Paris: For the fourth straight time in a Grand Slam final it will be Novak Djokovic versus Rafael Nadal. That Nadal won his French Open semifinal in a breeze against David Ferrer was no shock.
That Djokovic ran into only a wisp of a challenge from Roger Federer ' well, that came as a bigger surprise.
The top two players each won in straight sets on Friday ' Nadal in a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 whitewashing of sixth-seeded Ferrer and Djokovic in a 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 win over Federer that didn't feel that close.
On Sunday, they meet and someone will make history: Either Nadal will win his seventh French Open to break the record he shares with Bjorn Borg or Djokovic will become the first man in 43 years to win four straight Grand Slam tournaments.
And while they'll have trouble putting on a better show than their last Grand Slam final ' the nearly six-hour, five-set drama Djokovic won at the Australian Open ' it shouldn't be hard to stage a more competitive day of tennis than what happened in the semi-finals.
The key stat in Djokovic's win was Federer's 46 unforced errors to 17 for Djokovic. Federer, a 16-time major championship winner, struggled with the conditions on yet another windy day at Roland Garros as well as the pressure of having to go for big shots to get anything past his top-seeded Serbian opponent.
Serving to stay in the first set, Federer missed four forehands over the span of five points en route to the loss.
He came out in the second set and overcame a love-40 deficit in the first game, including swatting away a volley winner after Djokovic chased down a lob and hit it between his legs as part of a 38-shot rally that wound up as the best point of the match.
Federer broke Djokovic again for a 3-0 lead and it appeared a possible repeat of last year's thrilling US Open semi-final, in which Djokovic saved two match points to win a five-setter, might be in store.
Instead, Djokovic won 13 of the next 18 games to avenge his last loss in a Grand Slam tournament ' a four-set loss to Federer here last year at the same stage of the French Open.
Since his loss to Federer last year, Djokovic has won 27 straight Grand Slam matches, matching Federer for second place on the Open era list. Another win would give Djokovic the non-calendar-year Grand Slam, and if he were to follow that with a win in the first round of Wimbledon, he would share the record with Rod Laver, the last man to win the four biggest tournaments in a row.
In his way will be Nadal, whose six French Open titles aren't the only thing he's got in common with Borg. Nadal has yet to lose a set at the tournament and has dropped only 35 games in six matches. A number that low hasn't been seen since 1980, when Borg lost only 31. (Borg also holds the record ' 27 in 1978).
(agencies)