French Open Tennis 2012: Nobody Will Stand in Between Rafael Nadal and 7th Title

The top three players in the world still remain in the hunt for a French Open title, but among them, only one of them looks good enough to get the win. It's exactly who you'd expect. 

In their quarterfinals matchups on Tuesday, both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic lingered on the brink of elimination before winning in five sets. Both of them have admitted, throughout this tournament, that they haven't been at their best.

Djokovic especially has looked vulnerable in recent weeks, ever since losing to Rafael Nadal in Rome. According to the Associated Press, he's spent almost as long fighting his last two battles as Nadal has spent throughout this entire tournament. But Djokovic and Federer both prevailed to set up a rematch of last year's semis.

Nadal, meanwhile, took care of business the next day the usual way: by continuing a recent stretch of dominance that seems to be inevitably pointing to a seventh French Open title. Of all the elites still playing for the win, he looks the most comfortable, the most confident and by far the best on the court.

Forget about that hiccup on the blue clay in Madrid a month ago; that was a fluke. That loss had very little to do with Nadal's play and everything to do with his head, which was in the wrong place long before the tournament even began.

In a way, that loss was good for Nadal because it gave him something to prove: that when he got back onto the normal red-clay courts, he remained the most unbeatable player in the game. And he's done nothing in the last month if not prove that, particularly at Roland Garros.

On Wednesday, Nadal defeated Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3 for his 50th win at the tournament since 2005. He hasn't even lost a set through his first five matches and has lost just one serve. If he continues this way, he'll become the only player in history to win the tournament seven times in his career.

First, Nadal will have to go through David Ferrer, who will be making his first career appearance in the French Open semifinals. Despite the fact that Ferrer has had some success against Nadal—defeating him in the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2011—Nadal has taken him down four straight times since then.

After that, of course, comes the main event of this entire tournament: Nadal will take on either Djokovic or Federer in his quest for history. Lately, though, it hasn't even looked like that matchup will be much of a contest. Nadal has been that good. 

It doesn't seem like either No. 1 or No. 3 stands a chance at halting Nadal's momentum, given the battles the two of them have had to face to get to this point.

For Nadal, everything has been easy, and he's given no indication that it won't continue to be that way.