Bob Larson's Tennis News | <u>Paris</u>: Roland Garros Men's Tennis Preview - Federer vs. Davydenko and Nadal vs. Djokovic

PHILIPPE CHATRIER: No. 1 Roger Federer (SUI) v No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)

· The third-youngest Roland Garros semifinal in the Open Era when 21-year-old Rafael Nadal plays Novak Djokovic, 20. Nadal is bidding to become the first man since Jim Courier in 1993 to reach three consecutive Roland Garros finals; Djokovic is attempting to become the first Serbian man in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final.

· 2006 runner-up Roger Federer bids to reach a record eighth consecutive Grand Slam final, so breaking his tie with Jack Crawford. Federer’s chances of getting one step closer to completing a career Grand Slam would appear to be boosted by his 8-0 record against today’s opponent Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko is hoping to advance to his first Grand Slam final; he would become just the second Russian to do so at Roland Garros in the Open Era.

Three of the four semifinalist are among the top eight performers on clay this season, through the completion of the quarterfinals. Davydenko is currently in 15^th place, being 13-6 on clay in 2007.

2007 clay court leaders*

Rank	Player	Win-Loss
1.	Rafael Nadal	24-1
2.	Juan Monaco	20-6
	Nicolas Almagro	20-8
4.	Juan Carlos Ferrero	18-9
	Juan Ignacio Chela	18-9
	Albert Montanes	18-10
7.	Novak Djokovic	16-3
	Guillermo Canas	16-6
8.	Roger Federer	15-2
	Tomas Berdych	15-7
	Carlos Moya	15-8
	Potito Starace	15-9
	Igor Andreev	15-10

Head-to-head: Federer leads 8-0

This is the pair’s third meeting in a Grand Slam tournament, their last two match-ups being at majors, and today is a rematch of their semifinal meeting at last year’s US Open. Federer won in straight sets at Flushing Meadows for his eighth straight win over the Russian, and fourth in straight sets. Today marks just their second encounter on clay.

Road to the semifinals ^ scorecard time

Federer	Time^		Time^	Davydenko
d. Michael Russell 64 62 64	1:44	1st Round	1:31	d. Stefano Galvani 63 61 61
d. (WC) Thierry Ascione 61 62 76	1:51	2nd Round	2:05	d. Werner Eschauer 75 63 61
d. Potito Starace 62 63 60	1:31	3rd Round	1:53	d. Michael Llodra 64 62 64
d. No. 13 Mikhail Youzhny 76 64 64	2:25	Round of 16	3:24	d. No. 15 David Nalbandian 63 76 36 76
d. No. 9 Tommy Robredo 75 16 61 62	2:02	Quarterfinals	3:00	d. No. 19 Guillermo Canas 75 64 64

· Federer dropped his first set at this year’s Roland Garros against Tommy Robredo in the quarterfinals, ending his streak of 36 consecutive sets won in Grand Slams in the Open Era. By winning the first set against Robredo, Federer did however establish a new outright record for consecutive sets won in Grand Slams in the Open Era, having won 36 in a row stretching back to the third set of the 2006 US Open final. This broke his tie with John McEnroe, who won 35 in a row in 1984.

· In dropping the second set to Tommy Robredo in their quarterfinal on Tuesday, Federer’s streak of straight-sets victories in Grand Slam matches in the Open Era ended at 11. He equalled the record of John McEnroe, who also won 11 Grand Slam matches in straight sets from the second round at 1984 Wimbledon through the 1984 US Open quarterfinals.

· Through his defeat of Robredo here, Federer has now won 26 successive Grand Slam matches going back to Wimbledon last year. He is today bidding to equal his longest streak of wins in Grand Slams, which he set from 2005 Wimbledon through the 2006 Roland Garros semifinals. Overall, that streak of 27 straight matches put Federer in second place for the longest Grand Slam winning streak in the Open Era, behind Rod Laver. Federer would equal Laver’s record run of 29 consecutive victories in majors if he wins the title here and goes on to win his first round match at Wimbledon.

Longest Grand Slam winning streaks in the Open Era

· Federer has reached the Roland Garros semifinals for the third consecutive year, and is bidding to reach the final here for the second year in a row, having defeated David Nalbandian 36 64 52 ret. (abdominal strain) in the 2006 semifinal before losing to Rafael Nadal 16 61 64 76 in the final. He lost in the 2005 Roland Garros semifinals, falling to Nadal 63 46 64 63.

