Rafael Nadal may have begun this year’s French Open as world No1 and eight-time former champion, but in many people’s eyes, he was not as hot a favourite to win a record ninth as he had been in all those previous campaigns.
The reason was the man close on his tail in the rankings, No2 Novak Djokovic, who has made little secret of his desire to target the one Grand Slam title missing from his resume.
And should the in-form Serb claim the French title, it would not only bracket him with just seven other men to have won the complete set of Majors—company such as Roger Federer, Andre Agassi and Rod Laver, as well as Nadal—but also reclaim the top spot in the rankings that Nadal took from him last October.
Victory would taste especially sweet for Djokovic in the context of recent Roland Garros runs, too. The Serb was runner-up to Nadal in 2012 and lost a thrilling semi-final to the Spaniard last year after leading 4-2 in the fifth set.
His performance in reaching his 20th Grand Slam quarter-final in a row certainly threw down the gauntlet, a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 demolition of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in just 89 minutes. It took Djokovic’s run to nine matches, having claimed victory over Nadal at the Rome Masters a fortnight ago, and he might already have stolen that No1 ranking had he not been forced to miss the Madrid Masters with an arm injury.
By coincidence, though, to reach his sixth Roland Garros semi-final, Djokovic would have to take on one of the new set of players making a march towards the top of the rankings, Milos Raonic. Coincidence because the last of just two meetings with the 23-year-old No8 seed was in the semis of that successful Rome run, and Raonic had made life very hard indeed. Djokovic came through 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-3, but it proved that Raonic was more than just a one-trick pony, all serve and with no variety to back it up.
For there has been an increasing breadth and maturity to the Canadian’s game since he took on Ivan Ljubicic as his coach last year, reached his first Masters final in Montreal, and won two titles from three more finals. And although his big-hitting game is far from tailored to clay, he was now the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in the Open Era.
For the first two sets, the match was just as close as the Rome contest had been. Raonic served at 5-6 to take the opener to a tie-break but, with immaculate timing, Djokovic brought up break point with his signature backhand down the line. Raonic bravely attacked the net—an increasing tactic in the Canadian’s armoury—but Djokovic placed a backhand at the tall man’s feet to draw the error and the set, 7-5.
The second set did indeed reach a tie-break, with neither player earning a single break chance. The two men exchanged points against the serve in mid-game, but again Djokovic was deadly in his serve placement while Raonic missed two first serves in a row to leave himself open to the Serb’s precise attack from the baseline. A soaring kick serve from Djokovic on set point finished the job for a two-set lead, and he raced to a 4-0 lead in the third with two breaks.
Again, Raonic resisted with one break back, but the match was already out of his grasp, and Djokovic served out to claim his 29th win of the season, 6-4.
The second quarter-final in the bottom half of the draw brought together two of the form players of the year. Whoever survived between No6 seed Tomas Berdych and No18 Ernests Gulbis would move into second place for most match wins in 2014 behind Nadal’s 38.
Berdych had reached 31 wins via the Rotterdam title and finals in Dubai and Oeiras, plus a best-ever finish at the Australian Open—his semi finish completing his set of Grand Slam semis.
Gulbis reached his 31 after a surge through the rankings over the course of a year—the refocused and re-energised Latvian re-discovering his considerable talent after some see-sawing dedication to his sport. He arrived in Paris with two titles, most recently on the clay of Nice, and on a career-high No17 ranking, and his form continued to shine through a five-set victory over Federer in the fourth round.
That equalled Gulbis’s best-ever Grand Slam result, a run to the quarters at this same tournament a full six years ago when he was still a teenager, and marked only the third time Gulbis had advanced beyond the third round at a Major in 27 appearances.
In contrast, Berdych was Mr Consistency. He was playing in his 43rd consecutive Major, had been seeded at every Grand Slam played since the 2005 US Open, and was a permanent fixture in the top 10 since July 2010.
But the form that took Gulbis past Federer was on show again in a barn-storming performance during which the big Czech man looked second best for most of the match.
Gulbis broke twice to take a 4-0 lead, pinning Berdych at the net with a perfectly placed lob winner. Berdych managed one break back, but that would be his only break in the match. Gulbis sealed the set, 6-3, with 11 winners to just four errors—and the second set was even more tightly controlled.
Gulbis again broke straight away with a perfect drop shot, and sealed a second break for 4-1 when Berdcyh double faulted. With little more than an hour on the clock, Gulbis took the set 6-2—and not to break a good game plan, again broke Berdych in the first game of the third.
Another 40 or so minutes, and Gulbis was serving for the match, having faced not one further break point, to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final, 6-4.
This extrovert and articulate man was, naturally, delighted—and had delighted Paris, too.
He admitted: “Today was the best match of the tournament. I did everything well.” He was not wrong. He hit 31 winners to just 17 errors—but he will be mindful of the fact that Djokovic did even better: 39 winners for only 19 errors.
The two men have met five times, Djokovic winning four of them. But the last was more than three years ago and their only clay meeting was at Roland Garros six years ago. That was a very close three-setter—this time, it could go all the way to a fifth.