Djokovic a big threat at this French Open

PARIS

It's not easy for other players to live in a Nadal-Federer dominated tennis world, especially at the majors, when the universe's top two players tend to perform at their best.

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The discussion at Roland Garros over the last 10 days has centered around whether Nadal will even lose a set en route to his fifth title, or whether any player has a sniff of a chance to take defending champion Federer to five sets during an inevitable march to the final. That theme makes the rest of the players feel very small.

But one of those dominators has already fallen — Roger Federer lost Tuesday to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals — and world No. 3 Novak Djokovic is one of those men who is largely being overlooked. He has beaten Nadal in their last three matches and looked largely in terrific form in his 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over American Robby Ginepri in the fourth round.

Another player who is also being mostly dismissed before he takes the court is Spain's Nicolas Almagro, who put on one of his most comprehensive performances at a major ever in his 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 blistering of No. 7 seed Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round.

So what does the prideful Djokovic think of being put to the side, even when — for the first time since February — he's showing a fair amount of confidence in imposing both an offensive and defensive game?

He's not going out on a limb saying that he can win the tournament, perhaps because he has an 0-8 record against Nadal on clay, but he's not saying that he's going to be a pushover, either.

“I'm in this small group of players behind (Federer and Nadal) that is trying to get that final and force something surprising, something that people don't expect,” Djokovic said.

In theory, the talented dirtballer Almagro should go into his match with an outside shot against Nadal, but few analysts are taking his chances seriously, even though the 24-year-old has a big enough serve and enough power off the ground to hurt the king of clay. Almagro is only one of two men to take a set off of Nadal on dirt this year, when he briefly pushed him in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 loss in the Madrid semifinals three weeks ago.

“In Madrid I played at a very good level, he said. “In the second set when I was 2-1 up and there was the break point, I played my two best points in the match. Then he came back. He played much better. This is probably where I couldn't react. He was playing much longer balls. It's the one who can fight the longest that can win.”

Almagro is considered a bit of a head case, hence his lousy results at the 2009 Grand Slams, when he failed to advance past the third round in any of the four events. On the outside, he appears to be a great mover, but he gets out of position on the run and will attempt to rip winners when off balance. Due to his amazing balance and footwork, Nadal can often pull off improbable shots that the No. 21 ranked Almagro can't.

The native of Murcia says he shouldn't be counted out, but it's hard to forget the 2008 Roland Garros quarters, when Nadal embarrassed him 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

“As compared to 2008, my physical shape has improved a lot,” Almagro said. “From a mental standpoint, I also am much stronger now. I think my matches against Rafa are always very long and very difficult.”

They actually haven't always been long, but they have been difficult, at least for Almagro, The book on how to beat Nadal on clay is to take every short ball and give it a rip, and then give the Spaniard's reply another rip again. Defensive players have had zero success against Nadal in Paris, with his sole loss coming to an extremely offensive player, Robin Soderling, last year. Nadal is simply too steady to play a standard baseline game.

Almagro says he knows how to attack him, but his execution has to be near perfect and really, as good as his one-handed backhand is, like other right-handers who don't clamp their left hand down on the racket, he has a lot of trouble contending with Nadal's heavy, hooking left-handed forehand. But that doesn't mean that Almagro has already booked his flight back to Spain.

“Well, if I thought he was unbeatable I'd pack up and go home," Almagro said. “I think we both have a lot to lose. I know he plays a very good level of tennis, but I won't wait until I'm 40 to beat him. I hope I can (beat) him when I'm 24. I really want to play that one and be amongst the top players in the world.”

A Nadal loss to Almagro would be more shocking than his loss to Sodering last year, especially considering that this year, Nadal is healthy and hasn't lost a set.

But a defeat at the hands of Djokovic would not be a surprise at the level of the Soderling or Almagro defeats, considering that the Serbian is a one time Grand Slam winner (the 2008 Australian Open) and is quite familiar with Nadal's game (Nadal owns a 14-7 record against him) and with his personality off court and they have the same publicist.

Djokovic is so comfortable with his relationship with Nadal that at Roland Garros, he performed in a karaoke video with his friend Victor Troicki, imitating Nadal and Shakira from the song “Gypsy.” Djokovic said in a good natured way that Nadal told him that he liked some of his other comedy routines more than that one, but the two do get along fairly well given that they have an intense rivalry.

But on court, Nadal is more intense at the majors, hence his six Slam crowns and the Serbian's one. As solid and ambitious of a player as Djokovic has been, since winning the Aussie Open, at times, he's shown himself to be physically fragile and mentally insecure.

He wasn't won a title since Dubai in February, retired during his family's tournament in Belgrade and skipped Madrid in an attempt to recover from the allergy problems that have plagued him.

“I knew that it's for the better, it's for something bigger, and that's Roland Garros,” Djokovic said. “This is the tournament of the year on clay courts, and everybody wants to make their best results on this tournament. So this was my goal.”

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Djokovic actually played well when he faced off against Nadal in the 2008 semifinals, but the result was still a 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (3) victory for Nadal. Interestingly enough, the two share a common misery, which was the aftermath of Nadal's classic 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9) victory over the Serbian in the Madrid semis last year. It was there where Nadal first started to feel pain in his knees and then was bounced by Soderling at Roland Garros. It was there that Djokovic spent every ounce of emotional energy that he had and when he got to Paris, he was fried and was flat in his loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber.

“We were exhausted and left out of the tank, and we didn't make such a great results after that,” he said. “But it was a match to remember. Of course, for me, not in the best way, because I think that was the closest that I got to win against Nadal on clay. But in case I get to play him here in Paris, definitely I will try to play a similar game that I played in Madrid, because you need to be aggressive against him. That's the only way you can win.”

That's a fact, but as Djokovic says time and time again, it hasn't been easy for him to transform himself from a strong-legged backboard into a ball machine that spits out bullets. His two-handed backhand, which is one of the games best, stands up against the Nadal forehand, but his forehand isn't incredibly powerful, he doesn't always return aggressively and his serve, while notable when he gets it in, has been spotty.

The bottom line is that he's going to have to take a lot of risks and that might not be in his character, even if he hopes it is.

“I am aware that I have a good defensive game. I can run a lot on the court, but this is something that I don't want to have in my game, in the future,” Djokovic said. “I want to have more variety, of course. You cannot always be aggressive. I'm not a typical serve-and-volley player, so I will have to base my game on the baseline, which for today's tennis it's usual, because, all the top players are baseline specialists. But I do have to be aggressive, because that's when I feel confident and that's when I feel comfortable on the court, taking the ball early and using every chance that has been given to me.”