World number two Rafael Nadal defeated fellow countryman Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semifinals of the French Open. The king of clay as he is often called is playing with supreme confidence and is just two wins away from the record of seven French Open titles.

Nadal has been great on clay since the time he started his carrier and has been menacing in Roland Garros. In this tournament he has a record of 50 wins and just one loss that he suffered against Robin Soderling in 2009. Nadal has been chasing a dream and the way he has played in this tournament so far shows the signs that the Spaniard might just achieve what no one has achieved in the history of this tournament.

Nadal in this tournament has not dropped a single set. He has won all 15 sets that he has played and what is more amazing is that his serve has only been broken once so far and that is simply hard to believe. He has served 61 times in the tournament so far, and has won 60 games off the lot. He looks like a man on a mission will prove very hard to stop.

Nadal has six French Open title to his name and is tied with Bjorn Borg and he will be eager to get one step ahead of the great tennis player from the past. Nadal is considered to be greatest player on clay court and he has the record to justify the statement. He has a total number of 35 ATP titles to his name on clay and that record just standouts.

The road for Nadal will get tougher as he will play his fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer in the semis. Ferrer defeated world number four Andy Murray in the quarterfinals. Both players know everything about each other and it will be a great battle between these two close friends. Nadal will go in the match as clear favorite because he has been playing flawless tennis.

So what is the reason why Nadal is so dominating on clay. He has got a career grand slam and has done well in all the courts, but it is this court he is just menacing. Nadal’s overall game does not have any major weaknesses, and his sheer resilience overcomes ant minute problem that he has.
Nadal’s game is most suited to these conditions as he does not have a strong serve. What clay does is that it restricts the influence of a fast serve and there are hardly any aces and it is the rest that follows a serve that really matters. So Nadal unlike on other courts has a much better chance to come back in a point, and he does that more often than not with his blistering forehands. He is a tremendous athlete and runs in hard for every point. He likes long rallies and waits for his opposition to make mistakes. He sits back and waits for an opportunity to unleash his forehand and he is unstoppable whenever he does that.

‘Rafa’ is very close to creating history and he will be the undisputed ‘king of clay’ when he does that.