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Nadal sets up final match at French Open

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Four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal cruised into the men's singles final at the French Open on Friday after beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.

Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates after defeating Austria's Jurgen Melzer during their men's semi-final match in the French Open tennis championship, June 4, 2010. [Laurent Zabulon/Xinhua]

The world No. 2 from Spain smashed the 22nd Melzer seed 6-2, 6- 3, 7-6(6), setting up a final clash with the fifth seed Robin Soderling.

"I think I played my best match today here in Roland Garros, 2010," said the 24-year-old Nadal, who advanced into the final without losing a set.

Nadal grabbed a two-set lead dominantly and took completely control in the third set with a service break in the sixth game. However, he didn't only waste the chance to finish the match 6-3, but also suffered service break in the 10th game with a double fault.

"I had just one double fault. That's the only point that I'm not happy. But I can't say anything against myself, because I was serving pretty well all the match," said Nadal who took the tiebreak 8-6.

Before Nadal won his semifinal, Swede Soderling edged out the 15th seed Tomas Berdych of Czech 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, reaching the final at Roland Garros two years in a row.

"Today was really tough to play my own game, because he didn't give me any time at all. The conditions were much quicker, and he was hitting the ball really hard and really flat," said Soderling, who believed that he could have lost the match "because it was very close".

The big hitter gave Nadal his first defeat at Roland Garros in the fourth round last year, but lost the final to Swiss Roger Federer, whom then grabbed his first clay court Grand Slam title so as to complete his career Grand Slam sweep.

In this year's quarterfinals, Soderling fought back from one set down to see off the top seed Federer in four sets.

Serena Williams and Venus Williams from the United States took victory in the women's doubles final as the top seeds defeated Kveta Peschke from Czech and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-2, 6- 3 after 73 minutes.

But Serena Williams has no chance to play the singles final as the top seed was beaten by Australian Samathan Stosur 2-6, 7-6 (2) and 6-8 in the quarterfinals.

Venus Williams, seeded second in the singles, suffered earlier exit while she was beaten by Russian Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-3 in the last 16.

The seventh seed Stosur is going to lock horns with Italian Francesca Schiavone on Saturday.