· Federer is appearing in his 12th straight Grand Slam semifinal. He set a new all-time record at the 2007 Australian Open, when , by reaching his 11^th successive semifinal, he surpassed Rod Laver’s run of 10 straight Grand Slam semifinal appearances from 1960 Wimbledon through 1962 Roland Garros, and Ivan Lendl’s streak of ten major semifinals from the 1985 US Open through the 1988 Australian Open.

· Federer has an 11-2 record in Grand Slam semifinals. His two losses at the semifinal stage were at the 2005 Australian Open (l. Marat Safin 57 64 57 76 97), and at 2005 Roland Garros, which marked the last time he failed to reach the final at a major (l. Rafael Nadal 63 46 64 63). Both Safin and Nadal defeated Federer on their birthdays – it is not Davydenko’s birthday today, though the Russian did celebrate his 26^th birthday last Saturday.

· The last time Federer lost before the semifinals at a major was at 2004 Roland Garros, where he fell in the third round to three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten 64 64 64.

· Federer is today bidding to reach his eighth consecutive Grand Slam final. If he defeats Nadal and advances to 2007 Roland Garros final, he will set a new all-time record for successive appearances in major finals, breaking his tie with Jack Crawford.

· Federer is bidding to become the sixth man in the Open Era to reach 12 or more Grand Slam finals.

Grand Slam finals reached (Open Era)

· Federer has a 32-6 win-loss record against Russians, four of those losses (all to Yevgeny Kafelnikov) coming in his first six meetings with players from the nation. Since his last defeat by Kafelnikov (2001 Marseille), he stands at 30-2; his two losses since have both been to Marat Safin, at 2002 Moscow and the 2005 Australian Open.

· Federer has a 5-2 win-loss record against Russian opponents at Grand Slams. This is just Federer’s second meeting with a Russian at Roland Garros, his first being his round of 16 victory this year against Mikhail Youzhny. It is also just the second time that Federer has faced two Russian opponents in the same tournament. He defeated Denis Golovanov in the first round at 2002 Moscow before losing to Marat Safin in the quarterfinals there.

· Federer has been at No. 1 in the rankings for 175 weeks, having been at the top every week since 2 February 2004. This is a record for consecutive weeks at No. 1 – he overtook Jimmy Connors’ mark of 160 straight weeks on 26^th February. Federer is in fourth place for the most total weeks at No. 1, behind Pete Sampras (286 weeks), Ivan Lendl (270 weeks) and Connors (268).

· Federer is making his ninth appearance at Roland Garros, having played every year since making his Grand Slam debut as a wild card in 1999.

· Federer reached the Roland Garros final for the first time last year, becoming the seventh man in the Open Era to reach the final at all four Grand Slam events (the others are Andre Agassi, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Jim Courier). Federer’s loss in the final to defending champion Rafael Nadal 16 61 64 76 was one of just five losses for Federer in 2006, four of which were to Nadal (the fifth was to Andy Murray).

· For the third successive year, Federer is bidding at Roland Garros to become only the sixth man in history to win all four Grand Slam titles. The five men to have achieved the ‘career Grand Slam’ are Andre Agassi, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Fred Perry. Budge and Laver, of course, won the much-coveted Grand Slam, Budge winning all four major tournaments in a single calendar year in 1938, before Laver did so in 1962 and 1969.

· With his chances of achieving both a career Grand Slam and a true (calendar year) Grand Slam still alive, Federer is also bidding, for the second successive year, to become just the third man in history to win four majors in a row. Of the five men to win all four majors in their careers, only Budge and Laver held all four titles at the same time. Perry, Emerson and Agassi were never able to win four consecutive Grand Slams.

· In the 38 years since Laver completed his second Grand Slam in 1969, Agassi is the only man to have been able to capture the elusive fourth different major. In that time, 11 other men have collected three of the four major titles. In every case, the players failed to win either Roland Garros or Wimbledon to complete their set. [For more detail see Preview page 3.]

· Federer has collected his ten Grand Slam titles in his last 15 Grand Slam tournaments. If he is able to go on and win his 11^th major title at 2007 Roland Garros, he would move into even more exclusive company on the Grand Slam title leaderboard. Four men have 11 or more Grand Slam titles to their names. [See table overleaf.]

