Roger Federer- Getty Images

Semis Set at French Open

June 4 , 2008

Tennis fans in France couldn’t have asked for better semifinal match-ups at the French Open than what they’ll see on Friday. The tournament’s top three seeds, No. 1 Roger Federer (Switzerland), No. 2 Rafael Nadal (Spain) and No. 3 Novak Djokovic (Serbia), will all be in action along with crowd favourite Gael Monfils, the last Frenchman remaining in the men’s singles draw.

Nadal, the tournament’s three-time defending champion, will face Djokovic in one blockbuster semifinal, marking the 11th time these two men have met in their careers. The Spaniard has won seven of their previous matches and is perfect against Djokovic on clay. He has dominated his quarter of the draw thus far, dispatching all opponents with ease as he improved to 26-0 lifetime at Roland Garros. His most recent victory came against compatriot Nicolas Almagro, a crushing 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 triumph in the quarter-finals.

The young Serbian has also been successful on the clay in Paris, reaching the semifinals for the second year in a row. He got to the round of four this time with a hard fought 7-5, 7-6(3), 7-5 win over Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis. Coming off his first career Grand Slam title in Australia earlier this season, Djokovic is looking to become the first man since Jim Courier in 1992 to win the Australian Open and Roland Garros back-to-back within a calendar year.

The winner of this semifinal match will claim the No. 2 world ranking, a spot Nadal has held since July 25, 2005.

In the other semifinal, Federer and Monfils will face off for the third time this season and fourth overall. The Swiss superstar has won all previous meetings in straight sets, including most recently on clay at the Masters Series event in Monte-Carlo.

Federer hasn’t shown his typical dominance thus far in the tournament but has managed to make the spectacular shots when necessary in order to advance. He got off to a slow start in his quarter-final match, dropping the first set to Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. But he rebounded in the second set and cruised the rest of the way, ultimately winning the contest by a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 score. He is now two wins away from capturing the only Grand Slam title missing from his sparkling resume. In each of the last two years he has fallen to Nadal in the final, and a win against Monfils could set up the same match up for the third consecutive year.

The flying Frenchman is a surprise semifinalist, but his presence in the draw this late in the tournament is exciting for the hometown fans who haven’t seen a French winner at their tournament since Yannick Noah won the trophy 25 years ago. He recorded a stunning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 triumph in the quarters over No. 5 seed David Ferrer (Spain) to reach the round of four at the French Open for the first time in his career.

In the doubles draw, four teams will battle on Thursday for two spots in the championship round. Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, the No. 2 seeds, will face Russians Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov in one contest while Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) and Luis Horna (Peru) will take on Bruno Soares (Brazil) and Dusan Vemic (Serbia) in the other. As the only seeds remaining in the men’s doubles draw, Nestor and Zimonjic are the overwhelming favourites to win their first Grand Slam title together.