Sorry, Roger.
When teen sensation Rafael Nadal won an 18-shot rally to complete his most impressive victory yet, he collapsed on his back at the French Open and stood covered in the clay he loves. Then he trotted to the net to shake hands with top-ranked Roger Federer.
"I said, `I'm sorry for you,'" Nadal said. "He said, `No, no, you played very well.' ... It's not easy when one player is the No. 1 and lost in the semifinal of a Grand Slam at Roland Garros when he never won here. And he's unbelievable, no?"
PHOTO: AFP
Unbelievable, perhaps, but not unbeatable. Federer lost to Nadal 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals of the French Open on Friday. The result altered the balance of power atop the men's game, with Federer's reign no longer quite so secure, and advanced Nadal to the final on Sunday against unseeded Mariano Puerta.
Playing on his 19th birthday, Nadal avenged a loss to Federer at Key Biscayne two months ago and extended his winning streak to 23 matches, all on clay. The Spaniard became the youngest men's finalist at Roland Garros since Michael Chang, the 1989 champion at age 17.
"My best present for today is this match, no?" Nadal said in his rapidly improving English.
PHOTO: AP
With light fading in the final set, Nadal swept the last five games and stopped Federer short in his bid for his first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.
"I would say the disappointment is in control," Federer said. "I'm not going to destroy the locker room and never play tennis again. I feel like the motivation's big to come back the next few years and to do better. I still have more left in me in the French Open."
Nadal and Puerta, who beat Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, will play in their first major final. It will be the first all-lefty men's final at Roland Garros in the Open era. Nadal will try to become the first man since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the French Open in his debut.
PHOTO: EPA
"It will be a very difficult match," said Nadal, seeded fourth. "I'll have to play my best tennis, and only like that will I be able to win."
The Spaniard played with his characteristic creativity and charisma against Federer, racing to an early lead and overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the final set. His heavy topspin from the left side and ability to chase down shots made Federer indecisive and forced him into uncustomary unforced errors -- 62 in all.
Federer frequently misfired with a forehand widely touted as the game's best.
"You start thinking about whether you're going to go to the net," Federer said. "This has to do with his game. If you go to the net, you're going to get a shot with a lot of topspin."
Nadal beat darkness as well as Federer. Because the first semifinal lasted five sets following an 88-minute rain delay, it was 6:29pm when the second match started and 9:16pm when it ended.
"I could hardly see the ball in the end," Federer said. "I'm disappointed we continued."
Preparing to serve at 3-4 in the final set, he asked the chair umpire whether the fifth set would be started in the twilight or postponed until Saturday. But there was no fifth set.
Instead, Federer hit ground-stokes wide on the last two points of the next game to lose serve for the ninth time. Nadal calmly served out the victory.
"I'm not so happy with my performance, to be honest," Federer said.
"I didn't feel like he was much better than me. I really thought I had the keys to beat him today, and it was just unfortunate that I wasn't at my best."
The crowd cheered as Federer departed center court, and Nadal joined the applause. The four-time Grand Slam winner made his best run yet at Roland Garros, and Nadal expects Federer to be a threat on clay -- and elsewhere -- for years to come.
"Federer for me is the best player wherever," Nadal said. "Federer for me is an amazing player. Federer always shows that he's the best. Obviously he could win here."
Federer had won 28 consecutive sets on clay, including 15 in Paris, but Nadal quickly ended that streak. Federer lost four of his first five service games.
"When you win the first set," Nadal said, "it makes you a little less nervous."
Mariano Puerta was asked how his strategy would differ if his opponent in the French Open final was No. 1-ranked Roger Federer or teenage hotshot Rafael Nadal.
Puerta, riding a wave of confidence on reaching his first Grand Slam final, explained on Friday that there was no secret about how to play Federer.
"You've got to play his backhand," Puerta said, something "that's easier of course for me because I'm left-handed."
Nadal, who is also a lefty, would be another matter.
"With Nadal it would be a battle. A battle," said Puerta, an Argentine who has climbed to 37th in the rankings from 440th last August.
And so it might be. Puerta and Nadal will play the first all-lefty men's final at Roland Garros in the Open era.
Puerta's comments came before Nadal beat Federer, celebrating his 19th birthday with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory to reach the final in his first French Open.
Puerta outlasted Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first semifinal.
Aside from the fact that both men have never played in a Grand Slam final, the two have some other things in common, as Puerta sees it.
"We're both left-handers. We both have the same sort of strokes. We would both arrive at the match with huge self-confidence," he said. "We play in a very similar way."
For 26-year-old Puerta, a nine-year pro, he's looking at his maiden Grand Slam final as if it's his last.
"I'm going to fight like crazy," he said. "I don't know if I'll ever be in a final at Roland Garros again."
MIXED DOUBLES
Martina Navratilova won't be adding to her Grand Slam trophy case at this year's French Open.
Navratilova, 48, and Leander Paes of India, seeded sixth, lost in the mixed doubles championship on Friday to Fabrice Santoro of France and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
"It's amazing for her age what she still does," Hantuchova said. "It's difficult to play against them because ... it's amazing what she still can do."
Hantuchova, 22, wasn't even born when Navratilova started playing in Grand Slam events in 1973.
Paes and Navratilova won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2003. Navratilova has 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 in doubles, and nine in mixed doubles.
SPORTSMANSHIP
Center court applauded Nadal for overruling the chair umpire to call one of Federer's shots in.
The call in question came at 40-15 in the fourth set with Federer serving. One of the Swiss player's groundstrokes skimmed the baseline and the umpire ruled it out.
Nadal walked over to the scuffed clay inside the line, pointed to it with his racket, and conceded the point to Federer. The crowd loved it.
It's not the first time Nadal has made a magnanimous gesture that cost him a point.
"I've always done that," he said, recalling a match in Brazil against Agustin Calleri of Argentina. "The umpire said `Out.' I thought it was good. I said so. I ended up losing that point.
"I think we try to all help each other. I think if we do help each other, it will all be very good for tennis."
SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
A domineering father overshadows her as a teen. She shoots to fame as a young woman, only to have career-threatening injuries. Just when the world has written her off, she stages a comeback and makes a nation proud.
Sound like good book material?
"It would make a really amazing story, that's for sure," Mary Pierce said.
For now, she said she has "no idea" if there's an autobiography in her future. But if she undertook a book, Pierce said on Friday she would candidly write about the bad times as well as the good.
"I think it could also help other people," said Pierce, who has found her form at the age of 30.
When she faces Justine Henin-Hardenne in the French Open final, Pierce will be the oldest women's Grand Slam finalist since Martina Navratilova was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1994 at age 37.
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