Normally it would be a given the King of Clay Rafael Nadal would beat Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros, but not this time.
Their clash in the French quarters would be a very worthy final.
Nadal has won nine French Opens in a decade, the only time he missed out was in 2009 when Robin Soderling caused the biggest upset of the century in the fourth round.
Overall Nadal has a 70-1 win-loss record at Roland Garros, and holds a 6-0 lead over Djokovic, the undisputed world number one.
But this time Djokovic has the form to beat Nadal.
In the lead-up to the French on clay Djokovic is unbeaten, while Nadal hasn’t won one title, that in itself is staggering.
Djokovic beat Roger Federer in the Rome Masters final in straight sets, and Tomas Berdych in the Monte Carlo Masters final in three.
Nadal’s played in four clay court titles, and came away without any major silverware..
He was beaten by Stanislaus Wawrinka in the Rome Masters quarters in straight sets, beaten by Andy Murray in the final of the Madrid Masters in straight sets, beaten by Fabio Fognini in the Barcelona round of 16. in straight sets, and by Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semis, in straight sets.
Advantage Djokovic.
Unless every set is a tie-breaker, break point conversions could well decide the Djokovic-Nadal clash. But neither of them are too crash hot in this vital area.
Djokovic has converted only 20 of his 56 break points in the four rounds to date, for a lowly 36 per cent, while Nadal has converted 28 of his 50, for 56 per cent.
Still advantage Djokovic, but by a whisker.
Both are past masters at wasting time, and are serial offenders when it comes to time delays between points.
There’s supposed to be 20 seconds from the end of a point until the next serve.
Nadal, with all the fidgeting he goes on with, often takes up to 32 seconds between points, but he’s rarely reprimanded by the central umpire, so he keeps offending to upset his opponents.
Djokovic is a serial ball bouncer, His record is 45 bounces on his first serve, and 24 on the second. Of late he’s cut back dramatically, but he’s still way over the top.
The bounces alone cost more than 20 seconds, but he too is rarely chipped.
Taking all those stats into account, Djokovic should advance to the semis, where he’s likely to meet Murray who has David Ferrer in the quarters.
Murray leads the Spaniard 9-6 head-to-head.
In the bottom half of the draw, Federer meets compatriot Wawrinka in the quarters, Federer leads 16-2 head-to-head, while Kei Nishikori leads his quarter final opponent Jo Wilfred Tsonga 4-1.
Nishikori is the first person from Japan to reach the French quarters since Jiro Sato in 1931 and 1933. In the second year, Sato beat the famous Fred Perry to reach the semis.
The sad part of the Sato story was he felt such immense pressure from his countrymen, he threw himself overboard in the Strait of Malacca, and drowned.
Jiro Sato was just 25.
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