PARIS — For the fourth straight time in a Grand Slam final, it will be Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal.
That Nadal got there by winning his French Open semifinal in a breeze against David Ferrer was no shock. That Djokovic made it after running 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 yesterday — second-seeded Nadal in a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 white-washing of sixth-seeded Ferrer and top-seeded Djokovic in a 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 3 Federer that didn’t feel that close.
Tomorrow, “Rafa” and “Nole” meet and someone will make history: Either Nadal will win his seventh French Open to break the record he now shares with Bjorn Borg or Djokovic will become the first man in 43 years to win four straight Grand Slam tournaments.
Though they will 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 semifinals.
“I know I have to be playing consistently well on a very high level to win a best-of-five against Nadal here,” Djokovic said. “It’s the ultimate challenge. But I believe today was my best match of 2012 Roland Garros for me. I raised my game when I needed to. That’s something that gives me confidence before the final.”
The key stat in Djokovic’s win was Federer’s 46 unforced errors to 17 for Djokovic.
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.