Day 9: The Nitty Gritty on the Gritty Nitty

Yep, it's that time of the tournament. The wins are more important. The losses are more heartbreaking. The high pressure situations are even more pressurized.

(Psst, do I have enough to fill up this opening segment yet? Without the women playing today, and no earth-shattering results on the men's side, there's realy nothing to highlight for Day 9. What's that? One more? Okay.)

Umm... and the dirt is even dirtier. Yep, it's THAT time of the tournament.




Love-Love...


=THE MEN'S & WOMEN'S FINAL 8's=
*BY NATION*
5...Russia (Andreev,Chakvtadze,Davydenko,
Kuznetsova,Sharapova)
3...Serbia (Djokovic,Ivanovic,Jankovic)
3...Spain (Moya,Nadal,Robredo)
1...Argentina (Canas)
1...Belgium (Henin)
1...Czech Republic (Vaidisova)
1...Switzerland (Federer)
1...USA (S.Williams)

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15-love...

*MEN'S QF*
#1 Roger Federer vs. #9 Tommy Robredo
#4 Nikolay Davydenko vs. #19 Guillermo Canas
#6 Novak Djokovic vs. Igor Andreev
#23 Carlos Moya vs. #2 Rafael Nadal

*WOMEN'S DOUBLES QF*
#1 L.Raymond/S.Stosur vs. #8 A.Medina-Garrigues/v.Ruano-Pascual
#16 M.E. Camerin/G.Dulko vs. #7 K.Srebotnik/A.Sugiyama
#5 Y-J.Chan/C-J.Chuang vs. #17 A.Molik/M.Santangelo
#10 J.Husarova/M.Shaughnessy vs. #2 C.Black/L.Huber

*MEN'S DOUBLES QF*
#1 B.Bryan/M.Bryan vs. #9 L.Dlouhy/P.Vizner
#4 F.Santoro/N.Zimonjic vs. I.Kunitsyn/D.Tursunov
#6 M.Knowles/D.Nestor vs. M.Kohlmann/R.Schuettler
M.Bhupathi/R.Stepanek vs. #2 J.Bjorkman/M.Mirnyi

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15-15...

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #1: Mixed Doubles QF - #6 K.Srebotnik(SLO)/N.Zimonjic(SRB) def. #1 L.Raymond(USA)/B.Bryan(USA) 6-4/7-6

...the first #1 seed has left the building.

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #2: Junior Girls 1st Rd. - Polona Hercog(SLO) def. #11 Kai-Chen Chang(TPE) 7-6/6-3

...Hercog won the first ITF junior event she entered. She couldn't possibly do the same in her first junior slam, could she?

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #3: Junior Girls 1st Rd. - Simona Halep(ROU) def. Alexa Glatch(USA) 6-1/4-6/7-5

...two of the better up-and-comers for their respective countries. As has been the case often of late, the Romanian proved victorious.

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #4: Junior Boys 1st Rd. - Kittipong Wachiramanowong(THA) def. Graeme Dyce(GBR) 4-6/7-6/6-4

...I'm including this one because of the name. I mean, how many people do you know named Dyce?

Of course, it's no "Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana," who lost on Day 9 to Aussie junior Andrew Thomas (which makes you wonder if the people who put together the RG draw had "balance" in mind when they matched up those two).

SCORELINE-OF-NOTE #5: Junior Girls 1st Rd. - Noppawan Lertcheewakarn(TPE) d. Mallory Cecil(USA) 6-4/7-5

...in this version of "The Name Game," it should be noted that Mallory could switch the order of her first and surname and place herself into the Boys draw.
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30-15...a 16-year old American girl won a $10K event in Houston this weekend. Her name is Asia Muhammad. If she ever becomes a top player, she's uniquely qualified to be the most famous player in the world, don't you think?
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40-15...


=QUARTERFINALS=
#1 Henin d. #8 S.Williams in 3 sets
...of course, Serena can never be underestimated. But this is Queen Justine. At Roland Garros. She HAS to win this one, right? Right?

#4 Jankovic d. #6 Vaidisova in 2 sets
...the Dynamova has been playing well despite her lack of match play heading into Paris, but she hasn't played anyone the likes of Jankovic yet. The winner gets the survivor of Justine/Serena.

#3 Kuznetsova d. #7 Ivanovic in 3 sets
...the Contessova has quietly been moving through the draw. With the other QF matchups on tap, she has a shot to do it again while avoiding the spotlight. But at least Roger is watching.

#9 Chakvetadze d. #2 Sharapova in 2 sets
...on any other surface, the pick would be the Supernova. But Sharapova nearly lost her last match, and has never been deeper in the draw in Paris than the QF. Plus, I picked Chakvetadze to reach the SF at the start of the tournament, so I'll stick with it. But if Anna, like Patty, can't handle the pressure...

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40-30...



=QUARTERFINALS=
J.Henin(1) def S.Williams(8)
...I think it could be a good match, but no way that on clay Serena can pull this one off, Justine's consistency will just be too much too handle.

J.Jankovic(4) def N.Vaidisova(6)
...tough match to pick because Vaidisova has not been tested, and that's the problem, I think it will be tough for her to lift her game enough

S.Kuznetsova(3) def A.Ivanovic(7)
...a surprise could happen but I'd frankly be a bit shocked if it happened. Ivanovic will need her A game against Kuznetsova who moves so well in Paris

M.Sharapova(2) def A.Chakvetadze(9)
...Not an easy one, and Anna C. cold pull this one off, in fact, she probably should, but for some reason, she does not seem to match very well against Maria

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MATCH, "I can see clearly now, 120 of the men are gone"...well, the QF are set, and it's time to start thinking about the significance of a possible Federer/Nadal meeting in the final. Federer would be going for the "RogerSlam," in which he'd be the title-holder in all four slams at the same time. He'd also be half-way to a true Grand Slam, the first by a man since Rod Laver in '69, with his two best slams still to come. A win by Nadal would mean he's 21-0 in his career at Roland Garros, and 3-for-3 in the tournaments-to-titles ratio. If they both make the final, it'd assure that either Federer or Nadal would have won all of the last nine slam titles. That's already more than half-way to the record held by the Evert/Navratilova combination, which won 15 straight slams from 1981-85, and 19-of-20 (a RG win by Roger or Rafa would be 11-of-12).
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TOP QUALIFIERS: Timea Bacsinszky & Ioana-Raluca Olaru
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Justine Henin
TOP MID-ROUND (3r-QF): (vacant)
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): (vacant)
=============================
FIRST SEED OUT: #31 Severine Bremond (1r- M.Krajicek)
UPSET QUEENS: Romanians
REVELATION LADIES: Italians
LAST QUALIFIERS STANDING: Dominika Cibulkova, Alla Kudryavtseva & Ioana-Raluca Olaru (all 3rd Rd.)
IT GIRL: (vacant)
MISS OPPORTUNITY: (vacant)
COMEBACK PLAYER: Patty Schnyder
DOUBLES STAR: (vacant)
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: (vacant)




All for Day 9.