The incident has created great concerns that security is not tight enough during tennis matches and there were flashbacks to 1993 when Monica Seles was attacked during a match. However, the intruder was promptly taken down and Federer quickly progressed to create calls of him being the greatest player to have ever picked up a racket.

The risk is that the intruder may well have been armed and Federer would have then been forced to defend himself. Although it didn’t that type of incident could have created an effect that drastically altered the Swiss man’s performance and handed the title over to Robin Soderling.

Federer said: “It has happened to me before at Wimbledon and in Montreal when I was playing Andy Roddick. Two guys came on court at Wimbledon once and one of them actually said, ‘I’m sorry I had to do this.’ I said to him, ‘That’s OK, just don’t touch me.”

“I didn’t know what this guy wanted today. It threw me for a couple of points and maybe, on reflection, I should have sat down and taken my time a bit more. I was very nervous at the start of the third set because I realised how close I was.”

The incident is likely to be noted by officials at Wimbledon, which starts at the end of the month. High calibre sport should not subject quality professionals to the idiocy of people who are deliberately trying to cause disruption in order to make a point.

Whoever was the head of security at the French Open can think themselves extremely lucky that nothing dangerous happened and that the match finished in style and grace as opposed to potential tragedy. A rethink of the security agenda is possibly needed but the point is that this sort of thing should not happen and should not even create the smallest hint of worry in the mind of the games’ greatest players.

The security around Wimbledon should be a lot tighter around the prominent courts. One fans who attended the French Open said on a newspaper website: “At no point during the fortnight did any security check my bag on entering the Roland Garros complex. Security definitely needs to be tightened up.”

Hopefully the intruder would have ironically created a beneficial effect in the respect that lessons can be learnt. Regular bag checks and tighter security around the courts should be the paramount of concerns for all officials associated with the sport. The next time a crazed individual runs onto the middle of a court in an important match one of the players may not be so lucky. Players should not have to think about coming away from a match with a potentially devastating injury.

Related Posts

• More French Flop Sweat: Mauresmo makes shockingly early exit on day one at Roland Garros
• Australian Open 2009 – Day Five – Federer, Roddick Impressive, Cilic Assertive, Djokovic Survives
• Quick on the Draw: Breaking down the French Open brackets

The second-best claycourt performer in the latter half of this decade showed a manifest ability to play for championships on the terre battue of Paris, but the Swiss legend could never lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires. A fellow named Rafael Nadal had more than a little to do with Federer’s enduring title drought at Roland Garros, but the fact remained that in three super-sized Sunday duels on red dirt, the 13-time major champion had not been able to play well enough to win. His record of failure in French finals represented the one gap in Federer’s otherwise-awesome resume, the one weakness that needed to be addressed if a tennis icon was to elevate his place in the sport’s history. It is said–with considerable merit–that pressure is a privilege, but if the 27-year-old Federer buckled under the weight of yet another massive moment at Court Philippe Chatrier, the only privileged person in the stadium would have been the man standing on the other side of the net. A fourth straight runner-up finish in France would have rated as a superb accomplishment 99 percent of tennis players would kill for; for Federer, that distinction would have only given the world No. 2 a reason to shed even more tears of devastation.

Such was the backdrop to Sunday’s final of the 2009 French Open, as the second-seeded Federer shuffled onto Chatrier for an encounter against a most unlikely opponent, 23rd-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden. It was a win-or-bust situation for the best player of the 21st century, and Federer knew the stakes better than anyone else. The Swiss, facing levels of internal and external pressure that are too overwhelming to adequately describe, faced a rendezvous with history and immortality; with that said, Federer would have been left in tatters on the terre battue yet again if he couldn’t find the ability to channel his roiling emotions. An enraptured world, plus a Chatrier crowd that included Bill Gates, breathlessly awaited the response of a champion to his latest and greatest test at the tournament that had frustrated him on so many prior occasions.

When the soggy dust settled on a gray and rainy day in the City of Light, Federer’s feet of clay would turn into a feat of clay.

At last able to deliver the goods on a championship Sunday, Federer played some of the most focused tennis of his career to secure an even more stratospheric spot in his sport’s pantheon. Powered by a letter-perfect second-set tiebreak, Federer defeated Soderling, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4, in 1 hour and 55 minutes. The victory enables the brand-new husband and expectant father to simultaneously lift a weighty trophy (far more substantial than the wafer-thin runner-up plate) and toss aside the burdens of a gloried but stressful professional life. If it was fair to say that Federer’s profile was somehow incomplete before this slaying of the giant-killing Soderling, it’s just as fair to conclude that the Swiss’s dossier cannot be convincingly criticized any longer.

Before taking on the debate everyone wants to talk about, a word about this match is in order. Simply stated, a nervous Soderling donated the first set by hitting only 2 winners and lacking the accuracy that defined his groundstrokes in his previous six French Open matches. Federer might have committed only 4 unforced errors in the opening stanza, but with his opponent unable to keep the ball in play–a theme that would re-emerge at the end of the match–the Swiss cruised to the set in just 23 minutes. The second set was the best set of the afternoon, and also the most dramatic. While Federer shrugged off the advances of a crazed fan who rushed onto the court, Soderling stabilized his serve and worked his way into a hugely-important tiebreak.

Then came the moment when the proud champion most forcefully announced his presence.

Throwing down four aces on his four service points, Federer–who also hit a drop-shot winner in the tiebreak–snagged seven out of eight points for a two-set lead and complete control of the proceedings. There was still one set left to be played, but at that juncture, it was hard to imagine Federer’s dream dying on the red dirt.

