Chaky

Ana crushed Maria 6-2 6-1! A superb performance. Ana was so composed in her first Slam SF and executed very well. Maria played horrible. (Why couldn't she do that against Anna C last round?)

It doesn't mean they're friends though, does it?

Schedule for Thursday: Court Philippe Chatrier - 14.00 Start Ana Ivanovic [7] vs Maria Sharapova [2] followed by Justine Henin [1] vs Jelena Jankovic [4] So I guess that's 8am on the US east coast. I hope Maria loses! :evil:

Woohoo! A new editorial. I almost missed that. Thanks for posting it Nath. Jeisa looks gorgeous of course.

What is it about Serbia that has suddenly made all these great players emerge right now? There's Novak into the SFs, Ana and Jelena in the Ladies SFs, and Nenad Zimonjic in the Men's Doubles semis and Mixed final. For such a small country with a small tennis infrastructure it's amazing! Compare it to Britain which spends many times more money on facilities but has had relatively little success to show for it. Possibly part of this is that Novak, Ana and Jelena all went abroad to escape the conflict and trained in other countries. Jelena went to Florida, Ana to Switzerland and Novak to Germany. I think that these hard situations create more of a drive in people to work hard and get themselves into a better situation. There isn't the same motivation in Britain. In tennis terms Serbia is the new Russia. Can they keep this run going on the grass?

Again I've only caught a bit of the highlights of today's matches. I think this match was a step too far for Andreev. He wasn't mentally ready. But most importantly Novak played an excellent match. He served well, picked the right shots, didn't let Igor unleash his forehand too much. Very impressive. I wonder what Andy Murray thinks of this. Novak and Andy have a sort of rivalry going on. Almost the same age, they both shot up the rankings at about the same time. But Novak has beaten Andy at each major hurdle. First into Top 10, first Masters title, first into Slam SF. Murray is currently suffering with injured wrist tendons. Novak said last week: "You've got to take care of your body and I think he's learned the lesson now. Obviously he was not taking care of his body and he's got the injury which brought him a lot of negative things." Is that a bit of a taunt? Andy needs to play catch-up. The Nadal-Moya result was not surprising. Having seen some of Nadal today I'm not so sure that Roger could beat him in a final. He's playing out of this world. The dry weather in the last few days means Rafa's heavy top-spun shots are really kicking up high off the clay which is just what Roger doesn't want.

Andreev has an injury protected ranking. He's on his way back up on his comeback. He looked dangerous against Baghdatis. If the QF isn't a step too far for him he will give Novak trouble. But I want the same semi as you: Djokovic vs Nadal.

It was a bit of an anticlimax today. Serena played terrible by her standards and I heard that Maria really upped her level today to beat Anna. In the post-match interview Anna looks very tired and unhappy. A reporter asked her some stupid question : Q. Then, would you say you are suffering from an inferiority complex faced to Maria Sharapova? ANNA CHAKVETADZE: Sorry? Q. An inferiority complex, do you understand that? ANNA CHAKVETADZE: Complex? Q. Yes. ANNA CHAKVETADZE: I don't have complexes, sorry. Jankovic-Henin should be a good contest. I'm hoping for a Justine vs Ana final now. And I'm off work on Thursday and Friday so I can watch the semis.

Novak said after his match today: "I'm really happy with the way I played because I didn't play very well at all in the first three rounds. I haven't come here with the goal of winning the tournament. I am going step by step. I just look at the next opponent and I know that the results will come sooner or later." He may have to change his goals. I wonder if he's just saying that to play down his chances. You've got to have utter belief in yourself to be a champion. He'll have a stern test against Andreev. I saw a little bit of Andreev vs Baghdatis today and Igor is serving huge. Novak's not been taking his opportunities early enough. I think he could have finished off his last couple of matches more quickly if he'd focused more.

There's no way I'd get home in time for Anna's match. I work 8am-4pm British time which is five hours ahead of you. They aren't showing Lenglen court here anyway. Match of the day has to be Serena vs Justine. Everyone's making a big deal out of their 2003 match with the infamous "hand" incident. But when they played in Miami this year they showed a lot of respect for each other so I'm not sure that will actually be a factor. You can never tell what the French crowd will do though. The top women have been very strong in Paris this year. Eight of the top nine seeds made the QFs. I think Anna has a chance against Maria but it will be her biggest test yet. Maria is about the hardest player to close out even when supposedly injured as Patty Schnyder discovered. Anna's last match against Maria at the Aussie Open was very close and she should have won the first set. Maria feeds off pace and Anna doesn't give her that - she needs to move her around and vary her shots. Anna's a clever player - I hope she can do it this time.

I can imagine a lot of these going with seeding to be honest. Robredo to beat Volandri. I think Davydenko might be steady enough to take out Nalbandian. Canas over Monaco. Bottom half Andreev has had a good tournament and Marcos is getting back into form. I think Andreev might just get the better of him. Bjorkman is a surprise and I've not seen Moya play this tournament but he's had a couple of easy rounds so will probably win. As much as I want Lleyton to beat Rafa I think he'll test him but not manage to go all the way. Okay I'm 100% on my predictions for the men's draw. I should have put some money on! LLeyton lost! I got home in time for the third set which I think Hewitt probably deserved to win. It was so close he was only really undone by a couple of easy missed forehands in the tiebreaker. The commentators were saying it was really high quality tennis during that set.

