PARIS, 5 JUNE: Rafael Nadal cruised into the French Open semi-finals on Wednesday with a routine 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 win over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
The win brought the Spaniard’s match record at Roland Garros to a remarkable 57-1 as he seeks to become the first player in history to win the same Grand Slam title eight times. But to get to Sunday’s final, he will have to defeat top seed and great rival Novak Djokovic, who won their last encounter on clay in Monte Carlo in April.
Djokovic had a slightly harder time of it against German veteran Tommy Haas, advancing on a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 scoreline.
The odds were firmly stacked against Wawrinka going into what was his first French Open quarter-final match in nine campaigns at Roland Garros. He had lost all nine previous matchups against Nadal, failing to win a single set, and had needed treatement for a leg strain during his five-set marathon win over Gasquet in the fourth round when he came back from two sets down. The odds looked spot on in the first set as Nadal broke the Swiss player’s serve in the opening game and then again in the fifth to take the first set 6-2.
Nadal then jumped out into a 3-1 lead with another break early in the second set before Wawrinka had a glimmer of hope with a break back to get to 3-3.
But that was as far as it got for the ninth seed as Nadal simply added extra muscle to his pounding groundstrokes, leaving Wawrinka reeling under their weight and precision.
Nadal ran off three quick games in a row to take a two sets to love lead and it was clear that Wawrinka’s chances of another major comeback were next to impossible.
 He did have a break point to savour as the third set got underway, but a thumping Nadal first serve erased that and then Wawrinka was broken again in the next game. Top seed Djokovic needs a Roland Garros title to become just the eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
It was a match too far for the 35-year-old Haas who was bidding to become the oldest semi-finalist at a major since Andre Agassi at the 2005 US Open and second oldest in Paris.
Djokovic has vowed to win the tournament in honour of his childhood coach, Jelena Gencic, who passed away at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka set up a mouth-watering French Open semi-final on Wednesday with hard-fought wins in their quarter-finals.
The defending champion Russian survived a nightmare start to hold on to her crown for at least another day with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over tough Jelena Jankovic in a compelling quarter-final tie.
World number three Azarenka reached her first semi-final at Roland Garros when she defeated friend and former doubles partner, Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2. afp