Love has little to do with it as Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling reach French Open final

Reporting from Paris -- For a sport that uses the word “love” a lot, expect little of it to be lost between Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling when they square off in the French Open final Sunday.

This will be a grudge match par excellence between the Spanish maestro who already has four French trophies at home and the broody Swede who not only denied him a fifth last year but has complained about and made fun of Nadal on court in the past, particularly his habit of plucking at the back of his shorts.

Soderling is the only man to beat Nadal here on the red clay of Roland Garros, and when he did it in the fourth round last year, sportswriters compared the shock result to an earthquake.

But Nadal won’t talk about getting even.

“I don’t believe on revenges. I believe on try my best in every moment,” he declared, and then made a stab at complimenting — sort of — his opponent on improving not just his game but “his personality.”

“I think he say more times hello to the rest of the [players],” said Nadal, who once described Soderling as aloof, unfriendly and unpopular in the locker room.

Both men were smiling Friday after getting through their semifinal matches in disparate fashion. Nadal advanced past Austrian Jurgen Melzer with relative ease, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (6), progressing to the final without having dropped a set in six matches, a stat that has few betting against him in the seventh.

Soderling, by contrast, had to dig himself out of a two-sets-to-one hole against Tomas Berdych, pulling out a 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory to land a spot in the final for the second time running. He lost last year to Roger Federer, but avenged that defeat in the quarterfinals this week and admits to no fear in facing Nadal.

“I know that I can beat him. I showed it,” Soderling said.

For Nadal, who just turned 24, another French title would crown an impressive, full-bore return to peak form. Set back by injuries to his tender knees, which get punished by his pounding style of play, he saw his ranking fall to No. 4 earlier this year — his lowest since 2005 — and won no titles before the grueling clay-court season began.

But championships in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid boosted him back to No. 2, and he will snatch the top ranking from Federer if he wins Sunday.

“For me, the important thing is the tournament,” he said. “To be No. 1 wasn’t the main goal.”

In Melzer, Nadal faced a challenger who mirrors him as a lefty with powerful strokes and a grunt to match.

But it quickly became apparent that Melzer was the inferior image, especially in the first set, which lasted only half an hour, though for the Austrian it might have seemed longer as he ran from side to side chasing down Nadal’s groundstrokes and spraying several balls wide.

His most spirited play came in the third set, when he finally succeeded in breaking Nadal as the Spaniard tried to serve out the match. Almost on cue, the sun, which had blazed all afternoon and baked the court like a cake, withdrew behind a cloud for the first time.

It returned in the tiebreak, and so did Nadal, whose delicate lob on one point, landing inches inside the baseline for a winner, even drew applause from his net-charging opponent.

Soderling, who is seeded fifth, will offer a different look, with his sizzling serves and fast, flat shot-making off both wings.

“He has a very complete game,” Nadal said. “It’s very difficult to make him run and move.”

He was doing plenty of running against Berdych, who was playing with abandon in his first Grand Slam semifinal. The Czech went for the lines, and even served four aces in the final game of the third set.

But Soderling took the fourth, and in the fifth he broke Berdych to go ahead, 4-3. At 5-3, with Berdych serving, the Swede threaded a running forehand pass down the line that drew gasps from the crowd, and a few points later, after nearly 3 1/2 hours on court, he was into his second French Open final.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It’s better than the best dream ever.”

A win Sunday would give the lie to that. But there’s a certain Spaniard in the way with a score to settle.

henry.chu@latimes.com