Four-time champion Rafael Nadal and the only man to have defeated him at Roland Garros, Robin Soderling, each have one last hurdle to overcome in order to set up a highly anticipated final showdown.
The two Top 10 players will respectively confront first-time Grand Slam semi-finalists Jurgen Melzer and Tomas Berdych on Friday in Paris.
World No. 2 Nadal takes a 2-0 head-to-head record into his match against the 29-year-old Melzer, to be played second on Court Philippe Chatrier. Nadal conceded just four games in each of their previous two meetings, in the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics and last year on clay at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. (View Nadal vs Melzer)
Nadal, who celebrated his 24th birthday Thursday, boasts the longest active winning streak on the circuit, unbeaten in 20 straight matches starting in April at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He has lost just two sets in the 20 matches, and has yet to drop a set this past fortnight, including wins over No. 28 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 24 Thomaz Bellucci and No. 19 Nicolas Almagro. The previous two times Nadal reached the Roland Garros semi-finals without dropping a set, in 2007 and ’08, he went on to win the title.
The Spaniard will be attempting to reach his ninth Grand Slam final and his fifth at Roland Garros, having claimed the title on his first four tournament appearances from 2005-08 before falling to Soderling in the fourth round last year. Should he triumph on Sunday, Nadal would complete the ‘clay court Slam’ – a single season sweep of the three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay tournaments and Roland Garros – and regain the No. 1 South African Airways ATP Ranking.
While Nadal will be contesting his 11th semi-final from his past 16 Grand Slams, his opponent has been the surprise story of the men’s draw. Melzer had been unable to advance beyond the third round in his 31 previous majors before breaking through this week. En route to the final four, he dismissed 2010 clay-court match wins leader David Ferrer in straight sets and rallied from two sets down to upset World No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
The 27th-ranked Melzer will be the first Austrian man to appear in the Roland Garros semi-finals since 1995, when Thomas Muster claimed the title. With a win Friday, he would match Kim Warwick’s record of most Grand Slams played before reaching his first final.
The first semi-final of the day, to begin at 1pm on Court Philippe Chatrier, features two big hitters in the 6’4” Soderling and 6’5” Berdych. Soderling leads the head-to-head series 5-3, though Berdych won their most recent encounter this past April in the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. (View Soderling vs Berdych)
Of the semi-finalists, Soderling has spent the least amount of time on court – progressing through his five matches in nine hours and 25 minutes. The 25 year old became the first player the dethrone the defending men’s champion in consecutive years at Roland Garros, following his impressive display against World No. 1 Roger Federer in quarter-final action Wednesday, and became just the second player to defeat both Federer and Nadal at a major.
By reaching the Roland Garros final for a second straight year, Soderling would attain a new career-high ranking. He would move to No. 6 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings with a runner-up showing and to No. 4 by reaching the final. Meanwhile, former World No. 9 Berdych would move back into the Top 10 should he reach the final.
Like Nadal, Berdych has yet to drop a set this past fortnight. The 24-year-old Czech posted wins over No. 17 John Isner, No. 4 Andy Murray and No. 11 Mikhail Youzhny to extend his current winning streak to eight matches. Berdych began his Roland Garros campaign with a 0-12 record against Top 10 players at a Grand Slam tournament, but stepped up to defeat World No. 4 Murray in the fourth round.
He is looking to become the first Czech to reach the Roland Garros final since Petr Korda finished runner-up to Jim Courier in 1992.
