Nadal sets up Federer rematch

12 April 2012

Rafael Nadal will play Roger Federer in the French Open final for the second year running after seeing off the brave challenge of Serbia's Novak Djokovic.

Second seed Nadal, the winner here for the past two years, swept to a 7-5 6-4 6-2 victory over the sixth seed in two hours and 28 minutes in his semi-final.

Earlier on Philippe Chatrier court, world number one Federer, the Spaniard's great rival, had beaten fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (9/7) in a little over three hours.

In last year's showpiece between the two players who have dominated the men's game for the past three years, Nadal won in four sets to deny Federer the Grand Slam of majors.

Nadal is slight favourite to win his third title on the trot, and that tag is justified after his superb display against Djokovic, the dark horse from Serbia.

The Spaniard had stormed into a 5-2 lead in the first set, but tensed up a little, allowing his opponent to break twice in a row to level at 5-5, but Nadal broke back immediately, producing a massive fist pump to express his pleasure before taking the set the following game with a whipped forehand.

The final two sets were a lot more one-sided as he maintained his record of not having dropped a set this tournament.

Nadal broke in the seventh game of a second set that otherwise went with serve, and by now Djokovic was demoralised.

Nadal took a 4-0 lead in the 34-minute third set by breaking Djokovic's first two service games, and put the contest to bed by holding his serve in the what proved to be the final game.

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