In the third set, Soderling remained competitive, but when the Swede–who forfeited his serve in the first game of the set–found a pair of break point chances, he bailed out of rallies. On the second of his two break points–with Fed trying to serve out the match at 5-4, 30-40–Soderling shanked a simple forehand. After a volley winner delivered a championship point to the Swiss, Soderling meekly sent a serve return into the bottom of the net. Federer produced a high-level match, but this confrontation fizzled in the drizzle because Soderling never resembled the man who rolled through Rafa and five other opponents on his way to the final.

Federer not only claimed his 14th Grand Slam title in this match, tying Pete Sampras atop the all-time list; what is far more meaningful about this truly “major” triumph is that it came in Paris, the one city that had not borne witness to Swiss bliss on the final Sunday at Chatrier.

Before this French Open extravaganza began, many observers–this one included–felt that the 15-day tournament would amount to the Rafael Nadal Invitational, a near-exhibition for the reigning four-time champion who had made Roland Garros his own personal playground, especially against a frustrated and foiled Federer in those three decisive finals. For a No. 2 seed, Federer received precious little consideration as a genuine title contender; if anyone was believed to be a rival worthy of Nadal’s attention, it was No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic, resting in the opposite half of the draw alongside Federer and therefore able to oppose Rafa in the title match. After Djokovic dusted Fed twice in the previous two months, the sense was that the Serb, and not the more celebrated Swiss standout, had the best chance of knocking heads with Nadal in the final. For all his achievements, Federer–whose game had unraveled at times earlier in the spring–was surrounded by doubts and questions as he came to Paris for another shot at unlikely glory.

Sure, Djokovic (in the third round, against Philipp Kohlschreiber) and Nadal (against Soderling in the fourth round) exited this tournament after only one week of action, but the fact that Federer still overcame the pressure of the moment revealed that this proud and driven man could block out a tidal wave of distractions, doubts, and very dogged on-court opponents. Whether he outfoxed Jose Acasuso (second round) or willed himself past Juan Martin del Potro (semifinals); whether he pulled off a remarkable escape against Tommy Haas (fourth round) or used his best tennis to deny a hot-hitting Paul-Henri Mathieu (third round), Federer found enough answers in time to live for another day. Even if Nadal had reached the final, Federer had to get there first. The rugged nature of his road to the final made it seem as though the Swiss superstar deserved to have someone other than Rafa standing in his way on the final day of play. By taking advantage of this Grand (Slam) opportunity against Soderling, Federer–in conquering Roland Garros–has made his 14th slam his most significant one.

This French title vaults Fed past a roster of legends who could never conquer the red clay of Chatrier: Stefan Edberg, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, and–last but certainly not least–Mr. Sampras. If Federer had won slam number 14 in Australia or at Wimbledon, in accordance with conventional wisdom, the feat wouldn’t exactly have detracted from his cirriculum vitae; but by triumphing in the shadows of the Arc de Triomphe, the Swiss has attained the career Grand Slam only five other men acquired.

American Don Budge and Englishman Fred Perry produced career slams in the 1930s, and Australian Roy Emerson also made the rounds of tennis’s four majors in the early 1960s, before the Open era began in 1968. Emerson’s countryman Rod Laver completed the career slam in the early 60s as well, but the Rockhampton Rocket produced a slam sequel in the Open era season of 1969. All told, only Andre Agassi–in the 1990s–had been able to join Laver as a creator of a career slam in the Open era. Federer was trying to not only become one of six men to win all four majors, but to earn a place as one of just three men to do the deed in the Open era. Now that Federer has done a victory dance in France, an already-extraordinary player can boast the best of both worlds: all the slams on one hand, and the 14 titles on the other.

Federer might not be the greatest player who has ever lived (Laver would seem to still merit that distinction, in a debate that will gain fresh momentum in the months and years to come), but what can safely be said is that the 27-year-old has gained an even better seat at the discussion table when this topic is tackled. History does not belong to the meek; with uncommon mental fortitude, Roger Federer has just earned an even greater measure of tennis immortality.

Related Posts

• THE KING IS DEAD! SODERLING SHOCKS NADAL IN HISTORIC UPSET
• Federer Over Nadal on Clay – Get Ready Paris!
• Men’s Final Preview: Federer faces Nadal’s conqueror in battle for history

Federer, who is intent on completing a career Grand Slam and tying Pete Sampras with 14 major titles on Sunday, might be a resourceful champion who has fought through six matches in Paris, but the best player over the past two weeks has been the 23rd-seeded Swede. In the fourth round of this tournament, Soderling did what Federer has never been able to do: Defeat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, in a best-of-five-set match. Hitting accurately and relentlessly throughout four cutthroat sets, Soderling stopped the four-championship, 31-match roll that Rafa had produced on the terre battue of France. Nadal’s singular dominance on red clay, and his status as the best claycourter this side of Bjorn Borg, made Soderling’s victory one of the seminal upsets in men’s tennis history. That Sunday shocker established Soderling as a threat in the men’s draw, but the Swede–who was congratulated by Borg after the upset win–had to show that he could back up one epic performance with even more excellence.

In the quarterfinals and semifinals at Roland Garros, Soderling showed that his triumph over Rafa was not a one-day dreamworld. Soderling mercilessly mashed Nikolay Davydenko–a top 10 mainstay–in the quarters, and then came from behind in the fifth set to deny Fernando Gonzalez in a high-level semifinal that experts regarded as a match superior to Federer’s semifinal win over Juan Martin del Potro. Soderling might carry a lowly No. 23 seed, which would have made the Swede an unseeded player in the years before professional tennis began seeding beyond the top 16 at Grand Slam events, but at this French Open, the 25-year-old is serving and hitting with the authority and consistency of a top 5 player. Soderling, who had never made the fourth round of ANY major championship before taking Paris by storm, wasn’t fazed by the magnitude of his semifinal showdown against a formidable foe in Gonzalez. In Sunday’s final, the cool customer–coached and trained superbly by 2000 Roland Garros runner-up and fellow Swede Magnus Norman–is not likely to shake in his boots.

