The tight Stosur could seemingly not let loose on her biggest weapons, the forehand and the high-kicking serve, and at 4-4 in the first set threw in a doubles fault on game point to hand the Italian the first set. In the second set Schiavone tested the Aussie’s nerve by repeatedly charging the net. The payoff — Schiavone becomes the first winner of the French Open from outside the Top 10 since 1933.

Don’t get me wrong I love the ladies, lesbian or straight. On the WTA you can never tell, so I just love them all. Bring back Amelie Mauresmo who was proudly out of the closet, as this final will be played in the closet. Going to be crowded, lots of elbows flying. Will the winner run up in the crowd and plant one on their sweetie? You’ve got to hope so then all of homophobic America can gasp.

“It’s always good to have beaten a player before,” said Soderling, the first to lay down the smack. “I know that I can beat him. I showed it. But every match is a new match, and every match is different.”

In the final Stosur will face Francesca Schiavone, the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final, who advanced to the championship match when opponent Elena Dementieva retired after the first set with a calf muscle injury.

“I got nothing to lose out there,” Hewitt says of facing Nadal next. “It’s a matter of going out there and playing my game, and hopefully I can hit the ball well…He cleaned me up last few times. He’s obviously very dominant, especially on this surface. I’m gonna have to go out there and execute what I want to do, and do it bloody well.”

“It’s the slowest here,” Roddick said. “It’s the most challenging for me. I feel like every time I play out there it’s raining. Wet day on [court] Lenglen has been my Achilles heel. I’ve lost a lot of matches out there in conditions exactly like that. I was able to get through that one today. That was one that might have gotten away from me awhile ago. But I was just kind of staying the course.”

Serving at 4-4, Fognini refused to begin the game, stopping play for more than five minutes while arguing with the chair umpire and Monfils, but eventually stepped to the service line after receiving a point penalty, starting the game at 0-15. Fognini eventually held a match point with Monfils serving at 4-5, but failed to close it out, and the match was finally halted for the day at 5-5.

“The beginning is always important, coming back as defending champion and trying to get off to a good start,” Federer said. “It was a good first set for me, without any hiccups on my own serve. After that things were a bit easier. He had to push it a bit more. I could relax and towards the end I played some great dropshots. So it was a perfect match to start the French Open.”

The elder Williams sister drew whistles and cat-calls from the French fans when she took to the court in a dress of her own design, resembling a black nightie with red lace trim.

Serena Williams receives a soft draw, opening against Swiss Stefanie Voegele, and potentially meets No. 29 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round, and No. 13 Marion Bartoli in the fourth round. No. 7-seeded Sam Stosur is in Serena’s quarter of the draw, but the favorite to meet the younger Williams sister in the quarterfinals is No. 22-seeded Justine Henin.