Rafael Nadal will be seeking a fifth French Open title, a return to the world No. 1 ranking and revenge in Sunday’s championship match at Roland Garros.
The No. 2-seeded Nadal toppled Austrian Jurgen Melzer, playing in his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) Friday to reach the French Open final for a fifth time in six years, where he will face No. 5-seed Robin Soderling, the man who handed him his first and only career loss at Roland Garros last year in the round of 16.
Soderling, who shocked world No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, outlasted No. 15-seeded Tomas Berdych, also playing in his first-ever major semi, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the other Friday semifinal.
Nadal had been 31-0 on the famed red clay before losing to the big-hitting Swede last year. Nadal will appear in his fifth final here in six years, seeking a fifth title. Only Bjorn Borg, with six championships, has won more French Open titles than Nadal in the Open Era (since 1968).
The powerful Nadal is a six-time major champion, including four straight French Open titles from 2005-08. He’s now 37-1 lifetime at this Parisian major.
Nadal would supplant Roger Federer atop the men’s rankings for a second time with a title here this week. The Spaniard is seeking his fourth straight championship on the tour, having recently titled at Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, a trio of ATP Masters tournaments.
Soderling, meanwhile, will compete in his second straight Roland Garros finale. He lost to Federer in last year’s French Open finale.
Nadal cruised through the first two sets on Day 13, as he broke Melzer a pair of times in an easy first set and tallied two more breaks in the second. Up 5-4 and serving for the match, Nadal had a slight lapse. He lost four consecutive points, including a double-fault to give Melzer the break for 5-5.
The set went to a tiebreaker after both players held serve. A missed overhead by Nadal gave Melzer a quick 2-0 lead in the tiebreak, but Nadal responded with three straight points before back-to-back errors from Melzer gave the Spaniard a pair of match points at 6-4. Melzer, though, saved both — the second with a perfectly placed drop shot.
A forehand winner gave Nadal his third match point, which he converted when Melzer drilled a shot into the net.
The powerful Nadal, who turned 24 on Thursday, is now 3-0 lifetime against his fellow lefthander Melzer.
Soderling cruised through the first set against Berdych on Friday before the Czech returned the favor for an easy win in the second.
In the third set, Berdych broke Soderling to grab a 6-5 edge and then held his serve to surprisingly go up two-sets-to-one in the slugfest.
In set number four, the big Swede got a big break he needed to secure a 4-2 advantage and would ease his way to a set win after that.
The fifth set opened up with back-to-back breaks, but Soderling would assume control with the biggest break of the bout, as he grabbed a 4-3 lead in the deciding stanza. Soderling then held and broke again to reach a second straight final here. The Swede converted on his first match point on a sunny Friday when Berdych knocked a backhand wide to cap a lengthy match-ending rally.
Soderling advanced in 3 hours, 27 minutes despite being out-aced (21-18), tallying eight double faults, and recording 22 more unforced errors (63-41). The Swede did, however, have two more breaks of serve (6-4), which proved to be the difference in the end.