And so, the matchup is here, and it’s a much closer one than casual sports fans might initially think. Sure, Federer is 9-0 in his career against Soderling, and sure, Federer is quite accustomed to the final day of a Grand Slam tournament, including at the French. The second-seeded Swiss will be playing in his fourth straight French Open final and his 15th slam final in the past 16 majors. That level of experience will mean something for Fed as he tries to claim his first Coupe de Mousquetaires; how much, though, is the real question at hand, because if Soderling plays the way he did in his upset of Nadal, the 13-time major champion will have a tough task in front of him.

The supremely delicious element of this climactic confrontation is that Federer–who lost to Nadal in the past four French Opens, with the past three losses coming in the final at Court Philippe Chatrier–will now be taking on the man who was good enough to beat Rafa on red dirt. It stands to reason that if Soderling’s best tennis, which was good enough to beat Nadal, is unleashed on Sunday against Federer, the Swiss will have to play his A-game just to survive. That A-game has made brief appearances in Paris–particularly in the third round of a win against Paul-Henri Mathieu–but it has not become a consistent part of Federer’s arsenal over the past 14 days. Federer has lost the first set in four of his first six matches in his journey through the bottom half of the men’s draw; if he loses the first set to Soderling, the pressure of the occasion–combined with the feeding of Soderling’s already-considerable confidence–could deny the world No. 2 a pair of No. 1-level accomplishments in the history of tennis.

The one thing that will truly play into Federer’s favor is the fact that in a French Open final, the Swiss maestro won’t have to endure the high-kicking lefty topspin provided by Nadal. Soderling–as tenacious and imposing as he is right now–will hit the kind of ball that Federer won’t mind responding to. Federer has had issues retrieving balls hit to his forehand corner in extended rallies, but the Swiss won’t have to worry about hitting a one-handed backhand at shoulder height on Sunday. That small but significant fact could help the No. 2 seed to get dialed in from the backcourt.

Another factor to watch for is the weather. Viewers of Saturday’s women’s singles final noticed that gray skies and damp conditions have come to Paris after a week and a half of sun-baked conditions that made the red clay play with the quickness of a medium-pace hardcourt. Soderling’s huge hitting is aided by fast conditions, so if continued rain slows the terre battue when match time arrives, Federer–whose wheelhouse is lower to the ground when compared to other players–will find even more favorable circumstances in his bid for a whole lot of history.

Robin Soderling is unlikely to concede much of anything. Roger Federer has some subtle but meaningful advantages from an X-and-O standpoint. There’s nothing left to do but play tennis. Federer has a tough match on his hands; any talk about epic achievements and record-setting accomplishments can wait until the Swiss has won match point. Given the way Soderling’s been smacking the ball in Paris, it will be a hard-enough achievement for Federer to even get to the one match point he’s been waiting his whole life to win.

Related Posts

• A Meal Fed to the People: Federer wins five-set thriller on magical semifinal Friday
• How Swede It Is! Soderling blows lead, then comes back to top Gonzalez
• French Open: A pre-draw preview

Every year, the occasion of the women’s singles final at Court Philippe Chatrier offers the promise of a compelling duel on red dirt. Every year, however, the final two females at the French Open can’t seem to produce a riveting match. The last time a women’s final went three sets at Roland Garros was 2001, so when Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova took the court on a gray, damp afternoon, the French Tennis Federation and women’s tennis fans were silently and anxiously hoping that an all-Russian affair would produce terrific ballstriking and world-class competition. Safina and Kuznetsova have known each other and played each other since their pre-teen years, so the presence of personal familiarity had a chance of relaxing both 23-year-olds as they tried to chase away haunting memories of past Grand Slam finals.

Safina struggled with the spotlight in the 2008 French final against Ana Ivanovic, and then failed to show up for the 2009 Australian Open final against Serena Williams. Kuznetsova won the 2004 U.S. Open as a teenager too young to truly understand the pressure of the moment, but in her subsequent trips to slam finals, the Kooze crumbled twice against Justine Henin, at the 2006 French and the 2007 U.S. Open. Perhaps a meeting of two fragile psyches, on the same court in the same stadium at the same time, would paradoxically create calm and level-headed lashing of the tennis ball, and serve up the 3-set spectacular that would revive the French Open’s women’s tournament. On a day when a few hundred box seats remained empty at Court Chatrier, it was clear that another women’s singles final was not viewed with a lot of confidence by the bigwigs in Paris. The temperamental Safina and the brittle Kuznetsova had a lot to prove when they took to the terre battue one last time in 2009, before the grass-court rush to Wimbledon and the summer hardcourt season to follow.

After just 74 minutes of agonizing action, it was sadly but undeniably apparent that women’s tennis had not overcome its inability to soar at the slams.

In a match defined more by the meltdown of the loser than by the steady poise of the winner, the seventh-seeded Kuznetsova won her first French title, and her second major crown overall, by whipping a sad and sickened Safina, 6-4, 6-2. Kuznetsova deserves an tremendous amount of fresh respect for breaking through on terre battue for the first time, but the hard-to-ignore reality of this women’s singles final is that it will be remembered for the way in which Safina lost it: badly.

The problem wasn’t Safina’s inability to compete, but her lack of confidence-fueled concentration. The top seed at this tournament, Safina acted like the No. 1 player in the world through her first six matches. Not quite at her very best but always sharp when she needed to be, Safina held off worthy challenges from Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals and Dominika Cibulkova in the semifinals. As she strode into Chatrier for a date with redemption, Safina–who had lost just one match earlier in the claycourt season (to Kuznetsova in Stuttgart a month ago), seemed ready to have the right answers this time around. she didn’t need to be perfect, but many observers expected Safina to handle her nerves better in 2009.

