The 2005 French Open Thread

Serena Williams is also out, having played and lost one clay match so far this year. Justine Henin-Hardenne is on a three-tournament winning streak and therefore massive favourite. The Clidge was meant to be injured and barely able to hobble, but clearly she has been LYING if that first-round score is anything to go by!

In the men's, it's all about the Federer-Nadal-Coria axis. The possibility of match-ups between those three makes me very sad that I lack Eurosport.

Defending champion Nastya Myskina is in a terrible slump, apparently her mother has cancer, poor Nastya :(

Oh, is it not that time yet? It's never that time, is it?

Ava is now about to go on her first outing to a fish'n'chip shop. Up yours, Delors.

Sorry, back to the tennis.

Also - Marat's sister gets Razzled 6-3 6-3, and Hrbaty's the first men's seed to fall after a five-set monster with Tipsy Rave-up. This said, there's a lot of unseeded but still quite big names gone too - P-Dorn fell in four to The Stairmaster, Andy Pavv got Serrated 6-2 6-2 6-3, and perhaps most humiliatingly, Mardy Fish got X-Winged and won only four games into the bargain. Things are already looking a bit topsy turvy...

The top-half of the draw is naaasty too; RF has Henners, Moya, Bandy and Ancic, RN has Gaudio (the jammiest Slammiest winner since Arthur Ashe won the rained-out US Nationals by hastily-arranged tombola in '69), Grosjean and Gasquet. Roddick, already benefitting from the absence of Chewy, seems to have it easy. Come on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga!

It's quite something that Nadal is being considered favourite to win this despite the fact that this is his first ever Roland Garros. And he has never reached even a Slam quarter-final before.

On the subject of imbalanced draws, is it just me or is every contender in the women's draw crammed into the bottom half? By that, I mean JHH, Shaz, Mauresmo and Kuzzy. All the seeds in the top half have massive question marks over their form - Davenport hates clay and Europe and doesn't care; Clijsters has those multiple injuries; Myskina's gone already; Venus can only win tournaments in places like Istanbul these days. Dementieva might even be favourite to reach the final again!

I'm very sad about Nastya and her mother, I hope she takes some time off from tennis. I don't think playing in this emotional state is benefiting her at all. Can I just post a picture to remind us all of happier times?

ihttp://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/694/sp05.jpg

Oh, and the IBM Scoreboard now requires a Flash plug-in and doesn't seem to work properly even after I download it. They've retained that pig-ugly font too.

Pixieman is out - down in four to Andreeeev. Bea Arthur(s) a set down to Richard Melzer.

Ferrero Rocher and Saffie through with few problems, on our way to a grand third round showdown there!

Gassanova's been Nieminated 7-5 in the first too... double hmm...

Flicka wins himself a coterie of new fans by edging out the hometowner 7-5 in the tie-break.

Agatha a set and a break down now.

Aitch-Tee and Calatrava come back out to resume their match from last night. Calatrava wins a couple of games to take the decider 6-3. They go back in again.

Elsewhere, Jiffy Ljub's close to going two sets down, Tommy R's looking cosy after a crapper of a start against Lucky Lucz, and Flicka's gone a break down again at 4-3 in the 4th - PHM serving...

Women's saw Israeli giantkilling tag team Smashnova and Peer work their magic on Jankovic (#15) and Bartoli (#28) respectively.

Not lacking shocks outside of that though - Surely Voney getting past JieJie Allin is some kind of achievement? V-SPAD straight setted Costa del Bert, Guga got gazumped by Daviiid Sanchezzz, and Force 9 Gael got taken to the Ass Cannery.

Oh, and Greggers is out.

(for those still watching - HT got past Callie Travers 6-4 in the fifth.)

Currently, Mpaperfolding is being given a Sprem donor, and is a set and a break up. Sister Slump is at one set all against Zuluaga, and GG Allin's the first into the third round as Tursunov retires without striking a ball...

On court now, Shinobu's in 5-3 down against Jasper, Hey Ya's gone a WHOMPING two sets down against Vicky Han, Zulu's staging a mini-fightback against Venus - from 4-0 down back to 4-3 and serving, Diva's taken her first set on a tie-break, and Nalbs is on the verge of wrapping up against Ver Dyke.

