Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro will square off at Roland Garros on Friday afternoon. With Federer seeking his first French Open and Del Potro in search of his first Grand Slam, a spot in the title match is at stake.
It seems like the stars have aligned for Roger Federer to capture his first French Open title and equal Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam triumphs.
World No. 1 and four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal is out of the way. So, too, are Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Only Juan Martin Del Potro, Fernando Gonzalez, and Robin Soderling stand in Federer's way.
It will be Del Potro who gets the first crack at Federer, and they will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers on Friday afternoon in the semifinals. Federer leads the head-to-head series by a perfect 5-0 score, including 1-0 on clay. They most recently met in the semis of the Masters Series Madrid, where Federer prevailed 6-3, 6-4. Their other 2009 encounter came in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Federer, who has never lost a single set to Del Potro, dominated that meeting 6-3, 6-0, 6-0.
Although the Madrid clash was far from encouraging for Del Potro, clay should give him his best chance of upsetting Federer. While it is the Swiss' least favorite surface, Del Potro should be just as formidable on the slow stuff as he is on hard courts. Two of the Argentine's four consecutive titles during the summer of 2008 were captured on dirt, and he upset Murray to book his place in the Madrid semis. The world No. 5 has been in stellar form this season regardless of surface, reaching at least the quarterfinals in eight of nine prior tournaments, including a title in Auckland and his quarterfinal appearance at the Aussie Open. In Paris, Del Potro dispatched Michael Llodra, Viktor Troicki and Igor Andreev--all without losing a set--before ousting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four to reach the quarters. The 20-year-old then hammered Tommy Robredo in straight sets to clinch his forst Grand Slam semifinal.
In Federer, Del Potro will be facing by far his toughest opponent of the fortnight. The world No. 2 owns a 31-6 match record in 2009, a mark that is extremely impressive by almost anyone else's standards. For Federer, however, it leaves a little bit to be desired. If he was slumping earlier in the season, Federer got just what he needed by earning his first ATP title of the year last month on the clay courts of Madrid. He has certainly capitalized on that momentum in Paris, but not without a struggle. After ousting Alberto Martin, Federer dropped sets to Jose Acasuso and Paul-Henri Mathieu. The 13-time Grand Slam champion then came back from two sets down against Tommy Haas in the fourth round. In Wednesday's quarterfinals, Federer was finally at his best in a straight-set victory over Gael Monfils.
Their head-to-head record notwithstanding, Del Potro actually has the tools to give Federer some problems. The underdog moves extremely well for his size (6'6'') and blasts heavy groundstrokes off both wings. Nonetheless, Del Potro has almost nothing going for him as he heads into this matchup. Federer is immeasurably more experienced at this stage of a Grand Slam and there is almost no way his opponent will be able to block their past history out of his head. Del Potro's only realy chance is for Federer to endure a dismal serving day, thus getting opportunities to fire away at second serves.
Don't count on that happening. Instead, Federer should roll over Del Potro in straight sets for the sixth consecutive time. At that point, he'll be one win away from history.
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