Instead, an all-too-familiar train wreck unfolded yet again for the woman who owns a top ranking, but will enter Wimbledon without a slam title to her name. Down 5-3 in the first set, Safina broke at love to get back on serve at 4-5. Just when she had attained a positive turning point, however, Safina tightened up from the backcourt and was broken for the set at 15. She wasn’t blown off the court, but Safina had nevertheless failed to pounce at the business end of a set. After hanging in at 2-all through the first four games of the second set, Safina had seemingly settled into a better groove, but once more, women’s tennis’s No. 1 player was felled by her number one problem: her nerves.

In the 2-all game of the second set, Kuznetsova lost her first two service points to give Safina a love-30 opening. At that very moment, the top seed lost the plot. Jerking her forehand wide and shanking service returns, Safina donated three of the next four points to give Kuznetsova a hold. Over the next three games, the errors continued to tumble from Safina’s racket, with Kuznetsova merely staying out of the way and allowing her opponent to implode. Things got so bad for Safina at the end of her collapse that after being broken for a 2-4 deficit, she turned away from the court and–on the verge of tears–was seen to have said, “Why am I such a chicken?” No journalist or pundit needed to write the story of Dinara Safina’s agonizingly painful disintegration on one of the biggest stages in all of tennis. Safina wrote the story herself, and it’s a story that will unfornately overshadow anything Kuznetsova might have achieved.

Svetlana Kuznetsova has fully defeated her mental enemies, at least for once, at a major. For Dinara Safina–an accomplished player having a generally strong season from week to week and month to month–solving the riddle of Grand Slam finals is the only challenge left in her career. The heart says that Kuznetsova’s breakthrough should be the headline today; the events surrounding another disappointing women’s final in France simply won’t allow that narrative to dominate.

Dinara Safina: Number one in tennis, but number two in singles finals. The third time wasn’t a charm on Saturday in Paris; perhaps slam final number four–whenever it arrives–will give a tearful loser a chance to attain the redemption that so fully eluded her today.

Related Posts

• French Open: A pre-draw preview
• Kooze Control: Kuznetsova edges Serena in epic match, advances to semis
• Sveta Sweats it Out: Kuznetsova answers the bell with gritty win over Stosur

On an amazing afternoon (and evening) at Roland Garros, a sport gave the world a remarkable two-match display of heart, hustle and higher-than-high drama. At the very end, a proud champion was left standing by the smallest of margins, able to pursue a date with history that will capture the popular imagination.

Roger Federer has been a mainstay at the late rounds of Grand Slam tournaments, but rarely has a tennis audience–in the stands at Court Philippe Chatrier and throughout much of the globe–been nourished the way it was on a fabulous Friday of men’s semifinal action at the 2009 French Open. After Robin Soderling advanced to Sunday’s championship match with a grueling five-set win over Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, Federer pulled off an equally breathtaking victory over another sensational South American, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. Federer’s 3-6, 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 triumph electrified the Chatrier crowd and captivated the tennis community. The match, on its raw merits, wasn’t quite as good as the Soderling-Gonzalez semifinal, but in terms of pure sports theater, the slugfest soared to ethereal heights on a day made for dreams.

More on Federer’s manhood-maximizing march to Sunday’s final in a moment. The man who truly made the second semifinal sing was del Potro, for a whole host of reasons. First of all, the Argentine’s last encounter with Federer in a Grand Slam came in the 2009 Australian Open quarterfinals. The scoreline was a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 slaughter for the Swiss icon. Del Potro stopped competing late in the second set, an understandable response of a 20-year-old against a proven and experienced champion. Even before this match, del Potro had said that if he couldn’t win the tournament, he’d want Federer to win. That’s not the mental attitude of a man ready to win a match, but improbably enough, this youngster grew up in a hurry on the red dirt of Europe. He pushed Federer a little in the Madrid Open semifinals on May 16, losing by a respectable 3-and-4 score, and on Friday in France, the South American played the best five-set match of his young life.

Del Potro spent the first two sets serving from a tree. The Argentine nailed 72 percent of his first serves, including 10 aces on a day when “Delpo” out-aced Federer by an eye-popping 16-5 margin. Federer had two break point chances through the first three sets, but the fifth-seeded del Potro threw down untouchable serves to erase both opportunities for the second seed from Switzerland. On some days, Federer has had a nagging propensity to squander break points with tentative play, but in the early going of this semifinal showdown, the Argentine underdog wouldn’t allow Fed to feast on breaks of serve. It was all Federer could do–in the face of the Argentine’s onslaught–to hang in the second set, force a tiebreak, and elevate his game to even the match at one set apiece. When del Potro’s very best tennis could only produce a tie after two sets, a lot of commentators and longtime tennis observers had to think that the 20-year-old would crumble.

It was only then that del Potro showed even more of himself, transforming his own reputation the way Robin Soderling has done this fortnight in Paris.

As the match wore on, del Potro continued to take the fight to Federer. In the third set, Delpo’s groundstrokes remained solid, while an uncertain Federer–unable to sustain the emotional high of the second-set tiebreak win–lost focus from the backcourt. The Argentine broke for a quick lead, and then added another break of the Swiss with a well-rounded game. The knock on del Potro has been his inability to cover the court, but in set three at Chatrier, the Argentine was running down many of Federer’s drop shots, hanging in the arena on extended rallies, and generally showing all of the tenacity that was so noticeably absent in Australia. As del Potro rolled to the third set in only eight games, the rest of the ATP Tour had to realize that a new championship contender had just joined its ranks.

