Nadal v Banana Fallout; Henin v Myskina Sunday at Roland Garros

Nadal hopes he doesn't come up against more offending fruit in his next match, where he will face former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who advanced after a straight-set win over Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty.

"I served as well as I've probably ever served, especially on clay," Hewitt said. "Just mixed it up extremely well. Dominik doesn't give you a lot of cheap points out there; you've got to work for it. But I took it to him. You know, he's a guy that doesn't really want to get too far behind the baseline and, you know. I had to really try to hit through the court to hit a lot of winners against him, and I was able to do that today."

The remainder of the matches Saturday were comprised of unseeded players uprooting seeds, with winners Julien Benneteau of France ousting (11) Radek Stepanek in four; Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo straight-setting countryman (15) David Ferrer; Serb Novak Djokovic straight-setting (23) Tommy Haas; and Spaniard Al Martin outlasting (27) Olivier Rochus in five.

Two matches were called due to darkness with (4) Ivan Ljubicic leading unseeded Argentine Juan Monaco 4-2 in the fifth set, and (8) James Blake tied with (25) Gael "Force" Monfils 2-6, 7-6(2).

Scheduled for Sunday are (1) Federer vs. (20) Berdych, (3) Nalbandian vs. Vassallo Arguello in an All-Argentine, (4) Ljubicic vs. Monaco (to finish), (6) Davydenko vs. (10) Gaudio, (8) Blake vs. (25) Monfils (to finish), and (7) Tommy "The R." Robredo vs. (12) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic.

Doubles highlights Sunday include (2) Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. (14) Llodra/Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, and (1) the Bryan brothers vs. Ljubicic/Vico.

Eight Women Slam Winners Featured Sunday at French Open

The seeded women at the French Open continued their quest Saturday to show the huge gulf between the upper and lower echelon players on the WTA Tour in third-round play, with defending champ and No. 5 seed Justine Henin-Hardenne baking a bagel in a win over Tathiana Garbin, No. 12 Martina Hingis pounding Ivana Lisjak 6-1, 6-1, and No. 32 Gisela Dulko likewise beating American Shenay Perry 1-and-1.

"I can only gain from this week, this tournament, I really have nothing to lose," said the two-time runner-up Hingis. "I feel comfortable playing here in Paris, on clay. The crowd was great. I couldn't ask for more right now."

No. 2 Kim Clijsters (d. (26) Medina Garrigues) led the remainder of the seeds into the fourth round, joined by (31) Shahar Peer (d. (6) Dementieva), (10) Anastasia Myskina (d. (19) Ivanovic), (13) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. (20) Kirilenko), and (15) Daniela Hantuchova (d. (21) Dechy 10-8 in the third).

"It was important for me to try and step in and not let myself get drawn behind the baseline," Clijsters said. "Once you start going there, she can move you from side to side."

On court Sunday are (1) Mauresmo vs. (16) Vaidisova, (2) Clijsters vs. (15) Hantuchova, (5) Henin-Hardenne vs. (10) Myskina in a battle of former French Open champions, (4) Sharapova vs. (14) Safina in an all-Russian showdown, (8) Kuznetsova vs. (9) Schiavone, (7) Schnyder vs. (11) Venus, (13) Groenefeld vs. (32) Dulko, and (12) Hingis vs. (31) Peer.

"Justine is a normal person who can do mistakes," Myskina said. "Not easy ones: She's not going to give you any free points, but she still can miss. I know that I can win the match if I'm going to play my best. I just need to believe in myself and be strong."

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
For his 20th birthday, Rafael Nadal looked somewhat mortal on clay against Paul-Henri Mathieu...Fourteen of the Top 16 seeds on the women's side have advanced to the Sweet 16, that's the most at the French in the Open Era...Roger Federer has won 24 straight Grand Slam matches, Rafael Nadal has won 56 straight on the clay, and has never-ever lost at Roland Garros...Ruben Ramirez-Hildago has won all 30 career matches on clay...How can James Blake stop play at about 9pm local time just as Ivan Ljubicic-Juan Monaco start there fifth set? Ljubicic and Monaco played an extra 30 minutes while Blake/Monfils were in the locker room...Martina Hingis has lost just 10 games in three matches...Donald Young has dropped back down to the juniors. "The Donald" will be playing junior French, junior Wimbledon and probably Kalamazoo...Lleyton Hewitt has dropped just one set all week, but likely won't win a set against Nadal on Tuesday even though he is 3-0 vs. the Spaniard, all on hardcourt...Half the players left on the women's side have won a Grand Slam title...Tomas Berdych has won three straight sets by a score of 6-1 and he's yet to face a set point in three matches. He's lost just 15 games total...Venus Williams has never lost to Patty Schnyder in seven career meetings...From tennisreporters.net: "Gaudio: The unbearable lightness of being miserable: Every player has his or her own motivation. The [John] McEnroe type is fueled by anger, the [Jimmy] Connors type is fueled by a sense that everyone is out to get him, the [Roger] Federer type just wants to win the last point, ideally in style. But is there a type that feeds off depression?"...Shahar Peer: "We have maybe four claycourts in Israel. The rest is just hardcourts. But I think the way I play and the way I move, I can improve and play better and better on clay."...From the blogging Charlie Bricker: "Andre Agassi wrapped up a week of practice at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where he logged some extensive court time with 18-year-old U.S. prospect Sam Querrey, and plans to fly to London on Tuesday and begin practicing, primarily with Andy Roddick, at Queens Club, where he'll play the grasscourt lead-up there to Wimbledon. My mole tells me Agassi and Querrey played a couple of sets on the grass at Mission Hills. Double A won 7-6, 6-4 and had some high praise afterward for his 6-foot-6 practice partner. Agassi has not played an ATP match since losing to Tommy Haas at Indian Wells and swore off the clay for this season and, who know, probably forever because of the pressure it puts on his chronically injured back. It will be great to see Agassi back on court because every tournament now could be his last. It's that touch-and-go with his career at age 36. And he's going to get a most royal welcome back to Wimbedon, where he hasn't played since going out in five sets to Mark Philippoussis in the round of 16 in 2003."