Lundi Net Post - 4 Juin

[Ed. note - Great job, Ed. This will be the Off-Topic post until the next Locker Room later in the week, and I am opening a Crisis Center for today shortly - PB]

Tournoi de la semaine dernière (Last week)

Roland Garros (ATP & WTA - Paris, France)

• Men's Final 16: (1) Roger Federer, (2) Rafael Nadal, (3) Nikolay Davydenko, (6) Novak Djokovic, (9) Tommy Robredo, (13) Mikhail Youzhny, (14) Lleyton Hewitt, (15) David Nalbandian, (16) Marcos Baghdatis, (19) Guillermo Canas, (23) Carlos Moya, (29) Filippo Volandri, Juan Monaco, Fernando Verdasco, Igor Andreev, Jonas Bjorkman.
• (Bold denotes that the player has advanced to the final eight, as of the completion of Day 8.)
• Men's Singles Bracket

• Women's Final 16: (1) Justine Henin, (2) Maria Sharapova, (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova, (4) Jelena Jankovic, (6) Nicole Vaidisova, (7) Ana Ivanovic, (8) Serena Williams, (9) Anna Chakvetadze, (10) Dinara Safina, (14) Patty Schnyder, (15) Shahar Peer, (18) Marion Bartoli, (19) Tathiana Garbin, (20) Sybille Bammer, (24) Anabel Medina Garrigues.
• (Bold denotes that the player has advanced to the final eight, as of the completion of Day 8.)
• Women's Singles Bracket

• Men's Doubles Bracket

• Women's Doubles Bracket

By the Letter

T...ennischannel.com features an impressive French Open video archive, with highlights and full video of many of the completed matches from week one.  Access is free after registration.
E...lder statesman Jonas Bjorkman has advanced to the fourth round of Roland Garros, in the doubles as well as in the singles.  A fluke?  I would say no, as you may recall that the 35 year old reached the semifinals of Wimbledon (losing to Federer) just last summer.
N...ine men from the United States entered the French Open main draw, and nine men were eliminated after the first round of play.
N...adal may be the favorite to three-peat at Roland Garros in the eyes of many tennis observers, but six-time French champion Bjorn Borg disagrees, declaring that Federer is indeed the favorite this year.
I...njured knee of Venus Williams contributed to her downfall in the third round, so much so that she "shouldn't have played" at the French Open, said her father Richard Williams.
S...erving at 128 mph (206 kph), Venus (in spite of the injury) recorded the fastest serve by a woman in a main-draw match during her second round tussle against Ashley Harkleroad.
W...hether the weather of the first two days of the French Open had an influence on the decision or not, a target date of 2011 has been set for installation of a retractable roof at Roland Garros.
O...livier Patience went from a regular at Challenger events to the last beacon of hope for French tennis supporters, after he led two sets to one against sixth seed Novak Djokovic in the third round.  Despite the vigorous crowd support, Patience couldn't secure the final set needed to advance, as the sun set on the last remaining French player in either draw.
R...ebound Ace surface at the Australian Open will be a thing of the past in next year's Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific, as Plexicushion will be used instead.  Some have criticized the change, saying that the tournament will be a "clone" of the U.S. Open, or worse, a "second-rate" U.S. Open.
L...ast sixteen in the women's bracket includes all of the top ten seed but one - Amelie Mauresmo, who was eliminated in the third round.  The pressure will continue to mount on Amelie from her countrymen; she has yet to get past the quarterfinals of her home championships.
D...efeating Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets on Sunday gave Roger Federer yet another record - the Swiss maestro has now won his last 35 sets in Grand Slam tournaments, which ties the record held by John McEnroe.  The last set that Federer has dropped in a Slam was the second set of his 2006 U.S. Open final against Andy Roddick.

McGrogan's Heroes

ATP - There are a number of players in the men's draw that could have earned this week's honor - and in case you were wondering, Igor Andreev got third place, with Jonas Bjorkman the runner-up.  But the honor goes to Lleyton Hewitt, who has continued his recent clay court success with a fine performance at Roland Garros.  The clay court season started out with a whimper for the Aussie - he didn't enter Monte Carlo, and lost in the first round of Rome to Oscar Hernandez.  But fortunes have quickly changed for Hewitt, as evidenced by his two semfinal appearances in Hamburg and Poertschach.