My predictions for the men were all right. For the women I thought Patty would take out Maria and she did have 2 match points but Maria is almost unique in her fighting abilities. It was a great match. Did you see the crowd booing at the end? The French crowd really let you know if they don't like something. I'm so glad Anna won. I didn't get to see the match but I heard she really stepped up her game in the third set after losing 7 games in a row from the start of the second. I think Anna has a chance against Maria but will have to play really well. I'm setting the video for Lleyton vs Rafa tomorrow. They're on second so it might still be on when I get back from work. Can't wait! There's been some good matches this weekend, and some sun!

Anna's into the quarter finals!

I can't get the Tennis Channel because it only works in the US. I can get ESPN through what is probably a bit of a dodgy website. I was trying some other ones but nothing was working. But by yesterday afternoon they were showing Lenglen on BBC so I saw almost all of the Djokovic match.

Was that on The Tennis Channel? I tried to get a livestream today for Lenglen but nothing was working. I did manage to watch the last set of Daniela vs Medina Garrigues on Court 2 on Eurosport which was unexpected. Really tense match but I'm not too happy with the result. Also saw the last set of Hewitt's match. Saturday was definitely the best day of the tournament so far. Hopefully Sunday will be even better.

Top half I agree with, although I'd like to see Garbin knock out Vaidisova. Ana is right. I've no idea what will happen in Kuzzie vs Shahar. Kuzzie's never beaten her but Peer had a wobble last round so I'll go with Sveta. Unfortunately I think there's a good chance Anna C will lose to Safarova. Clay is not Anna's best surface. Maria played shockingly badly today and she can't serve anymore with that shoulder. If Patty doesn't screw up she should take Maria out. But I would like to see Chaky get revenge for Australia against Maria in the next round instead. My ideal final would be Justine vs Anna or Ana.

I can imagine a lot of these going with seeding to be honest. Robredo to beat Volandri. I think Davydenko might be steady enough to take out Nalbandian. Canas over Monaco. Bottom half Andreev has had a good tournament and Marcos is getting back into form. I think Andreev might just get the better of him. Bjorkman is a surprise and I've not seen Moya play this tournament but he's had a couple of easy rounds so will probably win. As much as I want Lleyton to beat Rafa I think he'll test him but not manage to go all the way.

Djokovic vs Patience was a superb match. I love it when a match goes to five sets like this and by the final sets both players are producing their best tennis. Can't believe Olivier Patience is ranked outside the top 100. He deserves to be higher. In a great show of sportsmanship once Novak had won they hugged each other at the net and Novak said he thought Olivier had played better than him for most of the match and probably deserved to win.

I just found this out. That's not so good. I've tried various livestream options but none work so I'm going to have to be content with the live scoreboard. <_<

Yes, but I don't know if I get coverage of Lenglen court tomorrow. I think BBC and Eurosport will show Chatrier. I can get a livestream of ESPN as well but they will probably show Chatrier too. I really want to watch Ana and Anna! Baghdatis and Djokovic are on there too and I wouldn't mind seeing those as I've not seen them play yet this tourny.

Did you see any of it? I videoed it but the recording kinda screwed up halfway through. From the looks of it Venus is a shadow of herself in these big match situations. Ana's draw has definitely been easy but she's also been playing well recently. Nicole had a potentially tricky match against Stosur but it ended up being quite easy. She's coming back from injury so I thought she might well lose early in Paris but she's doing okay. Personally I'd like to see her lose soon because I think she's evil! :evil: Monfils vs Nalbandian was possibly the best match I've seen so far (apart from the start which I missed). It was full of drama and the crowd were really into it. Tipsarevic was unlucky to come up against Robredo who's been a quarter-finalist twice - it was very one-sided. This guy writes some crazy stuff.

Thank you Nina. Really glad to see Lleyton came through a tough 5 setter against former champion Gaston Gaudio this morning. The rain is still messing everything up. Anna had her match against Agnes Szavay stopped by rain when she was winning 6-4 *5-4. She came back on, got two points from winning and then collapsed and lost the set on a horrible tie-break. Finally came through 6-4 in the third. Daniela's match didn't even start today. She'll probably have to play two or three days in a row now (assuming she keeps winning). Big match tomorrow: Jankovic [4] vs Venus Williams [26] I can also imagine Monfils vs Nalbandian turning into an epic. Henin might be waiting a while to get on after that.

^^^ Is there an interview with it? What's she wearing? And who's on the cover? (Sorry for all the questions.) I'll have to put the word out to some of my other American tennis friends to get hold of it.

I'm setting the video for Hewitt vs Gaudio tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be a cracker... and Lleyton will win of course.

Monfils is fun to watch, he's kinda unpredictable and he always has these ridiculous drawn-out matches at RG. I think he's got his tactics all wrong but he seems to get by. Lil' Masha had a tough time against Stosur. She's not had much luck this year. How'd you like her outfit?