Womens Semifinals Today at French Open
Posted on June 2, 2005
Davydenko, Unseeded Puerta Into Semis at Roland GarrosWhat the two men's quarterfinals Wednesday at Roland Garros lacked in star-power or quality, they made up in quantity, with unseeded Argentine Mariano Puerta and No. 12-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko posting five-set wins to advance to join Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the men's semifinals.
Puerta defeated countryman and No. 9 seed Guillermo Canas 6-2, 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first slam semifinal, appearing spent and out of gas in the third set but rebounding to sweep the last two.
Dictating play with his Babolat-powered forehand, Puerta jumped out to a 5-0 lead against the flat Canas, but Canas came alive and was at his retrieving best in the second and third sets, securing a 2-1 sets lead. In the fourth set it was Puerta's turn for a second wind, taking the set then in the fifth breaking for 4-2, eventually needing three match points to close out his favored countryman.
"I really got very puzzled during the second and the third set," Puerta said. "I felt that I really had to push things to the limit to win, and I realized that he wasn't making any errors. But afterwards, in the fourth set, I started feeling the point better. I started feeling that the court was faster, and this really played in my favor. As I realized that the court was changing a bit, I started moving forward and I started playing faster and taking more risks and going more to the net."
Asked what he would change about the match, Canas said it was Puerta's play that dictated the result.
"I think if I need to go back and change something, I change my -- I change Puerta," Canas laughed. "Can I do it? I think is what I need to change in the moment."
In the semifinals the unseeded Argentine will face another underdog in the Russian Davydenko, who almost let a 2-1 sets lead slip in outlasting No. 15-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
It was another match featuring not a lot of "Oohs!" or "Ahhs!", with both players struggled to hold serve, even in the fifth trading breaks early before the Russian secured the key break at 3-3. Robredo fought off three match points on his serve at 3-5 before Davydenko clinched on his first match point on serve.
"First time in the semifinals of a grand slam, first time in the Top 10 -- this is my birthday present," said Davydenko who turned 24 today. "Right now I'm tired but tomorrow I'll realize what has happened and it will feel good."
On Thursday's schedule for the men are the doubles semifinals featuring (1) Knowles/Nestor vs. (3) The Bryan brothers, and (2) Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. unseeded Chilean gold medalists Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu.
Womens Semis Thursday; Ruano Pascual/Suarez On Course for French Open Defense
Defending champions and top seeds Virginia Ruano Pascual/Paola Suarez turned back a three-set challenge Wednesday from No. 12 seeds Emilie Loit/Nicole Pratt 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the women's doubles semis at the French Open.
Also into the semis were No. 8 seeds Corina Morariu/Patty Schnyder ousting No. 3 Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs 6-4, 6-3, No. 5 seeds Nadia Petrova/Meghann Shaughnessy outlasting No. 13 seeds Shinobu Asagoe/Katarina Srebotnik 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, and unseeded Cara Black/Liezel Huber who cruised past the Chinese pair of Ting Li/Tiantian Sun 6-3, 6-4.
Ruano Pascual/Suarez also won Roland Garros titles in 2001-02.
Scheduled on the women's side Thursday are the singles semifinals in (7) Petrova vs. (10) Henin-Hardenne (H-H has won six of their seven meetings), and (16) Likhovtseva vs. (21) Pierce (Pierce leads 6-4, including an easy win a few weeks back at Berlin).
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
What a better way to enjoy the last two quarterfinal matches with two epic five setters. How great was that? (yawn). Both Mariano Puerta and Nikolay Davydenko advanced to their first career Grand Slam semifinals -- Davydenko tried his best to choke it in a horrible display while Puerta plugged in his Babolat forehand for the final two sets...This is the third straight year an Argentine has reached the semifinals at Roland Garros...Nikolay Davydenko celebrates his 24th birthday on Thursday, while Justine Henin-Hardenne celebrated her 23rd Wednesday...During the Guillermo Canas-Mariano Puerta match, bigger crowds could be had watching Rafael Nadal (Court 11) and Roger Federer (Court 4) practice. Federer was practicing with some lefty kid. Figure that...Weather update: Slight chance of showers in the morning, then all clear...Nikolay Davydenko has won 10 straight matches...Mary Pierce has never lost a Grand Slam semifinal match (4-0)...A year ago today Mariano Puerta was serving a drug suspension...Advanced TV Update: American X-fans in the U.S. are already crossing their fingers and putting expletive-ridden diatribes on discussion boards in demands/hopes of watching live the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal match on Friday. News is -- as usual, sucks to be a U.S. tennis fan. On Friday, from what we hear, expect NBC to show a tape job of the Mariano Puerta-Nikolay Davydenko semifinal, and then ESPN will come on after with a tape job of Federer-Nadal. Hey, don't kill the messenger. NBC paid a big chunk of money to show that Puerta-Davydenko tape job! Ha. Set your VCR to stunned. Let's hope we are wrong...Guillermo Canas and Tommy Robredo are a combined 0-4 in Slam QF matches. Robredo of course choked a two-set lead to Albert Costa in this same round in 2003. He didn't look much better Wednesday. From the X-Discussion Board: "ESPN (U.S.) is back to its old tricks again (Wednesday), showing the taped highlight show from Tuesday again this morning instead of the (Guillermo) Canas-(Mariano) Puerta match live, then going to the match two hours late and starting from the first game, meaning the whole day will be taped. I know the two matches aren't that compelling today, but why would ESPN show matches on tape when it could have shown them live? It makes zero sense." Good question...The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Charlie "Brick" Bricker on the out-of-control number of injuries: "Carlos Moya wasn't going to beat Roger Federer in the fourth round of the French Open, even if he was fit...A day later, Nicolas Kiefer, who carries perhaps five percent body fat, handed a walkover to Guillermo Canas because a damaged nerve was shooting pain down his right arm. A few hours later, Justine Henin-Hardenne went on court with a heat patch on the upper part of her right leg to try to deal with a strain that obviously inhibits her game against players who like to grind long points...Injuries are killing tennis, both on the men's and women's side, and there doesn't appear to be anything anyone can do about it. If they shorten the season, half the players will complain that money is being taken from their pockets. If you remove the penalties assessed for not playing the most important events, the tournament organizers and sponsors will complain, with obvious justification, that you're destroying them economically...Guillermo Coria is one of the most gifted players in the game, but he spent a good part of the first three months of this year dealing with a nagging shoulder injury. It's fine now, but he lost a lot of training time, forcing him to make the same sort of hard decisions other players make...The WTA last year cut a week off its season and won't have a major tournament after Oct. 23. The men are still struggling with their schedule with a Masters Series event (Paris) ending Nov. 6...Federer, Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Henin-Hardenne, Moya and next, who knows, Rafael Nadal perhaps...they're going to tell the ATP and WTA to keep the money or fine them, if they wish. For their own long-range financial as well physical health, they're going to snub some tournaments, no matter how big they are, and no reasonable person would question their motives." Nice spotlight on the hot-potato topic no one wants to talk about -- everyone being injured. Too bad the article didn't address the cause of all these injuries (in some X-staffers opinions), the super racquets that allow any player to smack the ball video-game-hard without proper technique, in turn demanding that players on the other end of the court scamper and jerk around the court more than ever. Technology has made it possible for players to pull the trigger from any position on the court. Someone needs to commission a study comparing the number of winners hit at the French Open nowadays compared to 20-25 years ago, the days when a player could come to the net without getting their head taken off by a Babolat...Reuters Martyn Herman, going to the destiny card: "Before setting out on his first French Open campaign, Rafael Nadal was asked what he hoped to be doing on his 19th birthday on Friday. He joked that he might be at home in Mallorca fishing in the Meditteranean (sic). Deep down Nadal knew his destiny was to be slugging it out in the semifinals at Roland Garros." 