TENNIS/French Open Championships:When the two stepped on to the clay, Court Philippe Chatrier was a bullring. There was Rafael Nadal in his sleeveless top, cut-off shorts and turquoise bandana beside Carlos Moya, a tattoo snaking around the older man's bared right bicep. The two most famous Spanish tennis players with nine years separating them, Moya the mentor and winner here in 1998, Nadal the clay court sensation.
Except in the minds of fiction writers, there was only going to be one, uncomplicated, outcome and for a while early in the first set when Nadal's game was strangely mute, the fears were that in the nook of his mind, he did not want to submit his close friend and practice partner to the full rage of his game. In time those fears were quashed.
Nadal was the matador in this meeting, Moya the tormented one.
After taking the first, error strewn, set 6-4 in 48 minutes and the second 6-3, Nadal's benevolent feelings for his Mallorca neighbour did not extend as far as allowing him even one game in the final set as he thrashed him 6-0 for the match. He now meets Novak Djokovic in the semi-final with Roger Federer facing Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in the other.
Perhaps it was the inevitability of the outcome that had the crowd unusually subdued. Moya, had been the biggest name in Spanish tennis until Nadal assumed his crown as the highest ranked Spaniard in April 2005. Then at Rome last month, Nadal also surpassed Moya for the most clay court titles won among active players. Having just turned 20 and having acquired more titles than the 30-year-old Moya, suggests the hyperbole surrounding Nadal is often justified.
The left-hander has never lost at Roland Garros, although, for some moments early yesterday Nadal did show glimpses of fallibility. An exchange of serves in the fifth and six games of the first set left the pair level before Nadal broke again to grab an early, shaky 6-4 lead.
An early service break at the beginning of the second set and again at the end as Nadal began to find some venom tilted the match strongly in his favour, the 6-0 drubbing in the third evidence, not of Moya's infirmity, but how much Nadal had been off his game in the opening exchanges.
"Today he played very well, not the first seven, eight games but after that," said Moya. "I could not play my game at all. He was playing very deep, very high. Even when his ball bounces in the middle of the court, it bounces with such spin that it is very difficult to attack him.
"It's true that the psychological impact was a feature of that match. In fact we didn't play like friends. I can tell you he didn't make a lot of errors and that this match won't go down in history."
Earlier Djokovic earned his day with Nadal with a straight sets win over Igor Andreev. Of the final eight players in the men and women's draw, three are from Serbia, Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.
The talented 20-year-old, who had been courted by the WTA to play Davis Cup with Britain but stuck with Serbia, won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 over the 125-ranked Russian Andreev. Djokovic's path to this point has been remarkably yielding in that apart from Spain's Fernando Verdasco, who he beat in the fourth round, he has not had to play anyone else ranked higher than 120 in the world.
But Djokovic's game is rounded and adaptable and his court speed will ensure he will at least get to some of Nadal's whipped forehands. So far, the Spaniard has not dropped a set, so that will be the first step, although, if he plays like he did in the latter part of the Moya match, even taking a set is remote.
"If he (Nadal) is playing focused the whole match and solid the way he did after the first eight games, I don't see many players who can even get a set off him," added Moya. "Of course Federer is one and Djokovic can be one of them."
A good judge of Djokovic's form is Andreev, who ran out of gas in the third set. "His strong point is that he has no bad shots," said the Russian. "He does everything good and he defends very well. I'm surprised, mentally he is so strong for the young age he is."
Men's Singles: Quarter-finals:6) Novak Djokovic (Ser) bt Igor Andreev (Rus) 6-3 6-3 6-3, (2) Rafael Nadal (Spa) bt (23) Carlos Moya (Spa) 6-4 6-3 6-0.
Women's Doubles: Semi-finals:(7) Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) and Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) bt (1) Lisa Raymond (USA) and Samantha Stosur (Aus) 1-6 6-4 6-3, Alicia Molik (Aus) and Mara Santangelo (Ita) bt (2) Cara Black (Zim) and Liezel Huber (Rsa) 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Mixed Doubles: Semi-finals:(6) Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) and Nenad Zimonjic (Ser) bt (5) Zi Yan (Chn) and Mark Knowles (Bah) 6-3 6-4, (8) Nathalie Dechy (Fra) and Andy Ram (Isr) bt Tian Tian Sun (Chn) and Julian Knowle (Aut) 6-2 6-4.
Wheelchair doubles:Florence Gravellier (Fra) and Mie Yaosa (Jpn) bt Lucy Shuker (Brit) and Sharon Walraven (Ned) 6-2 6-7(7-3) 10-6.
