Nadal and Djokovic Set Up Blockbuster Roland Garros Quarterfinal Clash

When the French Open draw was released, tennis fans salivated at the prospect of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic facing off in the quarterfinals. The Spaniard and the Serb each took care of business on Monday, winning their respective matches relatively easily to set up one of the more intriguing Grand Slam matchups in recent memory.

Nadal was on court first, taking on streaking American Jack Sock. From the onset, Nadal looked like a man on a mission, breaking Sock in his opening two service games to take a 3-0 lead. Despite a break back from Sock, Nadal was in control and took the opening set 6-3.

The second set belonged to Nadal as he lost just five service points on his way to a 6-1 set victory. Despite Sock battling and hanging tough to win the third set, Nadal closed the door in the fourth. He broke at 1-1 and again at 4-2 to seal Sock’s fate with a 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory.

Djokovic took on France’s Richard Gasquet and demonstrated his dominance early on. After an exchange of holds to open up the contest, Djokovic rattled off the next five games to take the first set.

He never really let up throughout, hitting 47 winners and saving seven of the eight break points he faced for the 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win.

Nadal leads the all-time series 23-20 over Djokovic.

Nadal’s countryman David Ferrer is into the quarterfinals as well, beating U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 on Monday.

“I think that it was my best match these two weeks,” said Ferrer, who needed just one hour and 53 minutes to move on. “I didn’t expect this. Cilic is a very difficult player to play against, but I thought I was really comfortable until the very last point. I played really well on all shots.”

Ferrer will take on Andy Murray, who was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner of France’s Jeremy Chardy.

Roger Federer and Gael Monfils continued their match from last night, after weather suspended play tied at one set a piece. The Swiss came out with much more energy and efficiency on Monday morning, winning two straight sets to close out Monfils 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

“I wanted to get off to a good start, because you never know how he will be playing,” said Federer. “So I felt good. I was calm yesterday. I was calm this morning. So we adopted the right game plan and the right tactical approach. I’m very happy.”

Federer will take on his compatriot Stan Wawrinka.

The other quarterfinal in Paris will see 14th seed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga take on the fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori.