By Chris Oddo | Friday, June 6, 2014

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic each came through their French Open semifinals relatively unscathed on Friday, setting up a Roland Garros final for the ages on Sunday.

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Djokovic kept alive his bid to become the eighth man in the history of the sport to claim the coveted career Grand Slam with a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over first-time semifinalist Ernests Gulbis, but his victory was not without complications. Facing a player who had thrown all caution to the wind in the third set, Djokovic yielded a pivotal break of serve to allow the Latvian the opportunity to serve for the set.

Gulbis did not fail, and Djokovic’s frustration and fatigue grew in the early parts of the fourth set before he finally rallied to send the dangerous 25-year-old packing.

Afterwards, Djokovic talked about his mid-match malaise. “First two sets went well,” he said. “I thought I played well, very solid, putting a lot of returns back in the court, serving at the high percentage. Then suddenly midway through the third set started to feel physically fatigued a little bit, and you could feel that.”

Djokovic seemed visibly flustered during his on-court post-match interviews, and delayed his press match for a bit. But while talking to reporters he claimed that nothing was wrong with him. “There is nothing bothering me,” he said. “Just the general fatigue that, you know, probably was influenced by conditions or other things that I felt today. But I'm not going to talk about it. That's it.”

In the second semifinal, Rafael Nadal took advantage of a sun-kissed and warm Paris afternoon to absolutely dismantle Andy Murray, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. The victory sends Nadal through to his record ninth Roland Garros final, and improves his gaudy Roland Garros record to 65-1.

Nadal cracked 24 winners against 15 unforced errors, and converted all six break points he earned while not facing a single break opportunity against the Scot in his most comprehensive victory against a top player all season.

Murray, who had to battle through five-setters twice on his road to the semifinals, never got a toehold in the match, and dropped to 5-15 against Nadal lifetime, and 0-6 on clay.

Murray chalked up the blowout up to Nadal’s sublime play. “His forehand—especially with the conditions the way they were today, was incredibly hard to control the ball," he said. "As soon as he was inside the court, I mean, he was hitting the ball so close to the line. Yeah, he played great tennis.”

Sunday’s meeting between Nadal and Djokovic will mark the 42nd time that the two rivals have faced one another, and the sixth time that they’ll battle on the terre battue of Roland Garros.

Nadal has taken all five of those meetings in Paris but the Spaniard needed five sets and extra games to slip past Djokovic in a semifinal for the ages in 2013. It was a match that many consider to be one of the greatest ever played on clay.

It was a bitter loss for Djokovic, who served at 4-3 in the fifth set but saw his lead slip away, but the Serb hopes that it was ultimately an experience that he will build from on Sunday. “I know what I need to do in order to win,” he said. “It's easier said than done, of course, because we all know how good he is on this court. But he's not unbeatable.”

In a rivalry that has seen its share of wild momentum swings, it is Nadal who is currently on a four-match losing streak against the world No. 2. But the Spaniard feels his game has improved radically since the spring slumber that saw him defeated three times on clay before Roland Garros for the first time in over ten years.

“So far everything's fine,” Nadal said. “We'll see what happens on Sunday. It's going to be a very open match. Anything can happen.”