Djokovic enters the conversation

PARIS -- Eagerness for Federer-Nadal finals so pervaded the 2006 and 2007 French Opens that the other 126 male players seemed uncouth trespassers who needed to get out of here and stop trying to gum up the daydream.

Well, the chatter has changed a little this year, as anticipation bloats at Roland Garros for a daydream semifinal coming Friday, thanks to a 21-year-old Serbian with an airtight game and a self-certain air.

“All of a sudden there’s a conversation about somebody else,” the estimable TV analyst Mary Carillo said of Novak Djokovic, the Australian Open champion who will play the autocratic emperor of the French Open, Rafael Nadal, before the winner can even think about No. 1 Roger Federer.

It’s a semifinal so freighted with personal gravitas that you almost wonder how both can fit on the main court.

“They both take up a lot of space,” Carillo said. “They both have a lot of personal power. . . . Djokovic and Nadal are beasts. What’s not to like?”

In fact, a fair question lurks with Nadal, a mastodon at 26-0 lifetime at Roland Garros and fresh off the scariest French quarterfinal in the open era, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 over the world’s 20th-ranked player, Nicolas Almagro: Who has the better slim chance, Federer or Djokovic?

“I honestly think Novak,” said Luke Jensen, an ESPN analyst and 1993 French Open doubles champion. “I think Novak has a better chance because of the backhand down the line. And he doesn’t have any scars against Nadal” as does Federer. “He’s lost to him here, but there’s an arrogance, a swagger, a defiance in his demeanor right now.”

Awed by Nadal’s showings against excellent opponents this week, Jensen quips that Nadal conjures “Joe Frazier just breaking your ribs” and turns opponents into “Hamburger Helper,” so Jensen prefers Djokovic’s stouter shoulders and his two-handed backhand to cope with the unavoidable physical punishment.

“In some ways,” Carillo said, “maybe Djokovic’s game is a little better suited to hanging with Nadal’s just because Novak’s backhand is so solid and he’s got so much belief these days.”

Yet Carillo can’t answer one question about Djokovic or Federer: “Where do they get their points? How do you win three sets off him on clay? I could see them winning one or two. . . . Nobody can figure out how to win a third set. That’s the killer.”

True, Nadal’s 113-2 record on clay since April 2005 features zero losses in best-of-five-set matches.

Still, those who absolutely believe Djokovic does have a chance would include Federer, who said, “I think his game is very good to make it difficult for Rafa,” and, crucially, Djokovic, who utterly lacks the poor-mouthing chromosome.

Djokovic intends to be No. 1 and Nadal, for one, assumes he’ll get there. Even at No. 3, Djokovic speaks of his 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 loss to Nadal in a semifinal on clay in Hamburg last month like some fleeting nuisance on the way upward.

“I mean, I don’t think it can happen the second time that I am so unfortunate on a lot of break points and in important moments I hit so many lets and even the string breaks,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t have luck.”

That kind of requisite vanity, Jensen said, “sets him apart. That’s how he’s been able to move from the JV squad to the varsity,” noting that before, Federer and Nadal made up the global tennis varsity until Djokovic joined them.

Preceding his varsity status, Djokovic did play Nadal twice here -- in the 2006 quarterfinals (6-4, 6-4, retired) and the 2007 semifinals (7-5, 6-4, 6-2). “A couple of years ago when he had to retire he was a boy,” Carillo said. “Now he’s a man,” and one with “great core strength.”

He’ll take the great core strength against great core strength and otherworldly effort.

As Nadal’s third-round victim Jarkko Nieminen put it, “I don’t let any point go, but the way he concentrates is like every point is a match point. That’s very impressive. Doesn’t matter if it’s a small tournament, first round, or if it’s 1-5 or 5-1 in the first set. It’s always the concentration, and the way he concentrates, it’s tough to be better than that in any sport.”

One guy who actually thinks he can be better will try: Nadal will try to go 27-0. Said Jensen, echoing the shift in French Open thinking, “I am excited about this match.”