· Federer is bidding to become the first man in 15 years to win the Australian Open and Roland Garros in the same year. Rod Laver, in 1969, Mats Wilander, in 1988, and Jim Courier, in 1992, are the only men to win the two events back-to-back within a calendar year in the Open Era. In the history of the sport, only eight men have won the Australian Open-Roland Garros double, with Laver and Roy Emerson having done so twice.[For more details, see Page 4 of Preview.]

· Federer’s 124-21 win-loss record in Grand Slam tournaments is the best among active players (in terms of matches won).

· Although Federer has won three titles so far in 2007, by his standards this season has been disappointing. Before the start of Roland Garros, his win-loss record for the season was only seventh-best, at 24-4. Federer’s victory at AMS Hamburg broke a run of four straight tournament losses, his longest streak without winning a title since taking over the No. 1 ranking in February 2004. After winning the Australian Open and Dubai, Federer lost in the second round at AMS Indian Wells to Guillermo Canas 75 62 (after a first round bye), and again to Canas, 76 26 76, in the round of 16 at AMS Miami. Federer reached the final at AMS Monte Carlo before losing to Rafael Nadal, and was then upset by wild card Filippo Volandri 62 64 in the round of 16 at AMS Rome.

· Federer’s recent victory at Hamburg was his fourth win at the tournament and marked his first defeat of Rafael Nadal in six clay court meetings. He defeated the Spaniard 26 62 60 in the final to improve his career head-to-head against Nadal to 4-7. Federer will meet Nadal in the final here, if both advance today.

· Federer comes into the semifinals on a ten-match winning streak. Victory for Federer today would see him win 11 consecutive matches on clay for the third time in his career. He won 11 straight matches when winning AMS Hamburg and reaching the semifinals here in 2005. (Unlike this year, Federer did not receive a first-round bye at 2005 Hamburg.) Federer’s longest clay court winning streak is 12, set between September 2002 and May 2003 when he won two Davis Cup rubbers for Switzerland against Morocco (2002 World Group play-off), then won at Munich and reached the final at AMS Rome in spring 2003.

· Federer’s title at Hamburg last month (see above) was the 48^th of his career and moved him ahead of Rod Laver on the list of all-time Open Era title leaders and into sole ownership of tenth place.

· Gustavo Kuerten was the last No. 1 seed to win Roland Garros, in 2001. The top seed has reached the final here 14 times in the 39 previous Roland Garros championships in the Open Era, going on to win the title 11 times . [For more details, see Preview page 11.]

· Roland Garros was the only junior Grand Slam event at which Federer did not reach the semifinals or better. On his only appearance in the boys’ singles here in 1998, he lost to Jaroslay Levinsky 64 57 97.

· The only other Swiss player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open Era is Marc Rosset, who lost at 1996 Roland Garros to Michael Stich 63 64 62.

· Davydenko is through to his second Roland Garros semifinal, and third Grand Slam semifinal. He is bidding to reach his first Grand Slam final.

· Davydenko celebrated his 26^th birthday last Saturday and is the oldest semifinalist at 2007 Roland Garros.

· Davydenko is playing his seventh Roland Garros. He lost in the quarterfinals last year to David Nalbandian 63 63 26 64.

· Davydenko has matched his best Roland Garros result, having reached his first Grand Slam semifinal here in 2005, losing to eventual runner-up Mariano Puerta 63 57 26 64 64. He also advanced to the last four at the 2006 US Open, losing to today’s opponent Federer 61 75 64.

· Prior to reaching the semis here in 2005, Davydenko had never advanced beyond the Roland Garros second round, losing at that stage on his first three appearances.

· Davydenko is one of five different Russian men to reach the Roland Garros semifinals in the Open Era, along with Alex Metreveli, Andrei Chesnokov, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin. He is one of seven different Russians to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. (Metreveli represented the USSR, but was actually from Georgia.)

· Davydenko is now bidding to become the second different Russian finalist at Roland Garros in the Open Era – Yevgeny Kafelnikov went on to win the title here 11 years ago – and the fourth different Russian Grand Slam finalist, after Metreveli, Kafelnikov and Safin.

· A Russian has gone on to reach a Grand Slam final on eight previous occasions in the Open Era.