Yes, del Potro faltered in the fourth set, and yes, the Argentine didn’t walk off the court as a winner on the scoreboard, but to the very end of this enthralling encounter, the fifth seed made Federer work for every single morsel of success. Federer secured 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the fifth and deciding set, but del Potro–his legs weary and his game under attack from Federer–fought off a few break points on his own serve, and then unleashed a remarkable return lob, followed by some penetrating backhands, to break Federer in the sixth game and level at 3-all. Even after double-faulting to hand the break back to the Swiss in the following game, del Potro saved a match point on his own serve at 3-5 and made Federer serve out the semifinal at 5-4. In the 30-35 hours leading up to Sunday’s final, Federer will earn a deserved amount of praise and publicity for his achievements, chiefly his record-tying 19th Grand Slam finals appearance (tied with Ivan Lendl), but for today, the man who truly ought to bask in the sunshine of glowing words is Juan Martin del Potro. One match, even without a desired scoreboard result, did much to turn a decent quarterfinal-level player at the slams into a bona-fide big boy over the next few years on tour.

So much can be said about Federer in the wake of a match that didn’t offer classic tennis (though well above average, to be sure), but featured an epic battle between two men who warmly embraced at net when it was all over at Roland Garros. Ultimately, the only thing one needs to know is that the Swiss–who fought from behind in three of his previous five matches in this tournament–once more found a way to turn back a hot-hitting opponent in an extended match, relying on all of his championship poise  and first-rate physical fitness to pull through under pressure. As was the case with Fernando Gonzalez against Soderling in the day’s earlier semifinal, Federer was able to play long enough for his opponent to wear down. Unlike Gonzalez, however, Federer made a fifth-set lead hold up after making a comeback in the fourth. “Never underestimate the heart of a champion” is a time-honored sports truism, and its value was never more apparent than when Federer lifted his game in the final two sets of this match. There’s a reason why the Swiss has won 13 slams, and is now aiming for the 14th title that would complete a career Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras for the most major championships of all time.

In the end, tennis was actually the foremost hero and winner on Friday. Soderling-Gonzalez started the day with a 3-hour, 28-minute match. Federer-del Potro lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes. Ten sets were possible; 10 sets were ultimately played. Six hours and 57 minutes of heavy-hitting action offered a pair of “6-4 in the fifth” scorelines. One bold challenger and one resolute champion emerged from the frays to meet in Sunday’s singles final.

Rafael Nadal might have left the French Open far too prematurely, but one has to admit: The sport, perhaps quite surprisingly, has carried on well in the five days since his departure. One can only imagine what kind of a meal awaits tennis fans as championship weekend arrives in Paris.

Related Posts

• Twenty-Something: Federer foils Monfils, makes 20th straight slam semifinal
• So Long, Tsonga: Del Potro makes impressive march to quarters
• Spain, Argentina all tied up in Davis Cup after Friday singles

After two hours of dominant play, Soderling had attained a two-set lead against his Chilean challenger, but as soon as the finish line appeared in sight, the ruthless and mechanically precise consistency that had defined a dream run through Roland Garros had suddenly left Court Philippe Chatrier. Increasingly tired in a high-energy match, Soderling watched Gonzalez compete with dogged ferocity, refusing to cooperate with the Swede’s wishes. Instead of having a straight-set victory handed to him, Soderling saw a revived Gonzalez swipe the third set with a break in the twelfth game. In the fourth set, a similar pattern unfolded, as the Chilean broke at 5-4 to send the match to a deciding set. Armed with ample momentum, the 12th-seeded Gonzalez stormed the palace gate in the fifth stanza, breaking and consolidating for a 4-1 lead. Robin Soderling’s two hours of work had been undone and undermined in the next hour of mortal combat. His body sagging and his reserves running near empty, Soderling had to be wondering how a glorious chance at a first-ever Grand Slam final had shockingly slipped away.

But as he goes to sleep on Friday night in Paris, Robin Soderling won’t have to be haunted by the ghosts of what might have been.

Just when his French Open obituary was being prepared, Soderling came back from that 4-1 deficit, ripping off the final five games to pull off a stunning triumph. Once in the penthouse, then in the outhouse, Soderling completed an improbable full-circle journey, defeating Gonzalez, 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, in 3 hours and 28 minutes before an enraptured audience at Chatrier. The 23rd seed in the men’s draw–who ousted four-time reigning champion Rafael Nadal last Sunday–will now have a chance to take the title Rafa’s owned since 2005.

How well did Soderling play in the first two sets? The Swede, inspired by an onlooking Bjorn Borg, who made the journey to Paris for this semifinal, nailed 70 percent of his first serve, cranked 36 winners, and ceded only 14 unforced errors. Gonzalez’s forehand is one of the most vicious shots in tennis, but Soderling’s forehand is every bit as nasty. In the opening sets, it was Soderling who had more answers, not only because of his forehand, but an ability to lean into a two-handed backhand with equally devastating effect. The two-fisted completeness of Soderling’s game, buttressed by a rock-solid serve that married pace with placement, rocked Gonzalez on his heels, not an easy thing to do in the world of men’s tennis. Gonzalez, for his part, played well enough to beat the younger, previous version of Soderling–you know, the one who had never reached the fourth round of a major tournament coming into Paris for this event–but on a sun-baked Friday afternoon at Roland Garros, the swingin’ Swede was a different man, just as he’s been ever since his knockout of Nadal. Robin Soderling has the same name, but hardly the same game. Now equipped with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mental toughness–which allowed him to fight back from that 4-1 fifth-set deficit–another Swede has shown the icy interior calm that the Scandinavian nation is known for.

Borg, who had to be pleased beyond measure as he watched from his box seat, is the gold standard of Swedish tennis stars. Mats Wilander–commenting on the match for European television–cultivated a similarly unshakable mindset on his way to seven Grand Slam titles, three of them in 1988. One other Swede who achieved something on the tennis court–namely, an appearance in the 2000 French Open final–is the very same individual who now serves as Soderling’s coach: Magnus Norman, the last Swedish man to make the final at Roland Garros. Soderling might not have been a composed performer when this tournament began on May 24, but after rolling through Rafa, dumping Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals, and now gouging Gonzalez with a remarkable fifth-set fightback from 1-4 down, it’s clear that this 24-year-old has tapped into the ice veins that made Sweden one of the better tennis nations on the planet in prior decades.

