RG.13- It Depends on What the Definition of "Is" Is

While the women have produced a few back-from-the-dead thrillers, the men's side hasn't exactly "popped" in Paris.

Of course, that means we get another Roger vs. Rafa final. So why worry?

With Rafael Nadal's straight sets SF win over Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer's four-setter over Frenchman Gael Monfilson Day Thirteen, this Sunday we'll get the fifth grand slam final matchup over the past three seasons between the world's two best players.

It's been a long and winding season for both men, with neither getting into the champion's column in' 08 until the clay court season began. While Nadal's slowly-building year wasn't highlighted, Federer's was used as evidence to prove that his days of dominance might be over.

Not so fast. Whether it was the bout with mono that slowed Federer in the early months of the season, or the loss of conditioning that caused him to be not quite up to snuff, he seems to have found his footing in Europe during the clay season.

While he'll be a tremendous underdog against Nadal in the final (the Spaniard has yet to lose a set, and really hasn't even been truly challenged on that front, either), Federer seems to be right on schedule for his usual summer run. He's come close in two clay losses to Nadal in Monte Carlo (7-5/7-5) and Hamburg (7-5/6-7/6-3), grabbing big leads only to be unable to put his opponent away. 2008 isn't likely the year Federer completes the career Grand Slam, but it still could be the season he ties Pete Sampras on the all-time slam title list. He needs two, and he's surely looking good for Wimbledon with his recent form, and will surely be in the mix (with Djokovic, and maybe Andy Roddick) in New York... unless he wrings himself out trying to claim an elusive Gold in Beijing just weeks before the US Open.

The opening months of 2008 weren't a call for an epitaph to be written for Federer's position in the game. In fact, they could turn out to be the natural calm before the continuation of the storm. Come September, we could still be seeing Pete Sampras joining Federer on the court at Arthur Ashe as the "co-grand slam champions of all-time."

Federer still IS the best in the world. Will his dominance ever again go nearly unquestioned as it so often has in recent seasons? Probably not... but it might depend on what your definition of "is" is.

Of course, winning in Paris against Nadal is another story.



=DAY 13 NOTES=
...one final women's semifinal postscript. Here's what Jelena Jankovic said after her loss to Ana Ivanovic: "I let it slip away. I will have some dinner and maybe get drunk."

...the first champions of this Roland Garros were crowned when #3-seeded Victoria Azarenka and Bob Bryan defeated top-seeded Katarina Srebotnik & Nenad Zimonjic in the Mixed Doubles final. It's Azarenka's second career slam Mixed title, having won at the US Open last season with Max Mirnyi.

...late in the day, Anabel Medina-Garrigues and Virginia Ruano-Pascaul knocked off Casey Dellacqua and Francesca Schiavone in the Women's Doubles final. It was AMG's first career slam crown, and VRP's tenth. Ruano-Pascual won eight previous slam doubles titles with Paola Suarez, four of them at RG in '01, '02, '04 and '05. The duo also reached the RG final in '00 and '03.

...#12-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz, a RU in last year's US Open Boys competition, will face Taiwan's Yang Tsung-Hua in the Roland Garros Boys Singles final. Yang was the Boys RU in Melbourne in January.

...THE BOGDAN WATCH: the BW will continue for one more round! A pair of Romanians, #10-seeded Elena Bogdan and #9-seeded Simona Halep will face off for the Girls Singles title. Halep knocked #2-seeded Arantxa Rus, the Oz Girls champ, in straight sets. This means that for the third time in five seasons the RG Girls RU will be a Romanian (Madalina Gojnea in '04 and Ioana-Raluca Olaru in '05), but this time so will the champion. Beware the Swarm.

...and, finally, we'll find out tomorrow just how many lives the Russian Cat named Dinara actually has. While AnaIvo has been edging up to the moment where she can grab her first slam title since she appeared in the RG final a year ago, Safina's current 12-match winning streak over her last two tournaments has accounted for more wins than she had in her previous nine events (plus Fed Cup play) combined in '08.

The Russian is on a great roll, remember but she should have already lost twice this past week. It's tempting to pick the #13-seed to get a thirteenth straight victory, but I'm thinking her luck has to run out at some point, right? Even a devil-may-care attitude has an expiration date. I'm going to go with the thought that the winner of the match is going to do so in straight sets, so the champion will be whoever takes the 1st set. Ummm... I'll go with AnaIvo, with either a late break or in a tie-break, and then confidently washing over Safina in the 2nd.

As for the men, with the way Rafa has been playing, even with Federer's close matches with him a few weeks ago, it's hard to envision Nadal taking a step back now and not claiming a fourth straight RG title. The bigger question is whether he'll take the crown without dropping a set. I'll say yes, but two of the three sets on Sunday will be decided by one break or by a point or two in a tie-break.



