TENNIS:JUST WHAT Gael Monfils will make of Roger Federer standing across the net from him in the most famous court in France few can guess. That it is Paris, the French Open semi-final and the Swiss world number one staring back makes a heady cocktail for a Frenchman, who has never before advanced so deeply into a Grand Slam.
Monfils is a greatly improved player and has moved from the young talent with potential to would-be major winner. But he understands too there is another level significantly higher than where he now finds himself.
Whether he can make another quantum leap is questionable. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer occupy higher ground, Djokovic the only player in the last three years able to bridge the gap. But the stronger, faster and more confident Monfils was unusually sanguine after his quarter-final win over the fifth ranked player in the world, Spain's David Ferrer.
"Once again I have not reached my objective. I'm very happy I won this match. I'm very happy I'll play in a semi-final on the central court, but this is not my last objective," he said letting Federer know that this 21-year-old should be taken with caution.
But the world number one is also improving after the beginning of the season was blighted with a bout of mononucleosis.
"I started feeling better a month ago," said Federer after the Fernando Gonzalez quarter-final. "That's (illness) over. It's something I want to forget about now."
That's good news for those who see Nadal's domineering form on the clay as unmatchable, although, in Djokovic the Spaniard meets an opponent, who like Monfils, holds a similarly fearless attitude. Djokovic dares to look beyond the semi-final. That the Spaniard has never lost at Roland Garros since arriving as a 19-year-old does not appear to unsettle the clever and extremely fit Serb.
"I don't want to go out there in the semis and just try my best," said Djokovic. "I don't want to do that. I want to win and I think I have a good quality and a good chance."
If he can do that, Djokovic will have arrested Nadal's remarkable run on the Terre Battue, which currently stands at 26 wins and no defeats. The title holder has also conceded just 25 games in his five previous matches this year, the fewest by any player reaching the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in the Open era and one fewer than Bjorn Borg when he won in 1978 and 1981.
Borg conceded just one game in his 1978 semi-final against Corrado Barrazzutti and currently holds the record for fewest games conceded (27) in reaching a Grand Slam final in the Open era. But all the talk of history was agitating the champion and after pointing out that he was born five years after Borg won his last Roland Garros, gratefully took the compliments.
"Everybody's talking about Borg as if he was somebody from another planet altogether," said Nadal. "But Borg was Borg. Now comparing myself to Borg . . . , I mean how could I dare do that? He was one of the top three players in the history of tennis. Thank you very much. That's very kind of you comparing me to such a huge player."
After his 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win over Nicolas Almagro in the last round, Nadal was asked whether there anything he was not 100 per cent happy with.
"No," he replied. Most people would have agreed with him.