I see there's a Roger-Vasselin in the doubles - the son, I would presume, of Christophe R-V who (I think) dumped out Jimmy Connors in the '83 event before barely winning a game off Wilander in the semis. That makes me feel old, but it doesn't take much thesedays. Getting up out of a chair, for instance.

Henster has blown an early break against Little Jack.

Good grief! If the UCCH can't even win on this muck any more, isn't it time to start pursuing other career options?

Good thanks Mike. Notice Renee nearly halved Dan P's interest in this thread. Answer to prev question: yes, Aggers played the match out with a very stroppy hamstring.

Gaggles has just wombled through 6-3 6-3 against MarSanLor.

Moya's taken the third set - on a break point! Nads two sets to the good, Feds is in a tie-break that he looks to be winning, MarDiOl looks to be getting back into it against the Thresher, Silvi's a set and break up on ArParSan.

Federer through in three and Nadal about six points away from doing the same.

So far on day 4, Melzer, Davydenko, Puerta, Canas and Mathieu have earned their places in the last 32, while Coria and Haas have benefited from their opponents being a bit poorly.

The top women (Sharap, HH, Kuznets, Petr) all through in straight sets.

It's better when things just go to plan, isn't it?

Court 6 - Blake-Wawrinka - JB takes the first two sets 7-6 (20-point tiebreak) 7-5, then Kid Toblerone comes roaring back to take the next two 6-1 6-3...

Elsewhere - Wawrinka draws first blood (serving, 2-1 up), Marat's engaged in tie-break warfare with PVA Dlouhy, Ferrero's not having much trouble with Hernia, Kiefer's looking decent at one-set all and a break up against The Freudian, Sanchez-Johansson could well be described as 'tight'...

And lidderally as we type (lidderally) Who He?'s taken the first tie-break against Saffo.

Lidderally as we type, JCF's straight-setted Hernych. Saf's an early break up in the second, TJ's just broken to go 5-4 ahead on Sanchez, Roddick's looking rosy against Acasuso, Wawrinka's still That Crucial Break Up on Blake and leading 4-3 in THE DECIDER.

TJ & Kiiiief both two sets to one up, Rodders takes his first set 6-3... and I've not mentioned Pippo Volandri yet - he's 6-4 4-1 up on Saretta.

Meanwhile, Alizé said of Mesmo - "This is a dream come true for me. She's my favourite player. Two years ago she was practising on a court beside me, and I could just stare at her. I said to myself 'Oh la la, if only I could play her'." She actually said "oh la la" like a proper French person! I hope she had fun out there despite the scoreline.

(Clemmie lost btw)

Girl-style - Anna-Lena's smashing Anna-Nova, took the first 6-1 and is already 2-0 up in the second. Dish leads Stoat 5-3.

Dicko 30-15 up.

Looking at the ladies' draw, the French must be licking their lips. They've five in so far, and they've all got very live chances - Razz can definitely spring one on Disinterested Dave, Psycho-Vera's quite possibly a matter of which of them self-destructs first, Emmie might actually be going into her match with Gaggles as the favourite (when was the last time that happened, eh?), Gollygosh can surely take down Bovo Nox, and Mesmo surely can't be bothered by Ivanovic... surely... hell, the only real worry might be the Dish, cos she'd be facing the seriously in-form NLV.

Elsewhere, things look similarly enticing - Voney-Groany, Rover vs. THE PRESSURE COOKER, Venus-Parky, and, best of all, the grand clash between the kingdoms of Ginger and Shazzer... G'won the Chakkatakk!

Anna Chakvetadze has quite fascinating hair. I can't work out if it's ginger, brown or some vaguely abortive shade of blonde.

On paper, Mesmo v Ivanovic should be very close - Ivanovic is very very good and almost certainly a future top 10 player, maybe even Slam champion. But she's still in her rookie year, and has had the misfortune to draw Mauresmo 6 times already in half a season, and has got to be feeling somewhat frustrated at the head-to-head.

