Nadal's the word in the locker room

TENNIS/French Open:Significantly, most of the comments from other players at Roland Garros suggest that Rafael Nadal is the captain of the flagship centre court.

While the inflated talk is of Roger Federer claiming the elusive clay court title that would secure his place in history, at the coalface, Nadal's name is the one repeatedly coming up. He has not yet dropped a set over the two weeks and when Novak Djokovic meets him today in the semi-final, the Serb will be aware of a reputation growing with each match.

After Nadal's defeat of Carlos Moya on Thursday, the 30-year-old former champion, Moya, was hard pressed to name not alone any other player who might beat the 21-year-old Nadal on clay, but just four players who could take a set off him.

Importantly, Djokovic was one of them.

Moya, Nadal's hitting partner in Mallorca, had a taste of what most opponents who have met his friend in Roland Garros have experienced and was smarting from the pain afterwards.

When his left arm is singing, Nadal is almost unplayable and even if the exquisite Federer can bring his career statistics against Nikolay Davydenko to nine wins from nine meetings and set up the final many people want to see, there is an underlying feeling that Nadal playing as he did to beat Moya 6-0 in the third set cannot be beaten.

It was put to the young Spaniard after the Moya mauling that it was not a very nice way to end a friend's run in a Grand Slam.

"Not very nice?" said the champion. "No. So the match was better for me than it was for him, that's for sure. I was just trying my best."

Djokovic is in little doubt about the task but he, along with Federer, is one of a select group that have beaten Nadal this season - Federer in Hamburg (clay) and Djokovic on hard court. The 20-year-old Serb has won three titles on three different surfaces, Adelaide (rebound ace), Miami (hard) and Estoril (clay). Only Nadal, with four titles, has won more.

"He's the best player in the world on this surface and everyone knows it," said Djokovic. "He's really dominant and probably the most prepared player on the tour. But you know I won against him in Miami. It's going to be difficult, he's a big favourite."

Federer's joust with Davydenko, who is through to his second Roland Garros semi-final, is probably one of the best preparatory matches he could face if he is to advance to the final. Davydenko's best result before coming here was reaching the semi-finals at Rome having defeated Tommy Robredo in the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Nadal in a match lasting three hours 38 minutes.

That combined with five out of Davydenko's 10 career titles being won on clay indicates that although the Russian fourth seed has a relatively low public profile compared with the other top players, his ability is respected and feared.

"I haven't played him on clay very much," said Federer. "He's really improved over the years as well. He's gotten much more consistent from the baseline. His serve has improved, he's always been a good runner and he's very tough to play against."

Fine words from Federer, who is normally thoughtful and candid about opponents' strengths and weaknesses. But no more so than he is about his own.

"I enjoy playing against him," said the would-be champion. "I think it will be a great match against him."

Great, presumably, only if the world number one wins.