TENNIS:FROM THE moment Rafa Nadal, the four-times champion, was knocked out of the French Open on Sunday by Sweden's Robin Soderling, Roger Federer has been tiptoeing towards history with the look of a man who desperately wished he could fast-forward the rest of the week and skip the fourth round, quarter-finals and semi-finals. The 13-times major champion knows that, in Nadal's absence, he should win the title here but the journey has become an agony of nerves.
The last time anyone beat Federer at Roland Garros, other than Nadal, was five years ago when Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten, the crowd’s beloved ‘Guga’, who won the title on three occasions, defeated him. Since then Nadal, in three finals and a semi-final, has both squeezed the life-blood out of the Swiss and robbed him of his greatest desire, namely to win this title and so join Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Don Budge and Fred Perry as the only men to have won all four majors.
There is also the small matter of him equalling Pete Sampras’s record of 14 major titles, should he win here on Sunday.
The French are willing him on: one for all, and all for one in pursuit of the Coupe des Mousquetaires. Even yesterday, when the Frenchman Gael Monfils stood between Federer and the title, the crowd were just as inclined to cheer the Swiss rather than their own. They could sense the tension and, when Federer challenged a call and continued to argue with the umpire, they were remarkably reserved. Such moments can see the vitriol uncorked and hurled at almost anybody. Federer was all but exempt.
Roland Garros, or so it seems, is determined to host history at the weekend. “The French public really respect Roger. To start with they had mixed feelings. They supported us both,” said Monfils.
The Frenchman, who lost in the semi-final against Federer last year, is a 22-year-old of extraordinary gifts, though one who may be destined to play cameo roles at the grand slam events, such have been his injury problems. The first set was tight, with Federer’s forehand once again misfiring on too many occasions for his own liking, though ultimately this 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 quarter-final victory was more straightforward than he might have imagined.
As they met at the net Monfils, who had stomach cramps during the match and called the physio, wished Federer well and said he hoped he would win on Sunday, “but he still has two tough matches”.
The first will be tomorrow against the world number five, Juan Martin Del Potro, who reached his first grand slam semi-final with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Spain’s Tommy Robredo.
Federer has won all his previous five matches against the 20-year-old Argentinian, without dropping a set.
The women’s tournament has been nothing like as highly charged, principally because there is currently no dominant force at the majors other than the Williams sisters and, since 2002 when Serena defeated Venus in the final, they have not mounted a serious challenge on the Roland Garros clay. Serena had expressed her desire to do well this year on the grounds that this was the only slam she has failed to win more than once. Nobody was much inclined to believe her.
So it was no real surprise when she was beaten 7-6, 5-7, 7-5 in the quarter-finals by Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova who will now play Sam Stosur, the Australian defeating Romania’s Sorana Cirstea to become her country’s first women’s semi-finalist here for 21 years.
Kuznetsova, winner of the US Open in 2004 and runner-up here in 2006, had lost all but one of her previous six matches against Williams, though had won a clay-court tournament in Stuttgart earlier this year, defeating her fellow Russian, Dinara Safina, the current world number one, in the process.
She and Williams last met at the same stage of the Australian Open, when Kuznetsova again took the first set, only to lose in three. Once again it seemed Williams would turn the match around but Kuznetsova prevailed.
ROLAND GARROS DETAILS
Men's Singles Quarter-finals: (5) Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) bt (16) Tommy Robredo (Spa) 6-3 6-4 6-2, (2) Roger Federer (Swi) bt (11) Gael Monfils (Fra) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 6-4.
Women's Singles Quarter-finals: (30) Samantha Stosur (Aus) bt Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea (Rom) 6-1 6-3, (7) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt (2) Serena Williams (USA) 7-6 (7-3) 5-7 7-5.
Women's Doubles Semi-finals: (3) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spa) bt (1) Cara Black (Zim) Liezel Huber (USA) 7-5 5-7 6-2, (12) Victoria Azarenka (Blr) Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt (9) Su-Wei Hsieh (Tpe) Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-3 7-5.
Mixed Doubles Semi-finals: (1) Liezel Huber (USA) Bob Bryan (USA) bt Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Ger) Mark Knowles (Bah) 6-2 6-2, Vania King (USA) Marcelo Melo (Bra) bt (4) Nadia Petrova (Rus) Max Mirnyi (Blr) 6-2 3-6 10-7.