In today's news, Razzano went 4-0 up on Dave, then choked and is now 5-6 down. The Clidge is a surprisingly hard-fought set up on Dani Girl (6-4), and ditto for Moyà against Vicente.

Carlos gets the break that matters and serves at 5-4 up. Clidge looks for double-quick Dani dismissal, serving out at 5-2.

Gonzalez is a tricky customer - any chance Fedz is going to suffer the same last-32 pancake performance as last year v Guga? Oh, hang on - he's already a break up.

This hot flush of near-Parisian sun reminds me that two years ago this week I was actually there, on Court Philippe Chatrier. Here's a low-quality pic of Serena murdering Schett from the very top row:

http://photos6.flickr.com/6551339_c9840e0b5f.jpg

Then she loses serve in the first game of the second. Hmm.

Gonzo and Drinky Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze get their breaks back.

AM: "Jonas, do you remember when we were their age?"

JB: "No."

AM: "Oh."

Virgo viciously re-seizes the initiative and brings the set back to service (2-1 up, receiving). The Boozehound's 5-2 up, Moya and Fedge's matches against Some Other Chappies both going with serve at present.

It's all kicking off elsewhere, too - Fedge-Ferd locked in tiebreak, SFE comes charging back to be serving at 5-6 in the first, Myskie and The Bjork now 3-2 up and serving sur Les Beaux Enfants...

Nando-Feds tiebreak currently at 9-9. Silvs snatches defeat from the jaws of not-defeat and loses the first 7-5. TB for CM and FV, Mysks and Bjorks looking to be in control now.

(xpost!)

Fortunately, there's a hell of a lot going on elsewhere. Court #1, for instance, sees Moggie getting her claws into the Diva, who's currently leading 6-3 4-6 2-1. On Lenglen, Big John and Stairmaster are at two sets and one game each, and on #2 - is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's - HYUNG-TAIK LEE and he's just missed an opportunity to serve out for the third set against Davey Ferrer's Locker. Considering that H-T's already lost the first two sets, that was probably a bad move. 5-5 in the third there...

Diva and Kiko 3-3 in the third. 2 of those games have gone with serve. Stunningly, one of them went to Ellie.

Elsewhere, Vera-Psycho and Hanny-Horny are going with serve early on. Seb's a break up on Step but dangerously close to handing it back...

Almost entirely unnoticed, Flavia Flav's not only been seeded #32 but she's also got past the first round of a Grand Slam for only the third time in her career. In fact, just by getting this far she's already equalled her career best grand slam performance. Just her luck she's run into Faster, Patty S! Kill! Kill! That looks to be going with serve, anyway.

Pentel a break up on Schneezer, VT's 4-1 up on Piercey, VH-1 takes the first set against the Rounder.

Vera is probably in floods of tears right now.

Meanwhile, Vera and Mary are in a Tie-Break Situation, 'nescu's 5-3 up on Horna, Gaudy-O is 4-2 down vs. Felix, and Venus trails Rat-A-Tat by the same score.

omg, Venus is 3-5 down to a 15-yr-old who idolised her when she was 7.

GG takes a one set lead over The Thtilla Called Mantilla.

Hanescu through in straight sets, Patty crushes Flavia 6-1 in the third to follow him through. Gaudio looking poised for a two-set lead.

(cue the sound of a thousand columnists asking if this is the end of the Williams sisters accompanied by photos of them arrogantly wearing trainers)

(note: I still reserve the right to repeatedly point out to my youngest brother that he's the same age as Jo-Jo)

And finally - Commence the Loitering! As one of the most low-key match-ups that Chatrier has probably ever seen gets underway. Emmie holds her first service game.

In the past, Venus would have maybe one of these awful matches each year...these days, it's more like one per tournament. And how incredibly weird that in a match between two players not playing particularly well, it's the four-time Slam winner who cracks mentally rather than the 15-yr-old debutante...

The Loitering! That is brilliant. And also her name means the same as my username. Gotta love the Law.

