Nadal vs. Gasquet: Red-Hot Spaniard Will Not Be Stopped by Frenchman

Richard Gasquet is 0-10 lifetime against Rafael Nadal headed into the pair's clash in the semifinals of the 2013 U.S. Open on Saturday.

You may as well make that 0-11.

That's no disrespect to Gasquet, mind you. It's just tremendous respect for Nadal.

This has marked the first year that Gasquet has advanced past the fourth round of the U.S. Open. He defeated young upstart Milos Raonic in a grueling five-setter that lasted nearly five hours in the fourth round, then won his second career match against David Ferrer to advance to the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Nadal has lost just one set in five matches. He defeated No. 22 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in four sets in the fourth round and disposed of No. 19 seed Tommy Robredo in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

Rafael Nadal at 2013 U.S. Open (via USOpen.org)

Category	Won	Tournament Rank
First-serve points	80%	8th
Second-serve points	66%	1st
First-serve return points	94	10th
Second-serve return points	112	4th
Break points	29	4th

Nadal's match against Robredo was particularly impressive. The legendary Spaniard defeated Robredo in one hour, 40 minutes, capturing 86 percent of first-serve points, 61 percent of second-serve points, 94 percent of net points, 70 percent of break points and 56 percent of return points, via USOpen.org.

In short, Robredo was no match for Nadal.

Gasquet is a better player than Robredo, but he will still suffer the same fate against Nadal. The 27-year-old has won four sets in 27 career sets against Nadal. He hasn't won a set against the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion since July 2008 (Toronto).

The last time the two met in a Grand Slam, at the 2009 U.S. Open, Nadal went on to a convincing straight-sets victory.

Nadal is playing out of his skin since missing the second half of 2012 with tendinitis. He headed into the 2013 U.S. Open 53-3 with a career-high nine singles titles this year. That included winning his eighth French Open title.

Perhaps Gasquet will defeat Nadal before his career is over, but it won't happen at the 2013 U.S. Open.

Nadal is simply too dominant right now to be defeated by anyone other than world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.