Roland Garros—Paris, France

Djokovic, Nadal Advance to French Open Final

Top seed Novak Djokovic advanced to his first career French Open final on Friday after defeating former champion Roger Federer, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. He’ll face Rafael Nadal next.

Avenging a loss to the Swiss star during last year’s semifinal, Djokovic broke serve on seven occasions, while losing his serve four times. Striking 27 winners to 17 unforced errors, Djokovic will attempt to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four grand slams at the same time.

In pursuit of history, Djokovic will have to prevent six-time former winner Rafael Nadal from winning his record-breaking seventh title. Nadal, who improved to 51-1 at the French Open, dismantled No. 6 seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 earlier in the day. Nadal is currently tied with Bjorn Borg with six titles.

Needing one hour and 46 minutes to advance, Nadal continued his impressive streak on red clay this year, which includes not losing a set through four tournaments.

Leading Djokovic 18-14 in their career head-to-head, Nadal has won the last two meetings against the Serb on clay, and leads their overall clay-court meetings 11-2.

Prior to Nadal defeating Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters in April, Djokovic had defeated the Spaniard on seven straight occasions.

Djokovic and Nadal will also be playing in their fourth straight major final. The top seed defeated the Mallorcan in four sets and Wimbledon and US Open, before capturing a riveting victory at the Australian Open in nearly six hours.

The men’s final at Roland Garros will take place on Sunday.