Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal book their spots in the Roland Garros semifinals on Wednesday. The two favorites take care of business in straight sets in respective victories over Tommy Haas and Stanislas Wawrinka.
Novak Djokovic continued his near-flawless trek through the French Open draw with a 6-3, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory over Tommy Haas during quarterfinal action on Wednesday afternoon. Djokovic fired 11 aces without double-faulting as he booked his spot in the last four alongside seven-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal.
The world No. 1, who has dropped only a single set all fortnight, came out in inspired form. He broke Haas twice and dropped a mere one point in four service games throughout a dominant opening-set performance.
Haas, who saved one match point a third-round thriller against John Isner before destroying Mikhail Youzhny, managed to make it competitive the rest of the way. The 35-year-old German survived a tough service game at 5-6 in the second to force a tiebreaker, during which he pocketed a 4-2 advantage. Djokovic, however, won five of the next six points and he clinched the set at 6-5 when Haas sent a backhand well wide.
Faced with a seemingly insurmountable deficit, Haas refused to go away without a fight. The No. 12 seed twice recovered from break deficits, first in the fourth game and again with his opponent serving for the match in the 10th game after fighting off a match point on serve at 3-5. Nonetheless, Djokovic earned another lead at 6-5 and this time he made no mistake with victory in sight. The top-seeded Serb wrapped up the proceedings with a love hold just a few minutes after Nadal held up his end of the bargain with a straight-set rout of Stanislas Wawrinka.
“I’m just thrilled to get through,” Djokovic assured. “It was a good performance for me in general. On the important points I came up with some good shots, but I could have done better.”
“I felt like I had a few chances here and there that I didn’t use today,” lamented Haas, who managed only 19 winners compared to Djokovic’s 46. “That’s crucial in these kind of matches, especially against the best player in the world…. It was incredible for me, no question about it. I’ll have some time next few days to look back and be proud of it. But now it’s still in the moment of being defeated in some ways and the run is over.”
Nadal’s run is only getting better and better. The fourth-ranked Spaniard has won three consecutive matches in straight sets after relative struggles in rounds one and two. He turned in his best performance of the fortnight in dismissing Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Nadal blasted 31 winners to just 17 unforced errors, while Wawrinka–coming off an epic five-set encounter against Richard Gasquet–finished with 23 winners and 40 mistakes.
“I’m happy the way that I played today,” said Nadal, who needed just one hour and 56 minutes to advance. “It was my best match of the tournament without any doubt. I said I need to make a change. I was confident that I can do it and I did.”
[polldaddy poll=7156096]
I’m not exactly confident in the number of sets, but I believe Nadal will avenge the loss in Monte Carlo. Nadal in 4.