TENNIS FRENCH OPEN:AS THIS French Open alternately squelches and sweats towards a conclusion, it is clear that the men's and women's games are in varying degrees of flux, and that may be no bad thing.
Serena Williams, the world number one, is out after the rising Australian Sam Stosur, victor over Justine Henin on Monday, produced another fighting performance yesterday to rouse the faithful back home in the middle of the night.
The race for the women’s title – between four semi-finalists who do not have a slam between them – is as open as the Sydney Heads. “After two great matches back to back,” Stosur said, “my self-belief is as good as it’s ever been.
“I feel good. Nothing hurts when you win.”
The 29-year-old Austrian Jurgen Melzer, seeded 22, would not disagree. He has not done much since he won the boys’ title at Wimbledon 11 years ago but yesterday his world was complete when he booked a semi-final against Rafael Nadal, coming from two sets down to put out the world number three Novak Djokovic in five sets stretched over four hours and 15 minutes. He blew the simplest of volleys on match point, but hung on to win 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Still, only Nadal, on schedule for his fifth title here in six years after seeing off the determined challenge of Nicolas Almagro, remains peerless in the game. Melzer will do well just to stay with him.
It is becoming tedious to repeat: there is nobody to beat Nadal on the red dirt of Roland Garros, or anywhere else, for that matter – not even another Spaniard.
Not that Almagro did not give it a mighty try, forcing Nadal into two tie-breaks before going down 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-4. Nadal has not lost to a Spaniard in 20 matches. Almagro, the 19th seed, saved match point in the 10th game with a sizzling backhand, before bowing to the inevitable.
On the world stage, a disorderly queue is forming behind Nadal, and even Roger Federer – bounced out of Paris by Robin Soderling on Tuesday - has been forced to join it. If Nadal wins here again, he will take the Swiss’s number one ranking, deservedly so.
Nadal had to work desperately hard to get past Almagro, who played to near the limit of his abilities, but each time it mattered, the man from Murcia was drained like a wounded bull. Nadal has not dropped a set yet. If he beats Melzer and goes on to the final on Sunday – against either Tomas Berdych or Robin Soderling – he is in the mood to keep that precious statistic in place.
Williams, meanwhile, cracked against Stosur and follows her sister, Venus, as well as the reborn Henin and the faltering Caroline Wozniacki, on the way home – or at least off to the UK to get ready for Wimbledon.
Williams went a set down but had this quarter-final in her pocket after a rousing fightback, then blew a match point in the third. She has not done that in a major since Sandrine Testud saved two deciders to beat her in the third round of the Australian Open 11 years ago.
In those early days of her ascent, she was irresistible. A month ago in Rome, however, probably still recovering from the knee injury that had kept her out of the game for five months, she again held match point and lost – to Jelena Jankovic, Stosur’s semi-final opponent today.
This is either a trend or a blip. We will find out over the next month, but that clanking sound around women’s tennis could be the changing of the guard.
Stosur looks the pick of the remaining quartet on. More sure of herself since coming back from illness, the seventh seed is flying. The winner of her semi-final plays Francesca Schiavone or Elena Dementieva in Saturday’s final. Jankovic, the highest seed left at number four, overcame a wobble to dismiss unseeded Kazak Yaroslava Shvedova, 7-5, 6-4.
Stosur’s 6-2, 6-7 (2), 8-6 win over Williams was not as convincing as her three-set dismissal of Henin, but she regathered her composure in the final two games.
Williams had Stosur by the throat in the third. At the end, though, she did not look the dominant tigress she once was.