If he wins one more match on Sunday, he’ll tap into the championship heritage of Swedish tennis as well. Borg, Wilander, Norman, and the rest of a hopeful nation will be watching.

Related Posts

• Parisian Pain: Murray gets whacked by hard-hitting Gonzalez
• Nadal advances easily, Gonzalez in epic fashion
• Nadal faces Gonzalez, but first it’s an all-French showdown

Forced to play on back-to-back days by the quirks of the French Open’s scheduling format, Kuznetsova found an extra ounce of will to complement her level of skill. The seventh seed, just one day after outlasting Serena Williams in a grueling quarterfinal match, stopped 30th-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur in an entertaining three-set semifinal showdown. The 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win, in 2 hours and 25 minutes at Court Philippe Chatrier, sends Kuznetsova into Saturday’s women’s final against fellow Russian Dinara Safina.

After Wednesday’s triumph over Serena–the most accomplished active player in women’s tennis–much ink was spilt, and deservedly so, about the ability of the Kooze to overcome her historically frail nerves. For 2 hours and 45 minutes, the 23-year-old Kuznetsova fought hard enough to not only defeat a bona-fide tennis legend, but slay the demons that have been a regular part of her professional journey. The courageous conquest should have earned the Russian a day of rest, but because the French Open puts two women’s quarterfinals on separate days–instead of putting all four quarterfinals on the same day–Kuznetsova had to toe the terre battue roughly 23 hours after the end of the Williams match. A brutally short turnaround after a taxing tussle caused fears that the Kooze would lose her fitness and focus against Stosur, who breezed through her own Wednesday quarterfinal in under 90 minutes. When one realizes that this showcase semifinal lasted nearly two and a half hours, the simple math is rather shocking: From 2 p.m. Paris time on Wednesday through 6:40 p.m. on Thursday (when this match ended), Kuznetsova accumulated 5 hours and 10 minutes of court time, playing six high-impact sets, most of them with a slightly rolled ankle that was suffered in the Williams match.

The simple fact that Kuznetsova has lived to see Saturday’s singles final is, in itself, a testament to a very different narrative, and a transformation in the identity of women’s tennis foremost ballstrikers.

If Kuznetsova had to chase away old mental enemies against Serena, the seventh seed had to fight many more familiar cranial competitors in her battle with Stosur. The 30th-seeded Australian, like No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova, was a first-time Grand Slam semifinalist who picked Roland Garros as the site of a personal coming-out party. Stosur’s nerves sabotaged her level of play in a messy first set, but as the match went on, the veteran from Down Under began to hit the ball with increasing confidence and power. This was never more apparent than in the second-set tiebreak, when Kuznetsova–up 5-2–was just two points from an early finish line.

Stosur–in a manner reminiscent of Roger Federer’s get-out-of-jail shot against Tommy Haas in Monday’s fourth round of the men’s tournament–hit a go-for-broke inside-outside forehand to revive her spirits. Emboldened by that superb shot, Stosur ripped off a series of huge serves and passing shots to win four more points in succession, and take the breaker by a 7-5 margin. With Kuznetsova’s ankle still frail, the Australian’s ability to send the match to a third set forced the Russian to rally under adverse circumstances, just like the Williams match the day before. It was cruel yet unavoidable: Svetlana Kuznetsova had to pull off one feat of notable perseverance on Wednesday; but if the 23-year-old couldn’t do the same deed on Thursday, a second final at Roland Garros wouldn’t materialize.

Evidently, however, the Kooze retained the same iron will she discovered just 24 hours before.

Kuznetsova crushed groundstrokes from both wings in the final set, winning points while not getting sucked into long, grinding rallies that favored the fitter, fresher Stosur. Protecting her serve with care, Kuznetsova–serving first in the set, a meaningful advantage in a deciding stanza–kept her nose in front at 3-2 and then converted her one big chance at a break when Stosur missed a pair of down-the-line forehands in the sixth game of the set. Up 4-2 and given another ticket to the final, Kuznetsova didn’t crumble. Two solid service games, defined by a reliable forehand, delivered the resolute Russian another delicious and highly satisfying triumph. In two days and two matches, a woman once prone to pratfalls and face-plants has now planted herself in the French Open final. And as a reward for her persistence in the face of in-match adversity, Kuznetsova will now get a day off on Friday before her Saturday date with destiny… and Dinara.

Related Posts

• The Laws Of Nature: Serena Holds Off Kuznetsova
• Kooze Control: Kuznetsova edges Serena in epic match, advances to semis
• Australian Justice: Stosur upends Dementieva in third round

Using rolled crosscourt backhands, an occasional moonball, and even a backhand drop shot, the cagey Safina–all grown up after years of learning on the WTA Tour–used her superior variety to overcome 20th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova in the semifinals of the French Open. Safina’s 6-3, 6-3 win, in 1 hour and 41 minutes, moves the No. 1 seed into the finals at Roland Garros for the second straight year.

Cibulkova–playing in her first-ever slam semifinal–acquitted herself quite well. The Slovakian used above-average court coverage to take the ball early and pepper Safina with flat, piercing groundstrokes that robbed the Russian of time. Before anyone’s seat was warm at Court Philippe Chatrier, the underdog grabbed a quick 2-0 lead, and forced Safina to bring her best stuff to the stadium.

It wouldn’t take long for the top seed to do just that.

Blitzed by Cibulkova’s energy and pace, Safina began to put some air under her own shots. Using more topspin, slice and touch from all corners of the court, Safina prevented Cibulkova from hitting groundstrokes with a maximum amount of comfort, and occasionally crafted some beautiful winners that fueled a first-set comeback. Safina won three straight games to take a 3-2 lead, and then produced one of the best shots of the match to gain an upper hand.