1) Get a spellcheck; 2) You win the romance novel contest. And the big ending: "If that Paris victory is to be this year he must first land the biggest fish of his career, the imperious Federer. 'It's Roland Garros -- if you lose, you're going to lose something important. I'm going to be giving it a fight, giving it my all,' said Nadal. Anybody who has faced him this year knows he will be true to his word." Sweet Martyn, you won the cliche contest too. Spellcheck your name also..More from Reuters: "Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash discovered that first hand when he lost to (Rafael) Nadal, then aged 14, in an exhibition match in Mallorca. The outspoken Australian, 36 at the time, said he was stunned by the young upstart's ferocious on-court demeanour, all fist-pumps and yells of "vamos" after every point." Ha, you know Cashy was livid at that one...Guillermo Canas says that with his French Open quarterfinal behind him, it's time to get down to business to qualify for the year-end Masters Cup: "My aim will be to, yes, play the Masters. That was my aim at the beginning of the year, in fact. But I think that I fulfilled one of my aims, which is to be among the Top 10. That was my objective at the beginning of the year -- well, in fact, longer than that. I don't think my aim is in terms of the ranking; I think my aim will be to have a place in the Masters before the end of the year and to try to have good results."...Roger Federer's coach Tony Roche speaking to RolandGarros.com on Rafael Nadal's weaknesses, or lack of: "I don't know if there's any weakness. He looks pretty solid to me. Obviously, his weapon is his forehand. He's got a good solid serve. But it's not a serve that will dominate, so Roger will have plenty of opportunities to do damage on the serve. It depends on who gets the lucky breaks. It's just one of those things on the day."...Hey ESPN's Chris Fowler and Brad Gilbert, stop holding up the ATP Player Guide and laughing incredulously that Mariano Puerta is not in it -- he didn't play for eight months so his ranking dropped too low to be included. You heard about the drug suspension? Get it yet?...Marat Safin got a US$1,000 fine for slamming his racket into his changeover chair in his final match at Roland Garros, leaving a gaping hole in the wooden base that included a Perrier ad...As of Tuesday in Roland Garros, the men had received 20 fines as compared to six for the women...Yannick Noah will perform at the Live 8 benefit for world poverty in Paris in July...From the TimesOnline: "On a day of the most vivid claycourt animation, it was appropriate that news should emerge that the ATP, the governing body of men's tennis, is on the verge of anointing a former president of Disney International as its new chairman. Welcome, Etienne de Villiers to a sport that too often behaves as if it is an offshoot of the Mickey Mouse Club. If this South African entrepreneur is true to his self-declared job definition of "making people smile", he is going to be a tremendously welcome addition to the tennis family. And if he can bring all parties around the table to work in a common cause to produce a calendar that gives every player the chance to produce their best the greatest number of times, an understandable ranking system and the Davis Cup and Fed Cup to their deserved fore, as well as eradicating financial extravagance, what a boon he will be." What that means, we are trying to figure out...Roger Federer and Anastasia Myskina were honored as 2004 world champions on Tuesday night at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner in Paris. Federer was a no-brainer, finishing No. 1 with three slam titles, but the nomination of Myskina was simply the ITF trying to throw its weight around. Lindsay Davenport finished the year No. 1, while Myskina won the French and led Russia to the Fed Cup (an ITF event) crown; Myskina also finished behind Amelie Mauresmo in the year-end rankings. ITF President Francesco Ricci "Itti" Bitti said, "Roger Federer was the clear choice for ITF World Champion based on his extraordinary performance in 2004. The selection of Anastasia Myskina came down to her performance at the Olympic Games where she reached the semifinals and her seven singles wins in Fed Cup in 2004. We are proud to have both players as our 2004 ITF World Champions." In 2005 Myskina has an 8-10 win-loss record...Mary Pierce: "When I was 20 I used to think that maybe I would retire by the time I was 30, but I feel far from wanting to retire now. Maybe the injuries I had that kept me out for a little bit have kind of rejuvenated me. It gave me quite a bit of time off that I didn't expect and a different insight into the game."...Justin Henin-Hardenne pulled from Eastbourne after further virus tests convinced her camp she should rest after the French.