Loit 2-1 Gaggles. In 32 attempts, Gagliardi has yet to get past the third round of a Grand Slam. Loit has managed it once from twenty-five tries. This could be seen as the equivalent of that film where Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas are boxers who have toiled in obscurity for much of their career but get the chance to fight each other for their first, last and only opportunity for a title bout. Except less violent and rubbish and actually not that much like it at all really.

Felix Mantilla is 31, and he's still got a fair bit of tennis left in him - pegged GG back to 3-3.

Sesil looks so happy!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41194000/jpg/_41194245_sesil_203.jpg

Loit-Gagliardi is perhaps a little more like that film than anticipated - Loit starts off fast, going 4-1 up, but then Gagz hauled it back to 5-3 - only to lose her following service game. The Umbrella Kid (she's from Cherbourg, y'see) serves at 5-3.

Bandy now 5-4 up on Mario, serving to go two sets clear.

I note that while Golovin, Dechy and Pierce have fantastic party faces, Loît remains impassive and Mauresmo, bless her scared little rabbit heart, just looks petrified.

The Main Event, as it shall henceforth be referred to, has swung back towards The Geneva Concussion - she got the early break and is serving at 3-2.

Karatarantula was born the day after my 21st birthday, so no more crying from you two about feeling old.

Bandy up 2-0 in sets and games vs Ancic; LoiteringWithIntent up a set but being Gagged 3-5 in the second. It's 9:30 over there, are they using illuminated balls?

Back to the undercard and Nabob vs. Anthill, and we find the Argentine firmly in control at 3-0 - Mario's battling away but Hairy Dave is just that bit too good at key points.

Saying that - break and set point Gaggles - and she's got it! Three sets it is.

(seriously, I've been watching some of the rallies on StrokeTracker - frigging mesmerising)

EL and EG have split sets and they've had enough. Bandy reckons he can close this out and has now strapped pen-torches to his cap, Orbital-style.

Ancic gets his first game of the third set, but Hair-uss continues to hold serve - 4-1.

I wish that thing worked for me. Loît's totally old-skool, all spins and slices and dropshots and lovely artistic tennis. I am a tennis rockist, so I enjoy this a lot. That Australian Open match where she nearly frustrated Serena to death was beautiful - she saved a match point with the most audacious dropshot, it made me squeal with delight.

Loît is ranked 92, Karatantcheva 98 and Gagliardi 105. It makes me very happy that one of them will be a Slam quarter-finalist!

And Loit's #92? Was it really that long ago that she was fairly regularly seeded in the low 20's?

(xpost - they can't come off at 5-3 40/15, it's INSANE).

Also note that Venus' decline is now so great that the photo of her isn't even in the right resolution.

Two other ladies matches not yet mentioned - JHH needed three sets to get past Annie Meddie Garrie, and on Court #2 at the moment Voney's just taken the first set on a tie-break against Groany.

Men-wise - Acca's ascent continues after Volandri pulls out injured after three games. Other'n that, Davy Denko's 7-5 4-0 up on Funky Haas, T-Rob and D-San are going with serve, and Marat and JCF is turning into what people were expecting - Marat takes the first on a tie-break, JCF 5-4 up in the second but that's all with serve. Should be close.

Marat's taken the fourth-set tie-break dinge-dong to go through against JCF;

Puerta's ended Wawrinka's seemingly implacable surge in four sets (no, I'm not quite sure what 'implacable' means);

And Robredo straight setted Sanchez. Yay Robredo.

IN STORES NOW: having lost the first two sets 6-1 6-1 to Ratboy, Melzdown looks to have woken up a bit, and is currently 4-3 up with serve in the third; Kiefer's got off to a good start, 3-0 up on Lovely Igor; and Mesmo-Ivo's gone with serve after the first three games.

Ivanovic-Mesmo's gone to a third set, they're 3-3. Kiefer took the first set 6-4, currently 6-5 ahead in the second but it's going with serve thus far.

Elsewhere: Kiefer squeezes out the second with the tie-break, again the third's going with serve there. But all French eyes are on PHM, who's just gone a break up on Canas and is serving at 4-3. He's lost the first set 6-3, so there's work to do...

