If the Foro Italico was set in the peak of ancient Rome, perhaps Nadal would be the star gladiator.  Alas, its history is a bit more recent, having been constructed under the eye of Mussolini.  Even so, Nadal has shown his capacity to win this title over and over.  This will be Nadal’s sixth final.  He’s won all five times he’s reached the finals.

Nadal almost didn’t reach the third round.  Feisty local Italian, Paolo Lorenzi, and a bug that Nadal caught, were conspiring to defeat Nadal, but he recovered soon enough to get a late second set break and then run away with the third set.  He then beat fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, and things got easier against Marin Cilic,

His surprise opponent in the semifinals was not Roger Federer, but the Frenchman that vanquished him, Richard Gasquet.  Gasquet has, in my opinion, the best one-handed backhand in the game.  Federer can only hit winners down-the-line and on lucky occasions, crosscourt.  Gasquet is the only guy who can hit a winner with his backhand while Nadal watches it go by.

Gasquet, like many of his compatriots, has that touch of Gallic flair.  He evokes memories of Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah.  He can make great shots from nowhere.  He’s talented at net.  He can hit the drop shot.  He can do this at inexplicable times.

He even had a chance to break with a 15-40 game on Nadal.   But like a cornered animal, Nadal pounces when he is down.  Nadal is as good as anyone taking a neutral ball and hitting a winner.  And his serve can still cause opponents trouble.  Nadal squeaked out of that game and then got a break of his own.

Gasquet’s challenge lasted only the first set as he was steamrolled at love in the second set.

And the match everyone is waiting for.  Well, at least on Saturday.  Or maybe not.

Everyone knows clay is Murray’s weakest surface. It’s taken him several years just to get comfortable on the surface.  Somehow he’s managed to make it to the semifinals and now has to play the hottest man on tour, Novak Djokovic.

The last time they met was in Melbourne where Djokovic pummeled him.  At the time, it was more an indictment of how Murray was playing rather than a precursor of how Djokovic was going to play.  Even so, it sent Murray into a tailspin which he didn’t recover until, amazingly, the clay season.  He had two shocking losses at Indian Wells and Miami (Donald Young and Alex Bogomolov, both Americans with triple digit rankings).

But he recovered to reach the semis of Monte Carlo and took a set off of Rafa.  He lost early to Bellucci in Madrid, but Bellucci was arguably playing the tennis of his life and even took a set off of Djokovic in the semis.

As the match starts, they are playing (again) the theme to Back to the Future.  Mohamed Lahyani is again chairing the semifinals.  He was the chair umpire in the Nadal-Gasquet semis and returns to call the other semis.  He was the chair umpire in the marathon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.

And so now we see how things turn out and whether we have another Djokovic-Nadal final or whether Murray can pull the upset.