Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts while playing Latvia's Ernests Gulbis during their quarter-final match at the French Open yesterday. Djokovic won 7-5, 7-6 (3), 7-5. - AP

PARIS (AP):

FIVE ROUNDS into the French Open, king of clay Rafael Nadal still awaits a serious challenge. Novak Djokovic hopes to provide it in the semi-finals.

Three-time defending champion Nadal matched the most lopsided Grand Slam victory of his career yesterday, defeating fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. The drubbing equalled the standard Nadal set in his previous victory, when he lost three games against another Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco.

Punctuate his triumph

Nadal was giving the centre-court crowd a thumbs-up signal to punctuate his triumph shortly after Djokovic completed a much more arduous win on Court Suzanne Lenglen. He needed more than three hours to eliminate childhood friend Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

The number three-seeded Djokovic will play number two Nadal in a much-anticipated showdown on Friday, with number one Roger Federer looming as a potential opponent for the winner in the final.

Nadal is 26-0 at Roland Garros, but Djokovic is making a mark in the record book, too. The Australian Open champion has reached five consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals, joining Federer, Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker as the only men to accomplish the feat in the Open era.

Ana Ivanovic beat Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-2 to become the first women's semi-finalist. Ivanovic's opponent tomorrow will be number three-seed Jelena Jankovic who defeated unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro, also 6-3, 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the quarter-finals for the third year in a row by completing a victory over Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 6-3. Kuznetsova's opponent today will be Kaia Kanepi, who became the first Estonian to reach the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam tournament by beating Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Kanepi and Kuznetsova won matches suspended Monday because of darkness.

In the other women's quarter-final today, number 13-seeded Dinara Safina will try to build on her upset victory on Monday against top-ranked Maria Sharapova. Safina overcame deficits of 5-2 in the second set and 5-2 in the second tiebreaker to win 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2.