Andreev kept himself in his match with Keef by taking the third set 6-3. They'll resume at 4-4 in the fourth.

Who exactly does the headlines at RolandGarros.com, and can I possibly shake their hand? Anyway, Linz gets the best of a three-set whopper with The Clidge, 1-6 7-5 6-3, but you want heroics? Swift glance at the men's results and we find good ol' PH Mathieu, two sets to nothing down against Canas at start of play, taking four games on the spin to take the third set 6-2. The next set's a tie-break, which he wins 7-5. You can imagine the crowd being on their feet, no? The next set was much the same, only because it was set five there was no tie break. And because life is a bitch, there was no fairytale ending - G'mo snatched it 8-6.

Ste. Marie de la Pres was France's only shot in the women's draw, but her tale has a happier end, as she out-battied Patty 6-1 1-6 6-4. This is as nothing compared to the first all-Russian encounter of the fourth round, though, between two players whose names appear to be synonymous with 'forever in the shadows of their more famous/glamorous compatriots' - Dementieva vs. Likhovtseva. Three sets. The first, a tie-break, taken by the Boozehound 7-3. The second, the Diva bites back 7-5. And the decider - 7-5. To Steady Mike's Standby, who reaches a slam quarter-final for the first time since Wimbledon '02.

Also through - Brattitude, squelching Emmanuelle's hopes 7-5 6-3. That's not so much fun, really, and neither's the two games it took for Keef to see off Handreev Andreev.

We've saved the best for last, though. Because today belongs to the man ranked 90th in the world at the start of play, Mr Victor Hanescu of Bucharest, Romania. Always a threat in the early rounds but never much beyond that, till now. He was up against The Bandy One, the #10 seed, former semi-finalist etc. He beat him 6-3 4-6 5-7 6-1 6-2. He's in the quarter-finals, his route having taken in victories over Tabara, Chela and Horna along the way. He's probably not going much further, given that he's got Feds or Moya next... but don't rule him out just yet.

Shaz breaks Nuzz early to lead 3-2, but NLV doesn't seem especially interested in keeping things that way.

Unfortunately it was only available to satellite and cable viewers yesterday so my attempts to second-guess their coverage (VCR-hopping between 701 and 702 while I was out for the day*) only yielded Chelsea Flower Show coverage from two different angles. Someone out of Killing Joke was on talking about their allotment. Today I was able to tape some Clij-Dave and some Fedz-Moya. The latter was a bit of a nonevent, Jackal's shoulder was obviously playing up and Feddy was cruising. He can so win this, especially with Nalbo gone.

All the real action appeared to be on PhilChat - Pierce wasting m-p after m-p before disposing of Roy Scheider, the locals going barmy over a bad call against BigSeb and so mangling Nadal's thought processes he dropped a set (up 3-0 in the 3rd before they went off).

(* - playing tennis! I won 6-2 6-2 but only because my opponent wore himself out across three service games totalling 21 deuces, each time serving into the sun. He may have been legally blind by the time I broke to win.)

Not that I imagine for a second that The Lex will be popping his head back round the door of this thread, but Channel 4 just said they are repeating that episode of Desperate Housewives on Tuesday this week for all the people who missed it because of the football. People power!

Elsewhere, Coria presses home early breaks vs Davy to take the first set 6-2; reigning champ Gaudio blows an oppo to close out set three and is now serving to stay in it vs Ferrer; Schiavone and Ivanovic are locked together at 3-3 in the decider.

There's someone called Shabaz in the Boys' Singles.

Sorry boys, back to your tennis.

Nads has not yet lost a game on resuming his match with Big John.

Women's quarter-finals are set!

Lindsay Davenport v Mary Pierce
Elena Likhovtseva v Sesil Karatantcheva
Nadia Petrova v Ana Ivanovic
Justine Henin-Hardenne v Maria Sharapova

I predict Pierce v Karatantcheva and Ivanovic v Henin-Hardenne for the semis but to be honest all of the first three are total 50/50 matches.

Davenport vs Pierce playing for semi-final berth. WHAT YEAR IS THIS?
Davenport vs Pierce playing for semi-final berth on CLAY. WHAT PLANET IS THIS?

