earlier on Philippe Chatrier court, world number one Federer, the Spaniard’s great rival, had beaten fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (9/7) in a little over three hours.
In last year’s showpiece between the two players who have dominated the men’s game for the past three years, Nadal won in four sets to deny Federer the Grand Slam of majors.
Nadal is slight favourite to win his third title on the trot, and that tag is justified after his superb display against Djokovic, the dark horse from Serbia.
The Spaniard had stormed into a 5-2 lead in the first set, but tensed up a little, allowing his opponent to break twice in a row to level at 5-5.
Sandwiched between those two games, Djokovic had saved two set points on his own serve.
But Nadal broke back immediately, the Spaniard producing a massive fist pump to express his pleasure before taking the set the following game with a whipped forehand on what was his third set point.
Djokovic’s policy of playing to Nadal’s backhand, the 21-year-old’s ‘weaker’ side, had almost paid off.
But Nadal soon began to counter that and the final two sets were a lot more one-sided as he maintained his record of not having dropped a set this tournament.
Nadal broke in the seventh game of a second set that otherwise went with serve, and by now Djokovic was demoralised.
Nadal took a 4-0 lead in the 34-minute third set by breaking Djokovic’s first two service games, and put the contest to bed by holding his serve in the what proved to be the final game.
Earlier, Federer was forced to dig much deeper to reach his second successive Roland Garros final.
The plucky Davydenko, seeded four, played excellently overall and had 17 break points in the match, but could rarely land the killer blow when he needed to most.
He broke first in every set and needed to just hold serve to take the second and third sets, but a mixture of nerves and superb scavenging from Federer denied him.
Davydenko will wonder, especially, how he failed to win the first set.
He forced 11 break points on Federer’s first four service games, but took only one of them – in the very first game at the fifth attempt.
Federer, on the other hand, had just two break opportunities and took them both, in the eighth and 12th games. The latter also meant he took the set.
Davydenko’s head did not drop and went 5-4 up in the second set after breaking in the ninth game, thanks to a fine backhand down the line.
But he choked and missed a backhand to gift Federer an immediate break back.
The set went to a tie-break, but only after the top seed had saved his serve in the 11th game with a gutsy cross-court backhand that hit the line.
Federer went 6-3 ahead in the tie-break, but two powerful serves from Davydenko made the Swiss serve it out. He did so on what was his third set point.
Davydenko swept to 5-2 ahead in the third set after breaking Federer, for the third time in the match, in the seventh game.
But again the fourth seed could not finish his opponent off.
Davydenko squandered two set points on his own serve in a marathon ninth game, which Federer took at the sixth attempt, meaning the third set also went to a tie-break.
Federer produced a high, kicking second-serve ace to go 6-5 ahead, but Davydenko saved a first match point and then went 7-6 ahead.
The Russian wasted a third set point and then lost two points in a row to hand Federer a hard-fought win.
The 25-year-old now has the chance to become only the sixth man in history to win all four grand slams, after Andre Agassi, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Fred Perry.
Federer already has 10 grand-slam titles to his name.
Nadal, meanwhile, is bidding to become the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open three years running.
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