Five things we learned from Friday's two semifinals at Roland Garros:

Rafael Nadal, King of Clay.

As much as we love suspense, it's hard to imagine Nadal not winning this title. Maybe he'll have to eat a batch of rotten escargot. Maybe he'll get his foot run over by a Vespa. But short of something unexpected bringing his play down multiple levels, The King of Clay will not be deposed. In the "dream semifinal" today, Nadal ran an absolute clinic against Novak Djokovic. Save for a brief lapse in the third set, this wasn't so much a tennis match as a platform for Nadal's singular claycourt skills. Undefeated in his career at Roland Garros, Nadal hasn't dropped a set in this year's tournament. Nadal pretty much nailed it when he told the courtside interviewer, "I give myself a good chance to win, no?" Yes.

Federer is back. Sort of.

For a player whose spell was supposedly broken, Federer is back in a Grand Slam final. But today's win was bittersweet. The hope had been for Nadal and Djokovic to play a long, physical struggle while Federer cruised. Instead, the opposite occurred. Nadal won fairly handily while Federer labored to beat Gael Monfils in four-plus hours. Federer seemed pleased overall with his play, but there were weird lapses that made this anything but routine. Already the underdog for Sunday's final -- something one seldom says about the world's No. 1 player -- Federer will really have to recover on Saturday to have a chance.

Novak Djokovic took a small step back today.

After pushing Nadal on the clay of Hamburg and coming close to snatching the No. 2 ranking, Djokovic was put in his place this afternoon. The score was 6-4, 6-2, 7-6, but it wasn't even that close. For much of the three-hour match -- half of that was spent bouncing the ball -- Djokovic wasn't really in it. He gamely came back and even had a set point in the third; but when Nadal regained his focus, it was back to a blowout. Not that Djokovic was thinking in these terms, but his slim chance at winning the Grand Slam died today as well. Don't feel too sorry for the kid. He just turned 21, he's already won a major and he's going to get better. Credit him for playing well late in the third when lesser players would have packed it in. But today he received a master class.

Gael Monfils: Take a Bow.

The Frenchman offered some moderate resistance today against Federer, entertaining the crowd, if not enthralling them. What a tournament for a player who was in danger of falling out of the top 100 not long ago. It's clear his game is still a work in progress -- "An uncut diamond," as Mats Wilander put it -- and, for starters, he needs to improve his court positioning. But he's so agile, so athletic and covers the court so well, there's no reason he's not a top 20 player.

At least in some degree, the Henin vacuum is being filled.

While you'll never get anyone to say so publicly, the WTA is rooting hard for Ana Ivanovic to win the women's final tomorrow. Especially after the recent retirement of Justine Henin, the WTA is desperate for a new star. And, strictly from a marketing perspective, one could scarcely do better than Ivanovic. But it says here Dinara Safina isn't a bad candidate herself. Over the past two weeks she's revealed herself to be a funny, self-deprecating, multi-lingual 22-year-old who -- oh, yeah! -- plays a nice game of tennis as well. Either way, the women's game will have a new Grand Slam winner by Saturday. And either way, the tour will be fine in the long run. But since you asked our prediction: Ivanovic in straight sets.