PARIS: The current best player in the world meets the greatest claycourt player of all time in a French Open blockbuster today - but it is not even the final.
Unusually no silverware will be at stake when Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Rafa Nadal strut on to Philippe Chatrier court to face each other for the 35th time and whoever prevails will be favourite to lift the Musketeers’ Cup on Sunday.
Unless, of course, it turns into the kind of last-man-standing tennis trench warfare that is so often the case between them and there is nothing left in the armoury for a final against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Spaniard David Ferrer.
Sixth seed Tsonga, who clinically dispatched Roger Federer in straight sets in the quarter-finals faces his day of reckoning as he attempts to become the first Frenchman to reach the singles final at Roland Garros since Henri Leconte in 1988.
Fourth seed Ferrer is a nuggety opponent yet to drop a set here so far and the 31-year-old will relish the role of party-pooper as he seeks to reach a first grand slam final.
Today will be the first time Djokovic and Nadal have met before the final of a tournament, other than the ATP World Tour finals round robin stage, since 2009.
In the last 11 meetings, five of which have been in grand slam finals, everything has been on the line. The most remarkable of those battles was the 2012 Australian Open final where Djokovic and Nadal fought each other to a standstill before the Serb prevailed in a five hour 53 minute epic that took grand slam finals into unchartered territory.
That was Djokovic’s seventh successive victory over Nadal and it seemed he had cracked the hardest nut in tennis but since then the 27-year-old Mallorcan has responded with three wins from the last four and leads their overall series 19-15.
Despite today’s clash falling a round early than most neutrals would like, Djokovic said the mindset of both players would not change in the slightest.
“I’m ready for five sets,” he said.
Reuters
