Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic faced difficult draws on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters, but these two members of the ATP Tour’s “Big Four” managed to dismiss opponents seeded sixth and fifth, respectively. Nadal eased past Fernando Verdasco, 6-3, 6-3, while Djokovic clocked Juan Martin del Potro, 6-3, 6-4. After dueling for the Monte Carlo championship two weeks ago, Nadal and Djokovic–in opposite halves of the draw–stand one win away from creating a rematch at the Foro Italico.

Nadal’s scoreline might have looked pedestrian, but this was no ordinary day at the office. Verdasco showed flashes of the shotmaking that has enabled the No. 6 seed to become a resident of the top 10. A number of four- and five-deuce games caused this straight-setter to last 1 hour and 51 minutes. While other tennis pros will take only 75 minutes for a 3-and-3 match, Nadal had to stand on court for nearly two hours. Spectators in Italy’s capital didn’t get a three-set match, but they did see a spirited competition.

While marked by passionate play, however, this match did not attain high marks in terms of precision. Nadal hit only 6 winners in this match while committing 20 unforced errors. The world No. 1 looked downright mortal at times, allowing unchallenging groundstrokes to fly wide for no real reason. Small lapses in concentration, combined with doses of surprising power from the Verdasco racket, forced Nadal into an overly defensive mode. The best player on the planet stood far beyond the baseline for most of the match, and failed to overwhelm his fellow Spaniard. Based on those realities, one would think that Nadal either gutted out a razor-close three-setter, or lost the match outright.

Not so.

There was just one obstacle that stood in the way of an upset on a day when Nadal lacked his A-game: Verdasco himself.

The 25-year-old underdog, whose left knee nagged him for stretches of the match and worsened in the eighth game of the second set, could not keep the ball in the court. Verdasco might have hit 20 winners on the afternoon at Stadio Pietrangeli, but this “other” Spanish lefty stayed in Nadal’s shadow by spraying 41 unforced errors, many of them on relatively tame, low-pace shots. Verdasco gifted Rafa with far too many cheap points, and as they accumulated, the top dog in tennis was able to settle into a low-risk, high-margin style that–while perhaps a bit cautious–was ultimately justified in a larger context.

One might wonder–in light of the epic match contested by these two men at the Australian Open–why it’s a problem that Verdasco piled up errors along with winners. After all, Verdasco did make 76 errors in January’s sensational Aussie semifinal against Nadal, compared to just 25 errors for the eventual tournament champion Down Under. Why would it be such a problem that Verdasco had so many errors in this match? Didn’t the No. 6 seed hit 14 more winners than his opponent?

The math might seem to suggest that Verdasco’s numbers weren’t problematic, but closer examination indicates otherwise. It’s worth remembering that while Verdasco did hit 51 more errant shots than Nadal did in Australia, the second-best tennis player in Spain also drilled 95 winners that day, good for a plus-19 margin on the winner-error scale. In this Rome rematch, Verdasco’s winner-error margin was minus-21. Perhaps Verdasco could have won with 41 errors, but his winners had to be in the high 30s at the very least, and likely the mid-40s, for an upset to occur. Yes, Nadal might have hit just 6 winners, but with Verdasco donating boatloads of free points, the king of clay–even on an off day–just had to pound his shots deep, make Verdasco run, and wait for a wayward reply.

Verdasco hasn’t been horrible since he maxed out in Australia, but just the same, the world No. 8 (seeded sixth because of Andy Roddick’s absence from the event and the volatility of Gilles Simon’s ranking) hasn’t recaptured the form that carried him within an eyelash of his first Grand Slam final. Verdasco has reached the quarters of every event he’s played since his breakthrough in Oz. The bad news is that Ana Ivanovic’s former boyfriend hasn’t won any of those quarterfinal encounters. It’s back to the drawing board for one Spaniard; this other fellow named Nadal, still rolling through the claycourt season, will take the court for Saturday’s second semifinal against 12th-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated Argentine qualifier Juan Monaco, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in Friday’s late match.

The day’s other main-event quarterfinal represented a meaningful triumph for a man who already has a Grand Slam title to his name, but lacked a champion’s swagger in recent months. Novak Djokovic seemed to be enduring, and not enjoying, the ATP Tour in the month of March, but his win over Roger Federer in the Miami semifinals seemed to kick-start the Serb just before returning to Europe. Djokovic has regained the winning edge that carried the world No. 3 to the Australian Open 2008 title. He made the finals in Monte Carlo, and now stands just two wins away from defending his Rome championship.

Up against the fifth-seeded del Potro, Djokovic used an effective return game to punish the Argentine’s second serve and establish control from the outset. The one nicknamed “Nole” won this match by claiming 15 of 26 points on del Potro’s second serve. All told, Djokovic broke his opponent three times in nine return games. By winning 65 percent of points on his own second serve, Djokovic earned a spot in yet another Masters semifinal. As was the case one month ago in Miami, Djokovic’s semifinal opponent will be Federer, who played crisply from the backcourt in fighting off the impressive German qualifier Mischa Zverev, 7-6 (3), 6-2.

The more the rest of the ATP Tour takes its shots at the big boys, the more they fail. For yet another weekend, three of the top four names in men’s tennis (Andy Murray being the fourth) are in the semifinals of a Masters event. This pattern played out at Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo, and now it has unfolded in Rome as well. Saturday’s semifinals should be scintillating. Roman rule never felt so good.

****

WTA Scoreboard – Porsche Tennis Grand Prix – Stuttgart

Friday’s Quarterfinal Results (with semifinal pairings)

(2) Elena Dementieva d. Marion Bartoli, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3

(5) Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Gisela Dulko, 6-3, 6-2

(Dementieva vs. Kuznetsova in semifinal #1)

(1) Dinara Safina d. (8) Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-2

Flavia Pennetta d. (3) Jelena Jankovic, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4

(Safina vs. Pennetta in semifinal #2)

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