Nole will play in his maiden French Open final on Sunday!
World no.1 is through to the Roland Garros final for the first time in his career after beating third-ranked Swiss Roger Federer 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 on Friday in Paris.
The top-seeded Serb converted 7 of his 10 break point opportunities and won 73 per cent of his first service points to wrap up the semi-final victory in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
After a solid start on serve from both players, it was Federer who made the first break. Novak broke back immediately to level at 3-3 and with superb returns broke the Swiss once again in the tenth game to take the set 6-4 in 34 minutes.
Roger was leading by a double break in the second set, but Novak fought back in the fourth and eighth games to equalise to 4-all. The world no.3 again gained the advantage, but the Serbian no.1 broke twice more to turn the set around and win it 7-5.
A break in the sixth game of the third set was enough for Nole to seal the straight sets victory and remain on course to become the first man in 43 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
The last player to hold all four titles was Rod Laver in 1969.
Match statistics: aces (6-9), double faults (2-3), winners (27-33), unforced errors (17-46), total points won (101-76).
Novak will face the six-time champion Rafael Nadal in historic final on Sunday after the second seed brushed aside his fellow countryman David Ferrer
6-2, 6-2, 6-1.
It will be the 33rd encounter between Djokovic and Nadal, the Spaniard leads 18-14.
Rafa won their last two meetings, in Monte Carlo and Rome, while Nole won their last three Grand Slam finals (Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open).
“I know that I have to be playing consistently well on a very high level in order to win best of five against Nadal here,” Novak said. “It’s an ultimate challenge. But I believe that today was the best match of 2012 Roland Garros for me, so I’ve raised my game when I needed to. I played really well when it was the most important, so that’s something that gives me confidence obviously before the finals. Both of us want this title. We’ll see who will prevail.”
Photo: AP
