Gael Monfils, riding a wave of passionate French support, and Novak Djokovic, the world’s best player in 2008, plan to derail Roger Federer’s and Rafael Nadal’s French Open semifinal ambitions on Friday.
Unseeded Monfils, the swashbuckling, unpredictable Frenchman, is the first home player to reach the Roland Garros last four in seven years.
A month ago, his career was in such disarray that he was playing in a second-tier Challenger in Marrakech, trying to salvage his game as well as a fractious relationship with his coach.
The 21-year-old takes on Federer, who has comfortably won all three of their career meetings and is desperate to add an elusive French Open to his 12-strong Grand Slam title collection.
In the other semifinal, Australian Open champion Djokovic, also 21, faces Nadal, who’s bidding to join Bjorn Borg as the only man to win four successive French Opens.
Nadal has won all 26 matches he has played at Roland Garros while Djokovic, the colourful Serbian who can snatch the Spaniard’s world number-two ranking should he win, has been beaten in seven of his 10 career meetings with the champion.
Monfils, who reached his first Grand Slam semifinal with a four-set dismissal of Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer, believes destiny could be on his side.
It’s exactly 25 years since Yannick Noah won France’s last men’s title and he believes he can use the occasion to his advantage.
”It’s the Lakers versus Boston,” said Monfils, the 2004 junior champion, using the NBA championship match-up as his inspiration.
”It’s going to be a big match, probably the most important match in my career so far.”
Federer, beaten here in the last three years by Nadal, including the 2006 and 2007 finals, has reached a record 16th successive Grand Slam semifinal.
”This is usually where I hope to play my best, especially here at the French, which is supposed to maybe be the toughest one for me,” said the world number one.
Should he get past Monfils and face Nadal again in the final, he insists he won’t make the same mistakes as Nicolas Almagro, who was brushed aside by the champion in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.
”I would have thought Nicolas would have given him a better run for the money,” said Federer. ”But I read some quotes before the match like he thought that Rafa is so good and so great and maybe he didn’t really believe in it. So if you don’t believe in it against Rafa, you’re not going to win.”
Nadal and Djokovic will square up in the other semifinal, determined to ignore the history-tinged implications of their mouth-watering contest.
Nadal is growing weary of comparisons with Borg, who completed his four successive titles in 1981, five years before he was even born.
He is also quick to remind people that so far he has collected 26 tour trophies whereas Borg won six French Opens and 62 titles in all.
”This is just talk, talk, talk. What is important is to play well on the court on Friday, and we’ll see who wins,” said Nadal.
Despite Nadal’s reluctance to mention himself in the same breath as the great Swede, his form here has been impressive.
His victory over Almagro, who arrived at Roland Garros with more clay-court wins in 2008 than any other player, was the most one-sided quarterfinal in French Open history.
Furthermore, he has lost just 25 games in five rounds, the lowest in any Grand Slam event in the Open era. But Djokovic is not in an entirely hopeless position.
He may have lost seven of the pair’s 10 meetings, but has shared the last four while two of his defeats — at Wimbledon in 2007 and here in the 2006 quarterfinals — have come about through an injury-enforced retirement.
The Serbian lost to Nadal at the same stage in 2007, but took him to three sets in the semifinal of the Hamburg Masters clay-court tournament three weeks ago.
”I don’t want to get into the history books by beating Nadal. It’s not my priority,” said Djokovic.
”My priority is to keep winning, keep playing well, and then just try to get as far as I can in the tournament. Winning the Grand Slam title is much more important.” — Sapa-AFP