Men's quarters:

Federer vs. Hanescu
Nadal vs. Ferrer
Davydenko vs. Robredo/Safin
Puerta vs. Canas

From that, I reckon... Feds to win, Davydenko runner-up (though look at the boy's previous - never actually past the second round here before - but if you wanna statement of intent, I kinda suspect that taking out Coria's a pretty decent one), with Canas and Ferrer the beaten semi-finalists.

When Federer and Nadal play each other I have GOT to find a television with Eurosport.

COUNTER-WHAM! Robredo takes the third by exactly the same score!

Surely that's still an 'if'...

I have about 25min of Nadal-Grosjean on tape that I haven't played yet - my first chance to really see what Rafa's all abaht. I am surprised in three differing shades by the defeats of Safin, Coria and Gaudio. What was up with Kiefer? Only had 24 hours to save the world? Again?

If you can't find Eurosport, Lex, it might be worth splashing out £40 for the cheapest Freeview box you can find - Roland Garros live on channel 701 all this week. Maybe Fed-Nad would even make it to BBC terrestrial.

I considered Freeview but I a) can't really afford £40 given that I've splashed out for Sónar this month, and b) especially not when I can't guarantee it will work - I envisage having to retune my housemate's TV and breaking it. I have no temp work planned for this week so if the agency doesn't ring up that day I might find a pub to sit in quietly.

JHH 7/4
Shaz 3/1
Big Dave 5/1
Piercey 8/1
Rova 8/1
Ivanovic 10/1
Ratatat 16/1
The Boozehound 20/1

Feds Evens
Nads... err, the return is down as 2.37, so it's presumably something like 4/3 or something.
Ass Canner 12/1
Davy Denko 14/1
T-Rob 16/1
Rico 25/1
Spanish Dave 33/1
Vicky 250/1

They're offering 12/1 on Vic beating Feds. I feel so very, very tempted...

(xpost)

I think we have to go back to Capriati - 15y 3m when she reached the '91 Wimb sf.

Potential Youngest Semi-Finalist For Over A Decade goes 4-3 up in second set, statisticians on edge of their seats.

Nadal edges the first 7-5 vs Ferrer.

Davenport appears to have finally thrown in the towel after actually making an effort to fight for four (!) consecutive matches - down 3-6 0-4 to Pierce.

Justine HH says she is "reaching a crescendo" in this tournament. If the final is between her and Pierce, it will be interesting to see whether this crescendo is loud enough to drown out the crowd.

Nadia Petrova has never won a singles title on the WTA Tour.

RN seems to spin in a lot of very short second serves which suggests to me that Fedz might just kill him. But, it's clay and RN had RF on the ropes on hardcourt very recently.

Ass Canner is having his ass canned at that mo' - down 2-6 2-3 to Puerta.

"MAID" MARIANO PUERTA (won in five sets against the Ass-Canister)

VS.

NIKOLAY "PROBABLY KNOWS MARAT SAFIN" DAVYDENKO (won, again in five sets, against T-Rob)

Also - in what people are presuming to be the Piercey-JHH final - who on earth are the crowd gonna heckle?

(I love how, when I think about it, that's actually kind of ambiguous!)

What a ridiculous semifinal line-up! I think Puerty might give Fed/Nad a bit more of a contest than Denk, yet, paradoxically, I can see Mari getting worn down to a 4-set defeat by Wavy. It's not that much of a paradox, really. Paradox Srichaphan.

It's all about dem girls today. Unfortunately we have to wait until 1pm BST for them to start. I think Discount Booze might spoil the Fronchie love-in in three tight sets.

I still can't believe that we live in a world where Davydenko v Puerta and Pierce v Likhovtseva are Slam semi-final match-ups.

don't think I'll be able to watch it today but hoping for henin to win it.

I guess we should be celebrating his finessitude but, y'know, I can't be bothered. Funny how last year he scared the clay-court heavyweights half-to-death by playing this unearthly, antiquated brand of serve-volley on the red stuff all to the way to a narrow semifinal defeat by Coria. "I hit the big loopy return and he knock it away before it bounce. WTF?"

