Defending champion Rafael Nadal pulled no punches as he crushed close friend and former winner Carlos Moya in straight sets to move closer to a third straight French Open title on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old cruised to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 victory against the 1998 champion to set up a meeting with in-form Serb Novak Djokovic, who earlier reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by dismissing Russian Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
The 26th-ranked Moya, who like Nadal, hails from the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, could find no way past the younger player whose career he has helped guide for the past nine years.
The defending champion easily subdued the challenge of the 30-year-old.
”I’ve improved my game as the matches have progressed. Those against Lleyton Hewitt [in the fourth round] and Carlos were the most difficult, but I played at a high level as well,” said Nadal.
Moya was left to rue his missed chances.
”I didn’t play really good tennis. If you play like that that’s what happens.
”At the beginning he wasn’t playing that well. I broke him in the first set but after he won the first set it was easy for him.”
Nadal remains wary of Djokovic who was forced to retire injured in their quarterfinal after two sets here last year.
Since then the two men have met three times with Nadal winning twice, including on clay in Rome last month.
”He’s [Djokovic] had an amazing season. I’m not surprised he has got so far. He’s one of the possible future world number ones. I’ll have to be at my top level,” added the Spaniard.
Nadal is now within two wins of emulating Bjorn Borg’s mark of three successive French Open titles after extending his Roland Garros record to 19 wins in 19 matches.
It also kept him on course for a possible clash on Sunday against world number one Roger Federer, who is bidding to become the third man in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
The top seed faces Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in the other semifinal on Friday.
Earlier Djokovic continued Serbia’s surge when he came through a straight-sets winner in two hours 10 minutes on the Philippe Chatrier centre court.
The 20-year-old, the youngest player left in the men’s draw, will be the fourth Serb to feature in the last four with compatriots Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic already in the semifinals of the women’s singles.
Another Serb, Nenad Zimonjic, has made it into the semifinal in the men’s doubles. — AFP
