Grosjean advances to Face Henman, Top 4 Women in Semifinals, Venus Takes a Nap

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
In the conclusion of a suspended match Tuesday, (13) Sebastien Grosjean held off (3) Juan Carlos Ferrero in a fourth set tiebreak to advance to his first quarterfinal appearance at the All England Club. The win sets up a showdown today with homecountry favorite Tim Henman, whom the Frenchman beat on grass in a pre-Wimbledon ATP warm-up. Other quarterfinal match-ups today are Mark Philippoussis vs. Alexander Popp in an all-unseeded, first-time contest, (5) Andy Roddick vs. the unseeded Jonas Bjorkman (The Swede won their only meeting last year on grass at Nottingham), and (4) Roger Federer against the injured (8) Sjeng Schalken (Fed leads 4-1, with Schalken's win coming last year on grass).

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
In the women's quarterfinals at Wimbledon, the Williams sisters provided the fire in two all-American showdowns, while the Belgian twosome of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne did their part for the top four seeds to advance into the semifinals. (4)Venus wore down (5)Davenport in three sets in the all-court, any-court, any-surface baseline bashing style. At 1-2 in the third, Davenport never recovered after what she perceived to be a bad call, and didn't win another game in a mental meltdown. During the match Venus benefited from a power nap in the locker room during a 1 hour, 10 minute rain delay. "I'm low maintenance," said Venus, discussing the nap in the midst of such an occasion. "I'm not a very stressed-out or a very hectic person. I'm an easy-going person and I just love to sleep. Any time I sit still I might nod off. Sometimes Serena comes by and nudges me." For her part, (1)Serena was forced to come back from a set down in her match against (8)Capriati, overcoming a lackluster start and some precise placement in the WeightWatchers(R)-sponsored duel. On the Belgian side, (2)Clijsters faced opposition on two fronts, from the plucky (27)Farina Elia, and from Mother Nature when the oft-choking girlfriend of Lleyton Hewitt for once impressively sucked it up in the face of adversity, going on to win after an insect attack in the first set. "I got this bee sting right in my stomach and didn't know if I was supposed to called the trainer or not," Clijsters said. "It's never happened to me before...it was painful. I can still feel it." Clijsters was stung at 5-4 up, then proceeded to drop three straight games and the set before losing only one game over the next two sets. On the other side of the waffle, H-H dropped only four games in dismissing (33)Kuznetsova, who appeared a bit overwhelmed by the occasion in her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. Henin is the only one of the final four who has not dropped a set.

The semifinal pairings Thursday will be (4)Venus vs. (2)Clijsters, and (1)Serena vs. (3)Henin-Hardenne.

ISRAELITES COME OUT OF NOWHERE TO SECURE MEN'S DOUBLES SEMIFINAL

By Richard Vach
Tennis-X.com Senior Writer

A pair of unseeded, virtually unknown Israeli doubles specialists have reached the men's doubles semifinals at Wimbledon, stunning three seeded teams along the way.

Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, who are unranked on the ATP Team Rankings since they have no played a tour-level event together in 2003, wondered whether their combined individual rankings would get them in the draw this year at Wimbledon, much less propel them to their first grand slam semifinal. Only earlier this year the 23-year-old Ram and 26-year-old Erlich were toiling on the Futures circuit, playing with numerous other partners and occasionally coming together to win Greece F1, reach the final of the New Delhi Challenger, and represent Israel in a Davis Cup doubles loss to Belarus (l. to Max Mirnyi/Vladimir Voltchkov).

Last week the pair struggled mightily in their first round match, coming back from 1-2 sets down against the unseeded pair of Healy/Skoch to win in five, before ripping out three wins against seeded opponents without dropping a set. Their seeded victims have included No. 12-seeded Czechs Cermak/Friedl, No. 6-seeded Frenchmen Llodra/Santoro, and as the only unseeded team in the quarterfinals, beating No. 2 seeds Knowles/Nestor in three consecutive tiebreaks.

So unknown are Erlich and Ram that they do not even appear in the 2003 ATP Media Guide. Now the young Israelis face their biggest test in a semifinal against defending champions and No. 4 seeds Bjorkman/Woodbridge, who boast eight Wimbledon doubles titles between them.

