Djokovic Bent on Revenge Against Champion Nadal

Nicolás Almagro, serving with venom and hitting his ground strokes with depth and searing power, had last Friday crushed what hopes Andy Murray had of reaching the second week of the French Open, a target the British No1 had set himself when entering Roland Garros. Yesterday Rafael Nadal, the reigning champion and world No2, reduced Almagro to something approaching impotence, marking his 22nd birthday by defeating his fellow Spaniard 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 to reach his fourth consecutive semi-final here, and record his 26th successive victory on the Paris clay.

This was the most one-sided quarter-final at Roland Garros in the Open era. Not only did it emphasize the huge gulf in class between the two Spaniards, it also highlighted the immense task facing Murray, or anybody else, if they are to haul themselves into contention with Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. The Serb, one week younger than Murray, closed the gap substantially on the other two when he won the Australian Open this year, and now these three have seemingly been left alone to fight it out for the major prizes.

On Friday Djokovic, who in his quarter-final had to work assiduously to suppress the spirited challenge of Latvia's 19-year-old Ernests Gulbis, taking more than three hours to win 7-5, 7-6, 7-5, will play Nadal for the 11th time. Overall the three-time French Open champion leads 7-3, with a 4-0 advantage on clay. He still appears unbeatable. "Rafa should be able to defend this title for many years," said Almagro ominously. To date he has dropped just 25 games in five matches, without losing a set, though Djokovic will not be deterred. The Serb has self-belief by the bucket load, and over the past few weeks has been threatening to take the No2 spot from the Spaniard. He had the first chance at the Hamburg Masters, managing a set before losing 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. A second opportunity will come this Friday.

Word has it that the normally equable Nadal has become a little irritated by Djokovic's cockiness. He beat him in both the French Open and Wimbledon semi-finals last year, but such is the Serb's propensity for getting inside the head of his opponents, including Federer whom he beat in the Australian Open semi-finals, that a win for Nadal cannot be altogether taken for granted, even on clay.

Almagro and Nadal both wore lime- green shirts but there any similarity abruptly ended. Almagro had won more matches on clay than any other player this year, but was simply outclassed. His normally highly effective serve malfunctioned horribly under the pressure of playing his first slam quarter-final, to say nothing of the ogre on the other side of the net. Nadal is now undefeated in all his 39 best-of-five-set matches on this surface, and just two wins away from equaling Bjorn Borg's record of four successive French Open wins since the tournament went international in 1925.

It was a wretched afternoon, cold and miserable with rain falling almost constantly. The word was obviously out to get the matches finished and both Nadal and Djokovic will now have two days to rest up while Federer, assuming he wins his quarter-final today against Chile's Fernando González, will get only one.

Gulbis and Djokovic spent many youthful days together when at the Niki Pilic academy in Germany where, according to Djokovic, the Latvian frequently had the upper hand in practice. Like Almagro, this was Gulbis's first major step into the second week of a slam, but he came as if to the manner born. The stern quality of his play meant that Djokovic could never totally relax, though he allowed himself the occasional smile, and applauded Gulbis from time to time.

There was frustration too, with spasmodic eruptions of rage at his inability to control matters early on, though the flexibility and variety of his serve remains much underestimated, and Gulbis was only able to break it twice, the second time when Djokovic was serving for the match at 5-4. "I hope Novak wins against Nadal, but that score against Almagro was incredible," said Gulbis. Nadal, clay, and incredible are, it seems, synonymous.