Cibulkova, serving at 2-3 and 40-15, lost three straight points to give Safina a chance to break. The Russian pounced on the opportunity by surprising Cibulkova with a perfectly executed backhand drop shot to the ad court side. Disorganized and off balance just moments earlier, the top seed had broken for a 4-2 advantage. The continued use of crafty medium-pace shots–including a knifed slice backhand at 5-3, 30-15–enabled Safina to tuck away the first set and stack the deck against her opponent.

As the second set unfolded, Cibulkova still retrieved most of what Safina threw her way, but not with the same level of conviction or clarity that marked the first two games of the match. Safina struggled mightily with her serve, coughing up 7 double faults on the afternoon, but the world No. 1 repeatedly fought off break points with an effective wide kick serve to the ad court. Safina’s serving mirrored her larger overall performance on Thursday: The Russian struggled to find her form, but was always able to right the ship on break points (as both a server and receiver) and other important occasions. The No. 1 seed broke for a 3-2 lead and maintained that advantage through the remainder of the set.

Cibulkova’s play was, in a real sense, the opposite of Safina’s: The Slovakian–who played well enough for a No. 20 seed, but not enough to knock off No. 1– gained 30-15 and 40-15 leads in many games. However, the 20-year-old’s level of quality declined under pressure, particularly at net and on her return of serve. When Safina rolled one last crosscourt backhand to the ad court on match point, Cibulkova could only send the ball into the net, and now, Marat Safin’s younger sister has a chance to get it right at Roland Garros.

Last year, Dinara Safina lost to Ana Ivanovic in the French Open final. If she can learn from that painful experience, the No. 1 player in women’s tennis would finally and fully justify the ranking that has hovered over her head for so long. With one more match win on Court Chatrier, Safina can turn what has been a source of torment into a legitimate reward worthy of her achievements.

Related Posts

• Determined Dinara: Safina weathers the storm to advance past Azarenka, into semis
• Dominant Dominika: Cibulkova shuts down Sharapova, gains first-ever slam semi
• A King and a Joker in Monte Carlo: Nadal, Djokovic advance to final

Roger Federer isn’t just rewriting the history of tennis. The 27-year-old from Switzerland is achieving the kinds of feats that casual sports fans can’t possibly ignore. Team sports such as football (the global kind, not the American kind), basketball and baseball earn more publicity and television coverage than tennis, but when the career of the fabulous Federer is ultimately measured, the Swiss will be celebrated for what he did in the 2009 French Open quarterfinals against native son Gael Monfils.

Federer survived a tense first-set tiebreak and cruised from then on, scoring a 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-4 win over his 11th-seeded foe. With the victory, Federer reached his 20th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal, a round-numbered milestone whose significance is hard to adequately convey.

What does it mean to reach the final four at 20 straight major tournaments? Let one count the ways.

* For one thing, it means that the Swiss has made slam semifinals–without interruptions, injuries or breaks–for a full five-year period. Tennis–like golf–plays four major championships each calendar year, so a 20-tournament run encompasses five years’ worth of competition.

* Making 20 straight slam semis also means that Federer has won at least five matches in those 20 tournaments, good for a minimum total of 100 wins.

* The 20-tournament threshold attained Wednesday by Federer means that the Swiss has doubled the previous record of 10 straight slam semifinal appearances, a mark originally set by Rod Laver and then tied by Ivan Lendl.

* The “Big Two-Oh” comes near the end of a tournament in which Rafael Nadal’s Grand Slam semifinal streak was stopped at five by Robin Soderling’s fourth-round upset this past Sunday. Federer’s mark is four times as long as Rafa’s commendable run of slam semis.

All in all, Federer’s record represents a standard of tennis excellence so high as to be unfathomable. It could well be that another legend will come along, in 10 or 15 or 20 years (maybe Nadal could even be the guy, but bodily wear and tear will work against the Spaniard in that regard) and pull off the same awesome accomplishment against a new set of fearful foes. However, anyone intent on sniffing this mark, which–by the way–is likely to be extended to 21 at the upcoming Wimbledon championships, will have to possess Fed’s knack for worming his way out of tight spots, which was on display in this match against Monfils.

Federer and Monfils played in last year’s French Open, as the two men sprinted around the Chatrier clay in a high-level semifinal match. Federer absorbed a second-set loss but righted the ship to earn a hard-fought four-set triumph. Monfils might have lost, but the young Frenchman nearly took the Swiss superstar to a fifth and deciding set. One year later, it was reasonable to think that in light of Fed’s inconsistent play at Roland Garros, Monfils could put the pieces together and deliver a significant upset. The shock value of a Monfils victory would not have equaled the Nadal-Soderling spectacle, but it would have reverberated through the tennis community just the same.

Why did a history-changing surprise not occur? Let’s just put it this way: You don’t make 20 straight slam semis without finding a way to play through–and overcome–a handful of points freighted with fear and pressure.

Pete Sampras won 14 slams because the American was simply the best big-point player of his time. Whenever he found himself in a Wimbledon final, Sampras would consistently manage to dig out of love-40 situations by thumping three aces in a row. Federer doesn’t have quite the serve of Pistol Pete, but the Swiss has cultivated the same remarkable ability to win the few points that matter most in a match.

A 40-love point early in a set is one thing; a deuce or ad point quite another. A 1-all point in a tiebreak is one thing; a 5-6 point another. Federer lost a pair of mini-break leads to Monfils in a consequential first-set breaker, but when serving on set point for Monfils at 5-6, the world No. 2 calmly carried himself through an extended backcourt rally that ended with an error by the Frenchman. Federer would hammer a first serve after the changeover to hold for 7-6, and when given his own first look at a set point, the Swiss pressed the advantage and knocked away an overhead to tuck the first set in his pocket. When a dispirited Monfils failed to compete vigorously in a very quick second set (it lasted all of 28 minutes), the handwriting was on the wall. A break of serve at 4-all in the third enabled a relaxed Federer–no longer playing from behind as he did in prior matches at Roland Garros–to serve out the quarterfinal encounter, and give new meaning to the number 20.

Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight baseball games.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game.

Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters golf championship by 12 strokes.

Now, there’s another mark that deserves its place in the sporting pantheon: Roger Federer has reached 20 straight Grand Slam singles semifinals.

The record looks good on its own; it looks even better in the company of other great sports achievements.

Related Posts

• French Frailty: Simon, Monfils crash out of Monte Carlo
• So Long, Tsonga: Del Potro makes impressive march to quarters
• Semi-Tough: Federer makes final four, but not without resistance from Roddick

Kuznetsova–one of the most talented yet unimposing performers on the WTA Tour–registered what should be viewed as the most meaningful win of her career on Wednesday afternoon in Paris. The seventh-seeded Russian reached the French Open semifinals for the second straight year with a rousing and riveting 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5 triumph over second-seeded Serena Williams at Court Suzanne Lenglen. The quality quarterfinal conquest sends “the Kooze” to Thursday’s semifinal round against 30th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia.

Kuznetsova has long possessed one of the very best forehands in all of women’s tennis. Able to go inside out, over the top, crosscourt or down the line, Kuznetsova rarely if ever faces a shotmaking deficit when she stares down an opponent. After roaring through the draw at the 2004 U.S. Open in New York, a very innocent 19-year-old had already cracked the major championship code. It only seemed a matter of time before Kuznetsova would add to her trophy case and become a regular presence on the final weekend at slam tournaments.

Shockingly yet undeniably, a rise to glory never materialized for the soft-spoken Svetak, whose humble off-court manner was not accompanied by on-court serenity.

The book on the Kooze–and it’s not a hard book to read–is that the Russian will tighten up at big events, particularly in the later rounds of slams. Entering this French Open, Kuznetsova had reached only four slam semifinals, a remarkably low number for a woman who has spent most of the past five years in the top 10 of the WTA rankings, and will celebrate her 24th birthday on June 27. Despite lethal groundstrokes and above-average court coverage, the physically gifted Kuznetsova has not been able to deliver the goods in the heat of the Grand Slam spotlight. The reason for the unfulfilled nature of a lucrative but relatively uncredentialed career has been as obvious as it is perplexing: The Kooze has not been able to control her psyche.

Outside of her one championship moment in the 2004 U.S. Open final against Elena Dementieva (another Russian headcase in a sport filled with them), Kuznetsova has flopped and flailed in her few forays to the final rounds of slams. In her two unsuccessful slam finals, Kuznetsova never had a chance against Justine Henin, who blew away the Kooze at the 2006 French and the 2007 U.S. Open. In one other semifinal appearance, Kuznetsova drowned in errors and self-loathing during a miserable outing against Dinara Safina at last year’s French Open. For all the money she’s made, and for all the friends she has in the locker room (not something that can normally be said for any individual on the WTA Tour), Kuznetsova hadn’t attained the kinds of results worthy of her immense abilities. As she faced Serena Williams, the sport’s best closer and its most cutthroat on-court assassin, Kuznetsova had one more chance–on clay, a friendly surface–to remake her reputation and close in on a second major championship.

My, how this makeover attempt succeeded.

Four months ago, Kuznetsova faced Serena in the same round of the year’s prior slam event, the Australian Open. In that match, the Kooze led by a set and a break, but was broken when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second. Serena would come back to notch a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 win on the way to the championship Down Under, the 10th slam of the younger Williams sister’s decorated career. Little could anyone have known that this French-flavored fistfight would bring forth familiar demons for Kuznetsova, in an enthralling case of deja vu that provided a plot twist at the end.

Once more, the Kooze won the first set (with a flawlessly played tiebreak) and then gained a break lead in the second to serve for the match at 5-3. Yet again, however, Serena–as has been so typical of her tennis and her persona over the long march of time–played her fiercest and best brand of ball when held at competitive gunpoint. The No. 2 seed broke to stay in the match, held to level the set at 5-all, and ultimately repeated the break-and-serve cycle to take the second set and square the match at a set apiece. When Serena broke early in the final stanza to gain a 3-1 lead, there couldn’t have been a soul on Court Lenglen who felt that Kuznetsova had a chance.

For once, however, Kuznetsova herself actually seemed to believe.

The seventh seed broke back for 3-all, produced two gutsy service holds, and then–with the set on serve–found a 15-40 opening on Serena’s serve at 5-4. Williams, however, erased two match points and eventually held for 5-all. Once again, Kuznetsova had come to the brink of sweet victory, only to be denied by the best active player in women’s tennis. The longer this mesmerizing match continued, the better the chances were that Kuznetsova would become frustrated. Serena Williams loves to stay on court and outlast weaker-willed foes, so when the third set stood at 5-all, the smart money rested with the 2002 French Open champion.

The smart money, however, would turn out to be wrong on this wondrous Wednesday.

Kuznetsova held yet again for 6-5, and after that display of steely nerves following the inability to convert a pair of match points, it was as though the Russian found the final mental push she needed. The Kooze broke down Serena’s groundstrokes in the twelfth game of the third set, forcing a backhand error from Serena on a third match point to chase away the ghosts that had tormented her mind for years.

Now in the semifinals against a player outside the top 25 (Stosur), Kuznetsova won’t be playing anyone near the caliber of Serena Williams. With one solid, steady performance, this beautiful ballstriker with the balky brain can continue to redefine a career that might still have some Grand Slam championships left in it.

Related Posts

• The Laws Of Nature: Serena Holds Off Kuznetsova
• Sweet Relief: Serena loses eight match points but still prevails
• Nadal advances easily, Gonzalez in epic fashion