Wednesday, June 03, 2009

French Open: Semis are set

Well the semi-finals are set both for the men and women in Paris. A week ago no one would have predicted how it would be at this point. There are at least three men (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray) who are surprisingly missing from the party. As I said yesterday, I still think that Roger is the man to beat. Even more so now that Murray is out. Although it should be noted that, as Ann put it, Soderling seems to still be in the bubble from his defeat of the clay king and Gonzalez and Del Potro are very good. But it's Roger's tournament to lose.

So here are the men's semis:

Robin Soderling SWE (23)
v
Fernando Gonzalez CHI (12)

Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (5)
v
Roger Federer SUI (2)

In some sense, the women's semis are as surprising as the mens. Dinara Safina (#1) is still on board and there was no one who's loss was as surprising as Nadal's. We rarely get a #20 and 30 in the semis. Just like among the men many familiar faces are missing: #s 2&3 the williams sisters (Venus and Serena), #4 Elena Dementieva, #5 Jelena Jankovic and #8 Ana Ivanovic. Oh and don't forget unseeded Maria Sharapova (who had a good tournament until yesterday when she met semi-finalist Domeninika Cibulkova). I predict an all-Russian final, with Safina coming out on top.

So here are the women's semis:

Dinara Safina RUS (1)
v
Dominika Cibulkova SVK (20)

Samantha Stosur AUS (30)
v
Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (7)

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