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
No past champions are in the men's Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since the 1973 boycott, and no former Slam winners in a quarterfinal for the first time in the Open Era…There has been a Williams sister in a Grand Slam semifinal in 11 of the last 13 slams. And it's the ninth time both sisters have reached the same Slam semi...Quarterfinalist Alexander Popp of Germany is ranked No. 198, but he will likely move up, we are told...Lindsay Davenport has now lost six matches in a row against Venus, and Jennifer Capriati has lost eight straight against Serena...Andre Agassi got a little irritated when asked if he would be back at Wimbledon next year: "Why wouldn't I be back? I'm still a tennis player. This is the place to be...my plan is to be back here next year." Yeah, that's what Pete said last year -- we'll wait and see what Steffi and the new baby says...How bad is the WTA PR staff? During the Serena-Capriati, they were unable to give a sure answer as to the No. 1 scenarios...Mark Philippoussis had three knee operations over a 14-month period in 2000-01, and throw in a fourth one before that...Sjeng Schalken underwent an MRI for a bad left foot on Tuesday…Lindsay Davenport is miffed about being left off the Fed Cup team for the July 19-20 tie against Italy; she would have had to report to camp a day late because her mother is having surgery, and captain Billie Jean King wasn't having any of that: "Billie runs a tight ship. She's been tough on all of us. She told me to forget it...after playing 10 years, I'm not too happy, either."...Wow, we didn't know they still played Fed Cup, we thought they merged that with World Team Tennis or something...Davenport also hinted this may have been her last Wimbledon...Tim Henman's Monday fourth-round match against David Nalbandian was shown in prime time on British television, bumping the BBC's evening news and delaying the popular soap "EastEnders"...The Associated Press at Wimbledon liked the Monday line-up, but not the typical poundings on the women's side: "No vantage point at the All England Club proved fully sufficient, with Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters taking the courts only minutes apart. Unfortunately they weren't playing each other, and so the result was a succession of fourth-round routs. The five winners won every set and lost a total of just 23 games, fodder for the argument that women's tennis lacks depth."...No comment from new WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott, who was such a stout proponent of women's tennis while he was with the ATP -- not...Sport's Illustrated's Jon Wertheim on Monday morning: "Incidentally, I appreciate the offer some of you extended to change my predictions, but we'll stick with our pick of Agassi to win the title on Sunday." Should have waited until Monday afternoon I guess...We picked The Boss too, but that doesn't stop us from making fun of others...Following her win over Capriati, it was nice of Serena -- who clearly wanted to avoid the Henin/French questioning -- to wait until after her doubles match before adressing the press...Hey NBC, way to cut out in the middle of the Agassi-Philippoussis match to show soaps, would like to see you do that in the middle of a baseball game...Australia's Fed Cup captain Evonne Goolagong Cawley named Alicia Molik and Nicole Pratt (what about that crazy-ass Jelena Dokic?) to the team for the July 19-20 tie against Colombia in Sydney: "For us to remain in the World Group for next year, a victory against Colombia is crucial and I believe this line-up has what it takes to achieve success," said a hopeful Cawley in a Tennis Australia statement on Tuesday...Can ESPN's Mary Joe Fernandez be any stiffer?...Can Pam Shriver whine more about women not getting good court assignments at Wimbledon?...Can Brad Gilbert please stay out of the booth?...Davenport is getting tight with Venus -- kinda: "Venus and I are on the (WTA) board together. We've discussed a lot of the issues that have faced our tour, you know, spent more time around each other lately, I guess."...Lleyton Hewitt is still sticking around as Kim's box bitch: "He's definitely helping me, to support me and sit there in my box and support me. It's always nice. It doesn't always happen, you know, to have him there in the box."...Not even going to touch that...Serena on the passing of actress Katherine Hepburn: "Every year at Wimbledon someone dies, I'm telling you. It was Jack Lemmon one year, Walter Matthew (sic). Of course, I love Katherin Hepburn. She's one of the greatest actors to me. I, of course, love Marilyn Monroe." It always comes back to you Serena...WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott needs to get Jennifer Capriati the memo on how deep the competition is on the WTA Tour: "I think there's still quite a bit of difference, you can see from all the results today," said Capriati after the fourth round slaughters...Trying to get info out of Roger Federer after a match is like interviewing a piece of plywood...Interviewing David Nalbandian after a match is like trying to get a guy who already thinks you're a prick to loan you money...T.J. Middleton playing in the men's 35 doubles at Wimbledon? Yikes...The WTA Tour announced a marketing partnership with Lotto Sport Italia (which already has a deal with the ATP) that involves the creation of the first WTA Tour apparel, footwear and accessories collection...Actress Kirsten Dunst has a role in the Wimbledon movie "Two weeks in Love" currently being filmed on-site at Wimbledon: "I want to be a female McEnroe. My character is very feisty, very angry. I have a lot of scenes of me yelling at the umpire." -- And hopefully a few Spider-Man-like wet t-shirt scenes in the women's locker room. Dunst was spotted eating int he media compound on Tuesday...Tim Henman has reached the quarterfinals here seven of the last eight years...WEATHER: Gloomy with a "30% risk of some patchy light rain this morning, and then a 60% risk of some more significant heavy showers this afternoon."...STAT OF THE DAY: This is the 13th consecutive Slam with an American women in the singles semifinals.