PARIS - At last, Rafael Nadal sounded satisfied.
Then again, what could he possibly have complained about Wednesday? The five-time French Open champion reached the semifinals and improved his career record at Roland Garros to 43-1 with a clean-as-can-be 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over the only man he's ever lost to there, two-time runner-up Robin Soderling.
"Today, I played better. Much better, in my opinion," Nadal said. "It was nothing secret, nothing magic. … I found a lot of solutions."
After Nadal's previous match, he chided himself for not hitting the ball with conviction and fretted that his level of tennis wasn't good enough to win the tournament a sixth time, which would tie Bjorn Borg's record for the most by a man in history.
Against Soderling, Nadal was at his best.
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He scrambled along the baseline to dig out and get back shots that would be winners against most anyone else. He went from defense to offense in a blink, winning 14 of the first 19 points that lasted at least 10 strokes, according to the AP's tally. He made a hard-to-believe 13 unforced errors total; Soderling made 41.
"He played really good. It's the first match this tournament that he played well all the time," said Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach.
On Friday, top-seeded Nadal will take on No. 4 Andy Murray, who became only the third British man in the last 70 years to reach the French Open semifinals by beating unseeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-2. Murray has been playing with a torn tendon in his right ankle since twisting it in the third round, and he trailed Chela 4-1, then 5-3, before saving two set points and turning the match around.
The other men's semifinal is No. 2 Novak Djokovic against No. 3 Roger Federer. Djokovic is 41-0 in 2011 and has won 43 consecutive matches overall; Federer has won a record 16 Grand Slam titles.
None of the top four seeded players will participate in the women's semifinals Thursday, when No. 5 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, the defending champion, faces No. 11 Marion Bartoli of France, and No. 6 Li Na of China meets No. 7 Maria Sharapova of Russia.
For Sharapova, who had right shoulder surgery in October 2008, it is her first major semifinal in more than three years, and she is bidding to complete a career Grand Slam. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006, and the Australian Open in 2008 but never has been to a final in Paris.
"I put a lot of work in to be in this stage of the Grand Slams," Sharapova said after beating No. 15 Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-0, 6-3 Wednesday.
Li, who became the first Chinese player to reach any major final at the Australian Open in January, was a 7-5, 6-2 winner over No. 4 Victoria Azarenka.
Tv today
• What: French Open
• When: 5 a.m., ESPN2
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