Russian Grand Slam semifinalists (Open Era)

Event	Player	Semifinal result	Eventual finish
1972 Australian Open	Alex Metreveli	l. Mal Anderson 63 76 76	--
1972 Roland Garros	Alex Metreveli	l. Andres Gimeno 46 63 61 26 63	--
1973 Wimbledon	Alex Metreveli	d. Sandy Mayer 63 36 63 64	Runner-up
1989 Roland Garros	Andrei Chesnokov	l. Michael Chang 61 57 76 75	--
1993 US Open	Alexander Volkov	l. Pete Sampras 64 63 62	--
1995 Roland Garros	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	l. Thomas Muster 64 60 64	--
1996 Roland Garros	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	d. Pete Sampras 76 60 62	Champion
1999 Australian Open	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	d. Tommy Haas 63 64 75	Champion
1999 US Open	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	l. Andre Agassi 16 63 63 63	--
2000 Australian Open	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	d. Magnus Norman 61 62 64	Runner-up
2000 US Open	Marat Safin	d. Todd Martin 63 76 76	Champion
2001 US Open	Marat Safin Yevgeny Kafelnikov	l. Pete Sampras 63 76 63 l. Lleyton Hewitt 61 62 61	-- --
2002 Australian Open	Marat Safin	d. Tommy Haas 67 76 36 60 62	Runner-up
2002 Roland Garros	Marat Safin	l. Juan Carlos Ferrero 63 62 64	--
2004 Australian Open	Marat Safin	d. Andre Agassi 76 76 57 16 63	Runner-up
2005 Australian Open	Marat Safin	d. Roger Federer 57 64 57 76 97	Champion
2005 Roland Garros	Nikolay Davydenko	l. Mariano Puerta 63 57 26 64 64	---
2006 US Open	Mikhail Youzhny Nikolay Davydenko	l. Andy Roddick 67 60 76 63 l. Roger Federer 61 75 64	--- ---
2007 Roland Garros	Nikolay Davydenko	v. Roger Federer ???	???

· Davydenko has a 0-10 record against the world No. 1. As well as having eight losses to Federer (see head-to-head above), Davydenko also lost to No. 1-ranked Lleyton Hewitt at 2003 Roland Garros, 63 46 63 76 in the second round, and to No. 1-ranked Andre Agassi at 2003 AMS Montreal, 76 62 in the second round.

· Against Swiss opponents, Davydenko has a 1-9 career record. Most of this is accounted for by his 0-8 head-to-head against Federer. Davydenko’s lone victory over a Swiss player was defeating Marc Rosset 75 61 in the second round at 2001 Basle; he also lost to Michel Kratochvil 64 62 64 in the first round at 2002 Wimbledon.

· The last No. 4 seed to reach the final here was Rafael Nadal en route to the title in 2005.

· Immediately before 2007 Roland Garros, Davydenko played at Portschach, having won the title in Austria for the past two years. This time however, as No. 1 seed, he lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Juan Monaco 62 67 64.

· Before coming here, Davydenko’s best result on clay this year was reaching the semifinals at AMS Rome, where he defeated Tommy Robredo 16 63 63 in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal 76 67 64 in a match lasting three hours, 38 minutes. Two weeks earlier, he had reached the quarterfinals at Barcelona, but gave a walkover to Guillermo Canas in that round due to a wrist injury.

· To date, Davydenko’s best results on all surfaces this season have been semifinal finishes, reaching the last four at Doha and indoors at Rotterdam, both on hard court, before doing so at AMS Rome. He was also a quarterfinalist for the third successive year at the Australian Open (l. Tommy Haas 63 26 16 61 75).

· Five of Davydenko’s ten career titles have been won on clay. He has won a title on clay every year 2003-06, starting at 2003 Estoril. Last year he won two titles on clay – Portschach and Sopot – for the first time, and won five titles overall, tying him for second place with James Blake and Rafael Nadal for most titles won in 2006 behind Roger Federer.

· Davydenko was born in Severodonezk, now part of the Ukraine but formerly in the USSR, and moved to Salmtal, Germany, at the age of 15 to live with his brother Eduard and his sister-in-law. His brother, who is 11 years older than him, is his coach. Davydenko received Russian citizenship when he was 18 and moved back to Russia in early 2004.

Head-to-head: Nadal leads 3-1

The pair had their first meeting in the quarterfinals here last year, and have since played three more times. As well as leading their overall series, Nadal leads 2-0 on clay, having won both their previous match-ups without losing a set. He only played two sets against Djokovic here last year before the Serb retired.

Nadal turned 21 last Sunday, while Djokovic celebrated his 20^th birthday the week before the start of tournament. Of the 128 men who started in the draw here, Djokovic was the ninth-youngest, and Nadal the 12^th-youngest.