Rafe-Rodge is second on court today so it might conceivably still be going on when I get home... I'm hoping for a colossal 13-11 5th set between Davy and Marian.

:-(

(and its raining right now and the covers are on)

I don't think the Centre Court crowd fazes many of the top pros - it's the politest GS audience (even with Henmania sweeping the seats) and if you can handle an away-tie in the Davis Cup you can handle some mild English middle-class hysteria.

Weather forecast is not good in Paris - showers today and tomorrow.

Nadal-Fed appears to have just started. I have resigned myself to missing it. Early bets? I say Fed to win by the skin of his experience.

Caught the first two games on the plasma screen in the window of the fancy bookies on Kingsway; didn't look quite as much of a dork as I usually do, gawping into their shop, as half a dozen others were standing tight to the glass too, escaping the thunderstorm. First point was terrific - Federer following in a forehand approach, Nadal blazing a winner down the line. This is going to be good.

Multiple text updates from Pam on the X68 home. Arrive in time to see Federer smoothly go 5-1 up in the 2nd. From that point on though, he's far from convincing. Squeaks home in that set then falls 2-4 behind the third. Breaks back impressively enough but RN breaks again on his third oppo at 5-4. Fourth set is a horror-story - Federer getting less than 30% of his first-serves in and every down-the-line forehand from the forecourt is netted. Nadal gifts him an early break, but despite leading 3-1 and having two points for 4-2, Rodge looks determined to piss it away - an inexcusable backhand slap into the tape at game-point off a Nadal drop-shot attempt sees the start of some really abject play. It ends, appropriately enough, on another RF forehand error at around 9:15 Paris time. Gloom all round.

It had its moments, this match, but RF was too far below his best for it ever to catch fire. A shame. Nadal will have plenty of opportunities to win here but I wonder whether Federer will look ruefully on this day like Edberg (collapsed vs Chang in '89 f), Sampras (a couple of qfs and a '96 sf catastrophe vs Kafelnikov) and Becker (three semis) before him - his best shot gone. Nah, I don't believe that either.

hope it goes all the way. x-post = I like federer but I don't want him to dominate the game, this is a good result.

JCF is actually kind of similar except he doesn't smash rackets in the process, he just looks lost and bewildered and makes me want to hug him.

I think Safin and Dementieva have possibly played together! He's played with Myskina and Kournikova which must surely also be candidates.

They're both playing out of their skin.

And now...I must go out for the day. Over to the VCR. And you guys.

And yes, his shorts are very silly.

great end to the french esp since yesterday's final was such thrash.

And now comes the sad realisation that we shall probably see neither of these two players in SW19. The way Nadal moves seems so dependent on having a loose top-surface to slide across one wonders how he can prosper on other surfaces (but he's already shown some form on hardcourt).

Nadal is Christmas in Catalan. Has anyone mentioned that yet? It brings useless knowledge to new depths.

I did not see this, but my dad described Mr Christmas as "brilliant".

I felt sorry for Puerta - if he'd got that diving volley at the end of the fourth set the whole game could have been different.

That was very funny - I think he was aping young Chris Bailey's style; CB made the same exclamation after Canas saved a match point vs Puerta in the quarters with similar outrageous elan - but probably to a viewing BBCi audience of less than five figures. At least Mercer doesn't expectorate all over the mic like old Bill Threlfall - "What a volleyuurgh-huuurgh-yaargh!"

Nadal definitely needs Trinny & Susannah in his life.

After a long period of indecision, I have decided to come out in favour of the male capri pant.

It's not as much fun supporting the underdog when they're a convicted drug cheat :(

I was under the impression that the BBC could've screened the final but just didn't. They happily switched all of Tim's matches to BBC2 last year. my brother informs me that BBCi will screen other rounds of the aus open next year, and not just the final as before, so now I'll be able to watch some tennis in the early hours.

xp

You now get E4 on Freeview, y'know. It's rubbish.

E4 is indeed rubbish though, you're right.

However - the BBC sports site is streaming live footage from the Stella Artois... think I will be starting that rolling tennis thread then.