Two of the “Big 4” (Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic) are out of the Australian Open. Now Rafael Nadal will aim to make it a 50 percent success rate for the top four players in terms of reaching the semifinals. Only Gilles Simon stands in the way of the No. 1 player in the world. Two of men’s tennis gutsiest players will  do battle in the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Wednesday night.

They also squared off at last year’s Australian Open, and it was Nadal who knocked Simon out in the third round. The Frenchman, however, got revenge by pulling off a shocking upset at the Masters Series Madrid. Despite a pro-Nadal Spanish crowd, Simon scored a stunner in a third-set tiebreaker to reach the title match, in which he fell to Murray. Nadal leads the head-to-head series with Simon 2-1, having also emerged as the victor on the indoor hard courts of Marseille back in 2006.

Just three months after Madrid, Nadal already looks like a completely different hard-court player. He has cruised into the quarterfinals with four straight-set victories in a row. He opened his fortnight in Melbourne with a 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 blowout of Christophe Rochus, dispatched Roko Karanusic 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in round two, fired a hard to believe 53 winners to eight unforced errors in a  6-4, 6-2, 6-2 third-round win over Tommy Haas, and finally erased Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. It appears that Nadal has recaptured or even exceeded the form that carried him to titles at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Simon is also in the midst of an incredible hot streak that began during last summer’s U.S. Open Series. Highlights of his second half of 2008 included a title in Indianapolis, a runner-up finish at the Masters Series Madrid, and semifinal performances at the Masters Series Canada and year-end Masters Cup. He has dropped only two sets en route to his first career appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal. The Open’s No. 6 seed earned straight-set victories over Pablo Andujar and Mario Ancic, and in between took out Aussie hope Chris Guccione in four sets. Simon secured his place in the quarters when his friend and fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils retired with a wrist injury while trailing two sets to one.

Given Nadal’s current form, Simon’s style of play is not one that is going to give Nadal any serious trouble. The Spaniard is making almost no unforced errors, so he is only susceptible to an upset if an opponent overpowers him with huge serves and groundstrokes. Simon has reached the top 10 in the world rankings by tacking balls down, keeping the ball in play, and forcing his opponents into mistakes. The Frenchman is getting at turning defense into offense, so he will be able to surprise Nadal with the occasional dramatic shot every so often, but it probably won’t be anywhere close to enough.

Nadal is looking (and his heavily favored) to join Andy Roddick and Roger Federer in the 2009 Australian Open semifinals. Roddick advanced on Tuesday by taking out No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic, who retired due to fatigue amidst extreme heat conditions. The big-serving American was leading 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1 when Djokovic decided to call it a day.

Federer moved on to his 19th straight Grand Slam semifinal in the form of a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 destruction of No. 8 seed Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

The second-ranked Swiss was almost as ruthless in a post-match interview with ESPN’s Darren Cahill as he was on the court against Del Potro.

“It’s happened before,” explained Federer, when asked if he was surprised by Djokovic’s physical problems from earlier in the day. “He’s not the guy who’s never given up in his career.

“That’s kind of disappointing to see when you got two top guys playing each other and you give up. Andy probably would have run away anyway with the match.”

But Federer didn’t stop with a mere analysis of the Djokovic and Roddick quarterfinal clash. “I mean he (Djokovic) gave up against me in Monaco last year because of a sore throat,” the three-time Australian Open Champion said. “Those are the kind of things you wonder about.

“I’ve only given up basically once in my career,” he concluded. “In Paris against (James) Blake when I couldn’t move because of my back.”

You can bet there won’t be any giving up when Nadal and Simon have it out on Wednesday night.

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