Their match-up here has produced the third-youngest Roland Garros semifinal in the Open Era.

Djokovic is bidding to become the eighth-youngest finalist at Roland Garros in the Open Era; Nadal, meanwhile, would be the 14^th youngest if he reaches the final again this year. Nadal was younger than Djokovic is now in both his previous appearances in Roland Garros finals.

Youngest Roland Garros finalists (Open Era)

Finalist	Year	Age*	Result in final	Final result
Michael Chang	1989	17 years, 109 days	d. Stefan Edberg 61 36 46 64 62	Champion
Mats Wilander	1982	17 years, 288 days	d. Guillermo Vilas 16 76 60 64	Champion
Bjorn Borg	1974	18 years, 10 days	d. Manuel Orantes 26 67 60 61 61	Champion
Mats Wilander	1983	18 years, 287 days	l. Yannick Noah 62 75 76	Runner-up
Rafael Nadal	2005	19 years, 2 days	d. Mariano Puerta 67 63 61 75	Champion
Bjorn Borg	1975	19 years, 9 days	d. Guillermo Vilas 62 63 64	Champion
Rafael Nadal	2006	20 years, 8 days	d. Roger Federer 16 61 64 76	Champion
*Novak Djokovic???*	*2007???*	*20 years, 19 days*	*v. ???*	*???*
Andre Agassi	1990	20 years, 42 days	l. Andres Gomez 63 26 64 64	Runner-up
Gustavo Kuerten	1997	20 years, 271 days	d. Sergi Bruguera 63 64 62	Champion
Mats Wilander	1985	20 years, 291 days	d. Ivan Lendl 36 64 62 62	Champion
Jim Courier	1991	20 years, 296 days	d. Andre Agassi 36 64 26 61 64	Champion
Alberto Berasategui	1994	20 years, 342 days	l. Sergi Bruguera 63 75 26 61	Runner-up
*Rafael Nadal???*	*2007???*	*21 years, 7 days*	*v. ???*	*???*
Andre Agassi	1991	21 years, 41 days	l. Jim Courier 36 64 26 61 64	Runner-up

Nadal and Djokovic are in first and second place respectively for the most match wins this season: Nadal has a 41-6 record in 2007, Djokovic stands at 40-8.

Road to the semifinals ^ scorecard time

Nadal	Time^		Time^	Djokovic
d. Juan-Martin Del Potro 75 63 62	2:19	1st Round	2:11	d. (LL) Santiago Giraldo 63 76 64
d. (Q) Flavio Cipolla 62 61 64	1:53	2nd Round	2:15	d. (Q) Laurent Recouderc 63 36 63 61
d. Albert Montanes 61 63 62	2:21	3rd Round	4:04	d. (WC) Olivier Patience 76 26 36 76 63
d. No. 14 Lleyton Hewitt 63 61 76	2:21	Round of 16	2:45	d. Fernando Verdasco 63 63 76
d. No. 23 Carlos Moya 64 63 60	2:02	Quarterfinals	2:12	d. Igor Andreev 63 63 63

· Nadal is the only player to advance to the semifinals without losing a set. This is the first time that Nadal has reached the Roland Garros semifinals without losing a set; the furthest he had previously advanced at this event in straight sets was the round of 16, in 2005.

· Nadal has improved his Roland Garros record to 19-0 through the first five rounds. In 2005 he became the first man to win the event on his debut since Mats Wilander in 1982, and the fourth-youngest Roland Garros champion in the Open Era, defeating Mariano Puerta 67 63 61 75 in the final. Nadal defeated Roger Federer 16 61 64 76 in the 2006 final.

· Nadal is bidding to become the first man since Jim Courier in 1993 to reach three consecutive Roland Garros finals, and the fourth man in the Open Era to do so.

· Courier won the title in 1991 (d. Andre Agassi) and 1992 (d. Petr Korda) and finished runner-up in 1993 (l. Sergi Bruguera).

· Nadal missed the event in 2003 after sustaining an elbow injury the week before in practice. In 2004 a stress fracture of his left ankle caused him to miss the event for a second year.

· Nadal has reached the quarterfinals or better at all four majors. Away from Roland Garros, Nadal’s best result was reaching the 2006 Wimbledon final (l. Roger Federer 60 76 67 63). He also reached the quarterfinals at the 2006 US Open and the 2007 Australian Open.