This week, Hewitt evaded a potentially tough match with Max Mirnyi in the opening round of the French, winning in straight sets, then escaped from two sets down against 2004 Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio in round two.  After getting by Jarkko Nieminen in the third round, Hewitt gets another crack at Rafael Nadal in the round of 16.  In Hamburg, the Aussie almost broke Nadal's record-setting clay court winning streak, narrowly falling to the Spanish sensation by a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 score.  This time around, it will be a best-of-five format, which would normally favor Nadal - but consider what Lleyton did with that added time against Gaudio in the second round.

WTA - While it would be inaccurate to compare Roger Federer's and Rafael Nadal's dominance of the ATP Tour to Serena Williams' and Justine Henin's current stats atop the WTA Tour, I would assert that there is a similarity between each of the "next tier" of players in both the men's and women's games.

By this I mean that each player in this group seems to have one major fault that has held them back from moving into the truly elite ranks of tennis.  For the men's side, this could include Nikolay Davydenko and Ivan Ljubicic's lack of killer instinct, Andy Roddick's backhand, and Fernando Gonzalez's erratic play.  For the women, Maria Sharapova has come under great fire lately, with arrows fired at her serve and her inability to take care of matches she's supposed to win. But she is McGrogan's  hero for this week.

So far at Roland Garros, Sharapova has taken care of business, even in the face of potential danger.  Her first round match against Emilie Loit featured a tight second set, but she rendered a third stanza unnecessary by quickly shutting the door on the hometown favorite in the tiebreaker.  In the next two rounds, she whipped Jill Craybas, losing only three games in the match, and then advanced past fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva with similar ease.

Finally on Sunday, amongst a throng of TW Tribesmen and Tribeswomen, I watched an extremely impressive performance from Sharapova against Patty Schynder, where she held off two match points and managed to gut out the third set 9-7.  And I truly mean 'gutting out', as Schnyder had three chances to serve out the match, but failed to convert on all of them in a service-break-filled third set.  The top half of the draw (not Maria's half) has many more landmines than the bottom - and in my mind, Pete's prophecy might come true, even sooner than expected.

Le tournoi de cette semaine (This week)

Roland Garros (ATP & WTA - Paris, France)

• Website

(As the Grand Slam lasts a fortnight, "last week" and "this week" feature the same tournament.  For the brackets, please see above.  Merci beaucoup.)

Beyond the Bracket

As we've seen during the first week of Roland Garros, the relationship of male American playeres is analogous to oil and water - they don't mix.  Undoubtedly, these players would like to put this experience behind them as quickly as possible, but how can they, when another full week of red clay in Paris clouds their thoughts?  Simple - go back to where you started.

Grass court tennis doesn't begin until next week, but in the meantime, players can compete on the surface most familiar to them - hardcourts.  For those who want to make a return journey across the pond (or, for those who never left in the first place), the Sunset Moulding Yuba City Racquet Club Challenger offers a $50,000 purse and ATP Ranking Points for those who want to play in California this week.

As one of the events on the USTA Pro Circuit, Yuba City features veteran names you may have seen floating around for years, along with obscure newcomers who you'll meet for the first time.  Taking a look at the tournament's press release, you'll see that Kevin Kim best fits the mould of the former, while last year's champion, Sam Querrey, is the latter - an unknown at the time, but now he's firmly cemented in the upper echelon of American players on tour.

The main draw for Yuba City isn't out just yet, but if you really want to test your tennis knowledge, take a peek at the qualifying draw as see who you recognize.  Off the top of my head, Scoville Jenkins is one of the few who I can put a face to a name, thanks to his valiant effort in the 2005 U.S. Open.  Two years ago in the first round, Jenkins atoned for Pete Sampras' upset at Wimbledon a few years back by defeating George Bastl in a four hour, 29 minute five-setter, and then challenged Rafael Nadal seriously in the second round.

Now in its fifth year, the Yuba City Challenger offers players a chance to get back into the groove of faster tennis, in preparation for the upcoming months.  With so many players (and not just Americans) ousted from the French Open, this Californian event could be the beneficiary - at least that's the hope of Tournament Director Jim King, who surely would love to see players cast away their clay-stained socks in exchange for squeaky shoes.

- Ed McGrogan