Tennis: Nadal expects Federer onslaught in semi-final

Rafael Nadal is braced for an all-out assault from Roger Federer when the two great rivals meet at Roland Garros for the first time in eight years in Friday's French Open semi-final.

Although Federer has won the last five meetings in their 38-match rivalry, none of them were on the Spaniard's beloved clay.

In their five previous meetings at Roland Garros, including four finals, Federer has never managed more than one set.

Despite being generally regarded as the greatest player of all time, 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer has never fathomed a way of suppressing the marauding Mallorcan at Roland Garros.

Nadal, bidding for a record-extending 12 titles, believes the Swiss will be coming at him with all guns blazing after a comfortable passage to the last four.

"There are no two matches the same," Real Madrid fan Nadal told reporters as he looked ahead to tennis' El Clasico.

"We always try things. Let's see. Let's see what's going on. I really expect that he's gonna play aggressive, changing rhythms, going to the net. That's my feeling.

"He's playing well and he has the tennis to make that happen. I have to be solid. I have to hit the ball strong enough to [not] allow him to do the things from good positions."

Federer, bidding to win the title for the second time, 10 years after he beat Robin Soderling to claim his sole French Open crown, has only dropped one set on his return to Roland Garros, having missed the last three French Opens.

Nadal has been equally dominant and obliterated Kei Nishikori with an awesome show of force in the quarter-finals.

With only two wins from their previous 15 claycourt meeting Federer knows he must bring something different to the party and says he will adopt a "fearless" approach to try to get the better of his Roland Garros nemesis.

Should he manage it, it would be arguably one of the greatest feats of his sensational career.

"For me to even get to Rafa was not simple," Federer, at nearly 38 the oldest men's Grand Slam semi-finalist for 28 years, said after defeating countryman Stan Wawrinka on Tuesday.

"It took me five matches to get here. That's why I'm very happy to play Rafa, because if you want to do or achieve something on the clay, inevitably, at some stage, you will go through Rafa, because he's that strong.

"I knew that when I signed up for the clay that hopefully that's gonna happen." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tennis: Karlovic becomes oldest man to win match at Roland Garros for 46 years

Croatia's Ivo Karlovic became the oldest man to win a match at the French Open for 46 years on Tuesday as he beat Spain's fellow veteran Feliciano Lopez in a first-round duel.

Karlovic, who turned 40 in February, won 7-6(4) 7-5 6-7(7) 7-5 in a match featuring players with a combined age of 77 -- the oldest in a Grand Slam in the professional era.

Karlovic became the oldest man to win at Roland Garros since Torben Ulrich in 1973 at the age of 44. He is also the oldest male player to win a Grand Slam match since Ken Rosewall, also 44, did so at the 1978 Australian Open.

The last player to contest a Grand Slam singles match having turned 40 was American Jimmy Connors at the US Open in 1992.

Croatian giant Karlovic fired down 35 aces on his way to a second-round clash against Australian youngster Jordan Thompson.

The evergreen Croat made light of his age to outlast left-hander Lopez.

"It means a lot. Even though it's in the record books as the oldest one, at least it's in the record books, so I like it," Karlovic said of playing his fellow long-survivor.

"I was out for almost two months, so I am really happy that I was able to win today."

Karlovic, ranked 94, had decided against playing any clay court tournaments in the build-up to Roland Garros where he has never gone past the third round.

But there was nothing rusty about his serve, not giving Lopez a sniff of a break in the opening two sets.

He took the first set on a tiebreak but did not engineer a break point on the Lopez serve until pouncing with his opponent 5-6 down in the second set.

Almost inevitably the third set went to another tiebreak and when Lopez missed a routine volley at 5-5 it handed Karlovic a match point, only for him to be denied by a lucky backhand return that left him floundering at the net.

A fifth set loomed when Lopez led 5-2 in the fourth set but Karlovic rattled off five straight games to move through.

In a performance of old-school skills he won 65 points at the net.

"Right now I'm just happy with any match that I win," Karlovic said. "Even if it's against older guys or kids, whatever. I just like to win."

source: news.abs-cbn.com