· Nadal is the only Spaniard in the last four. This is the 12^th time in the last 15 years that there has been Spanish representation in the Roland Garros semifinals.

· Spain has been represented in eleven previous Roland Garros finals, three of which involved two Spaniards. Nadal is already one of four Spaniards to reach the Roland Garros final twice or more in the Open Era and is bidding to become the second Spanish player to reach three Roland Garros finals.

· Nadal is the only lefthander to reach the semifinals here this year. In 2005, he became the first lefthander to win at Roland Garros since Thomas Muster in 1995.

· Nadal has a 25-12 win-loss record against Top 10 players in his career to date. He is 3-4 against the Top 10 at majors, winning all three meetings at Roland Garros but never defeating a player in the Top 10 at the other three majors.

· The defending champion has reached the final at Roland Garros 15 times in the Open Era, going on to win the title ten times. (The defending champion has not returned on three occasions in the Open Era.) The defending champion has lost at the semifinal stage twice (1994 champ Sergi Bruguera in 1995 and 2002 winner Albert Costa in 2003). [See page 7 of the Preview for more information.]

· Nadal is bidding to become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to collect a third successive Roland Garros title, and just the second man for 93 years to do so. Borg, who won a total of six Roland Garros titles in the periods 1974-75 and 1978-81, is the only man to have won three in a row here in the Open Era (going on to win four in a row), and the only player to have done so since the event went international in 1925. Three more men achieved the feat pre-1925.

Hat tricks at Roland Garros

· Roger Federer was, of course, the last man to win a hat trick of titles at any Grand Slam event, winning his third successive Wimbledon title in 2005, and his third successive US Open title in 2006. [See Preview page 2 for more details.]

· The last man to win three or more Roland Garros titles, consecutive or non-consecutive, was Gustavo Kuerten in 2001. (Kuerten also won in 1997 and 2000.) Kuerten is one of six men to have won three or more Roland Garros titles, consecutive or non-consecutive, since the event went international in 1925.

· Nadal arrived at Roland Garros having just suffered his first clay court loss for more than two years. He had his record-breaking 81-match clay court winning streak broken by Roger Federer at AMS Hamburg, falling 26 62 60 in the final.

· Nadal accumulated his 81-match clay court winning streak after losing to Igor Andreev in the Valencia quarterfinals on 7 April 2005, surpassing Guillermo Vilas’s previous mark of 53 straight clay court match wins with his first round victory at Roland Garros last year. Federer’s defeat of Nadal in Hamburg was his first clay court victory against the Spaniard in six clay meetings on the surface, but Nadal still leads their overall head-to-head 7-4. Nadal and Federer will meet in the final if they both advance today.

· Nadal is one of just two men, along with Buenos Aires and Portschach winner Juan Monaco, to collect multiple clay court titles so far in 2007. For the second year running, Nadal claimed all three of his clay court titles on European clay, winning at AMS Monte Carlo (d. Roger Federer 64 64 in the final), Barcelona (d. Guillermo Canas 63 64), and AMS Rome (d. Fernando Gonzalez 62 62).

· Eight of the last 12 Roland Garros champions entered the event having won at least one clay court title in the months leading up to Roland Garros.

· At AMS Rome last month, Nadal surpassed Carlos Moya for the most clay court titles won among active players.

· Including retired players, Nadal’s 16 clay court titles put him in tenth place on the list for most career clay court titles won in the Open Era. [For more information, see page 2 of the Preview.]

· Nadal leads the tour for total titles collected in 2007, having won four altogether including his hard court victory at Indian Wells in March. He also leads the tour for total match wins this season, being 41-6 through the quarterfinals here.

· Nadal is in his 98^th straight week as world No. 2, having held the ranking since 25 July 2005. (Roger Federer is in his 175^th week at No. 1, since 2 February 2004).

· Apart from Verdasco, whom he defeated in the round of 16, all of Djokovic’s opponents at 2007 Roland Garros until now have been ranked outside the Top 120.

· In the third round, Djokovic defeated French wild card Olivier Patience 76 26 36 76 63 having trailed by two-sets-to-one and 4-5 in the fourth set, and been two points from defeat at that point.

· Djokovic has reached his first Grand Slam semifinal. He is competing at Roland Garros for the third year in a row, and has surpassed his previous best Grand Slam performance, achieved when he reached the quarterfinals here last year.