*WOMEN'S FINAL*
#2 Ana Ivanovic/SRB vs. #13 Dinara Safina/RUS
*MEN'S FINAL*
#1 Roger Federer/SUI vs. #2 Rafael Nadal/ESP
*WOMEN'S DOUBLES FINAL*
#10 Medina-Garrigues/Ruano-Pascual (ESP/ESP) def. Dellacqua/Schiavone (AUS/ITA) 2-6/7-5/6-4
*MIXED DOUBLES FINAL*
#3 Azarenka/B.Bryan (BLR/USA) def. #1 Srebotnik/Zimonjic (SLO/SRB) 6-2/7-6
*MEN'S DOUBLES FINAL*
Cuevas/Horna (BRA/PER) vs. #2 Nestor/Zimonjic (CAN/SRB)
*GIRLS SINGLES FINAL*
#10 Elena Bogdan/ROU vs. #9 Simona Halep/ROU
*BOYS SINGLES FINAL*
#12 Jerzy Janowicz/POL vs. Yang Tsung-Hua/TPE
*GIRLS DOUBLES FINAL*
#8 Hercog/Moore (SLO/AUS) vs. #7 Kerkhova/Rus (NED/NED)
*BOYS DOUBLES FINAL*
Kontinen/Rungkat (FIN/INA) vs. Brunken/Reid (GER/AUS)



*GRAND SLAM FINALS - ACTIVE*
15...ROGER FEDERER (12-2)
6...RAFAEL NADAL (3-2)
4...Marat Safin (2-2)
4...Lleyton Hewitt (2-2)
4....Andy Roddick (1-3)

*CAREER SLAM S/D TITLES - ACTIVE*
12...Roger Federer
10...Mahesh Bhupathi
9...Jonas Bjorkman
9...Leander Paes
9...BOB BRYAN
7...Mike Bryan
7...Max Mirnyi

*MOST ATP MATCHUPS IN FINALS*
20...Ivan Lendl vs. John McEnroe
16...Andre Agassi vs. Pete Sampras
16...Boris Becker vs. Stefan Edberg
15...Jimmy Connors vs. John McEnroe
13...ROGER FEDERER vs. RAFAEL NADAL
13...Boris Becker vs. Ivan Lendl
12...Bjorn Borg vs. Jimmy Connors

*2008 ATP FINALS*
6...RAFAEL NADAL (3-2)
4...ROGER FEDERER (1-2)
3...Novak Djokovic (3-0)
3...Nikolay Davydenko (2-1)
3...Nicolas Almagro (2-1)

*ROGER vs. RAFA IN SLAM FINALS*
06 RG - Nadal 1-6/6-1/6-4/7-6
06 WI - Federer 6-0/7-6/6-7/6-3
07 RG - Nadal 6-3/4-6/6-3/6-4
07 WI - Federer 7-6/4-6/7-6/2-6/6-2
08 RG - ??



*ROLAND GARROS GIRLS FINALS*
2000 Virginie Razzano def. Maria-Emilia Salerni
2001 Kaia Kanepi def. Svetlana Kuznetsova
2002 Angelique Widjaja def. Ashley Harkleroad
2003 Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Vera Dushevina
2004 Sesil Karatantcheva def. Madalina Gojnea
2005 Agnes Szavay def. Ioana-Raluca Olaru
2006 Agnieszka Radwanska def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
2007 Alize Cornet def. Mariana Duque-Marino
2008 SIMONA HALEP vs. ELENA BOGDAN

*CAREER SLAM S/D TITLES - ACTIVE*
16...Serena Williams (8/8)
14...Venus Williams (6/8)
10...VIRGINIA RUANO-PASCUAL (0/10)
9...Lisa Raymond (0/9)
6...Cara Black (0/6)
6...Lindsay Davenport (3/3)
6...Rennae Stubbs (0/6)

*ROLAND GARROS MIXED DOUBLES CHAMPS*
2004 Tatiana Golovin/Richard Gasquet
2005 Daniela Hantuchova/Fabrice Santoro
2006 Katarina Srebotnik/Nenad Zimonjic
2007 Nathalie Dechy/Andy Ram
2008 Victoria Azarenka/Bob Bryan

*ROLAND GARROS WOMEN'S DOUBLES CHAMPS*
2001 Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez
2002 Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez
2003 Kim Clijsters/Ai Sugiyama
2004 Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez
2005 Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez
2006 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur
2007 Alicia Molik/Mara Santangelo
2008 Anabel Medina-Garrigues/Virginia Ruano-Pascual

*RECENT "DOUBLES STARS" WINNERS*
07 AO - Liezel Huber, RSA
07 RG - Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
07 WI - Cara Black, ZIM
07 US - Nathalie Dechy, FRA
08 AO - Alona & Kateryna Bondarenko, UKR
08 RG - A.Medina-Garrigues & V.Ruano-Pascual, ESP




TOP QUALIFIERS: Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez/ESP & Yanina Wickmayer/BEL
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Ana Ivanovic/SRB
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): Ana Ivanovic/SRB
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): xxx
TOP EARLY RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 1st- Sharapova d. Rodina 6-1/3-6/8-6
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): 4th- Safina d. Sharapova 6-7/7-6/6-2 [Shar. 2 MP]
TOP LATE RD. MATCH (SF-F): xxx
=============================
FIRST SEED OUT: #15 Nicole Vaidisova/CZE (1st-Benesova)
UPSET QUEENS: The Czechs
REVELATION LADIES: The Czechs
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Carla Suarez-Navarro/ESP (QF)
IT GIRL: Dinara Safina/RUS
MADEMOISELLE OPPORTUNITY: xxx
COMEBACK PLAYER: Elena Dementieva/RUS
CRASH & BURN: Serena Williams/USA (3r- lost to Srebotnik)
ZOMBIE QUEENS: Maria Sharapova/RUS [2 pts.. from 1st Rd. loss]
Dinara Safina/RUS [came back from 2 MP down in both 4th Rd. & QF]
LAST PASTRIES STANDING: Alize Cornet & Emilie Loit (both 3rd Rd.)
DOUBLES STARS Anabel Medina-Garrigues & Virginia Ruano-Pascual, ESP/ESP
JUNIOR BREAKOUTS: Simona Halep/ROU & Elena Bogdan/ROU





All for Day 13. More tomorrow.