The long, leafy main walkway at Roland Garros separated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as they played simultaneous French Open matches in different stadiums today.
Now they'll go head to head.
Both advanced to Friday's semifinals with victories in straight sets, finishing less than 10 minutes apart. Nadal routed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, and shortly thereafter Djokovic eliminated 35-year-old Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (5), 7-5.
So much for the preliminaries to set up a much-anticipated rematch of last year's final, which Nadal won for a record seventh French Open title. He's bidding to become first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam event.
Djokovic, ranked No 1 and the winner of six Grand Slam titles, seeks the only major championship he has yet to win. With two more victories he would become the eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
The other semifinal matches Spaniard David Ferrer against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who's trying to become the first Frenchman in 30 years to win Roland Garros.