· Djokovic advanced to the 2006 Roland Garros quarterfinals unseeded, before retiring at that stage with a lower back injury when trailing today’s opponent Nadal 64 64.

· Djokovic has retired at Roland Garros both previous times he has played here. He advanced to the second round on his debut here as a qualifier in 2005, retiring there with breathing difficulties and cramping when trailing Guillermo Coria 46 62 32.

· Djokovic is just the second Serbian man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal after Slobodan Zivojinovic, and is bidding to become the first Serbian man in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final. Last year here, Djokovic became the first Serbian man to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in the Open Era. (Note: Serbian men played under the Yugoslav flag until the start of 2004.)

· Djokovic joined female compatriots Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic in the 2007 Roland Garros semifinals. This is the most successful Grand Slam event in the Open Era for Serbia, which had never previously had more than one player through to the quarterfinals in the same major.

· Djokovic has not advanced beyond the round of 16 at any other major, reaching that stage at 2006 Wimbledon and the 2007 Australian Open. He has fallen in the third round on both of his appearances to date at the US Open.

· If he wins today, Djokovic will play either Roger Federer or Nikolay Davydenko in the final. Djokovic trails Federer 0-4 in previous meetings, and has never played Davydenko.

· Djokovic has a 14-5 career record against left-handed opponents through his defeat of Verdasco in the round of 16 here. This is not the first time that Djokovic has faced two lefthanders in the same tournament. He played, and defeated, three lefthanders in successive rounds at 2007 AMS Miami en route to winning his biggest career title, having wins over Michael Llodra in the third round, Feliciano Lopez in the round of 16, and today’s opponent Nadal in the quarterfinals (see also below).

· Against Spaniards, Djokovic has a 13-11 win-loss record through his win here against Verdasco, 4-2 in Grand Slam events. Before meeting two here this year, his only previous match-up with a Spaniard at Roland Garros was when he retired against Nadal in last year’s quarterfinals.

· This tournament marks the fifth time that Djokovic has played two or more Spaniards in the same event: he defeated three in a row - Santiago Ventura (round of 16), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (quarterfinals) and Tommy Robredo (semifinals) - on his way to the title at Estoril this year (see also below).

· As No. 6 seed here, Djokovic has received the highest Grand Slam seeding of his career. He entered the Top 10 for the first time on 19 March this year and rose to a career-high ranking of No. 5 on 30 April. (He is also ranked No. 6 here.) By reaching the Roland Garros semifinals, Djokovic is projected to reach a new career-high ranking of either No. 3 or No. 4, dependent on the progress of fellow semifinalist Nikolay Davydenko.

· The last No. 6 seed to reach the Roland Garros final was Yevgeny Kafelnikov, on his way to the title in 1996.

· Djokovic is having the best season of his short career, having won three titles so far – he and Roger Federer, who has also won three, share second place behind today’s opponent Nadal (four) for most tournament wins in 2007. Djokovic won the title on hard court at Adelaide, defeating Chris Guccione 63 67 64 in the final, and collected his first Masters Series title at Miami, defeating Guillermo Canas 63 62 64, having a week earlier reached the AMS Indian Wells final (l. Nadal 62 75). He also won the clay court event at Estoril, defeating Richard Gasquet 76 06 61 in the final.

· Djokovic’s clay court form dropped off slightly after winning Estoril. He was a quarterfinalist at both Masters Series events in Rome and Hamburg, Hamburg being his last tournament before coming here.

· Djokovic won his first two singles titles in 2006, at Amersfoort on clay in July, and at Metz on indoor hard in October. He also reached the final at Umag but retired with respiratory problems in the first set tiebreak of the final against Stanislas Wawrinka.

· Djokovic played the junior event at 2003 Roland Garros, losing in the round of 16 to Daniel Gimeno-Traver 62 26 63.

Show court matches

2007 clay court leaders*

Head-to-head: Federer leads 8-0

Road to the semifinals ^ scorecard time

Longest Grand Slam winning streaks in the Open Era

Player

Streak duration

No. of

consecutive

GS finals

Grand Slam finals reached (Open Era)

No of GS finals

Rank

No. of titles

Roger Federer

Russian Grand Slam semifinalists (Open Era)

1999 Australian Open

Head-to-head: Nadal leads 3-1

Youngest Roland Garros finalists (Open Era)

Result in final

Road to the semifinals ^ scorecard time

Hat tricks at Roland Garros

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