Pauvre vous

Two years of french and half the family speaking it when I was a kid, probably doesn't make this correct, but my translation is "Poor You".  Number One, Caroline Wozniacki--OUT (early too), my favorite, Kim Clijsters--OUT (even earlier), former winner of the French, Kuznetsova--OUT (heartbreak--Bartoli was a monster in that match), Zvonareva--OUT, another of my favorites Jelena Jankovic--OUT (up a set and loses to Schiavone--now that was a heartbreaker), Azarenka--OUT, last year's finalist Sam Stosur--OUT (I was rooting for her--very solid Australian player) and now, today, Maria Sharapova--OUT.  Li Na looks good, but I don't like her chances against the huricane that is Schiavone, looking to win back to back French Opens.

However, I will be on an airplane when they play, so I probably won't see it.  Pauvre me!

On the men's side, the final four are the four top seeded players in tennis--that doesn't happen too often--especially at the French which is thought of as a more specialty surface.  Some of the lower overall seeds are much better on clay, and therefore usually knock out the higher seeds.  But not this year.  [They actually used a new type of tennis ball this year which bounces better and that may account for part of the difference--who knew tennis was so intriguingly complex.]

Andy Murray is not 100% (weird ankle strain) and has struggled so far.   Amazingly he was down two sets against Troicki, and came back against amazing odds to even it up and then they stopped for darkness and he had a real fight on his hands to win that final set.  I had never even heard of Troicki before.   Tomorrow Murray will face my baby Rafa Nadal (also not 100%).  Rafa had an amazingly difficult first round match against John Isner and he was almost eliminated.  It went five sets and when he won, he celebrated as though he had won the whole thing--that's how close it was.

Whereas, Roger Fedderer has not dropped a set.  He's in fine form, though a little worn around the edges.  He beat Monfils in straight sets, but he didn't look all that composed doing it.  [OH, Monfils--his match against Ferrer was amazing and astounding and I forgot all the other wonderful expressive words that I'm learning from the Tennis channel (their commentators are not very good, but they do mix up those impressive, expressive words).  I knew that David Ferrer would not be an easy match for anyone and I knew that Monfils had the chops, but what an awesome athlete.]  Roger will face Noli tomorrow.

Novak Djokovic has done something this year that we haven't seen in some time.  He has not lost a match all year (he won the Australian Open).  He's only lost one set so far and that was against Juan Martin Del Potro, who two years ago was in the finals.  Del Po is no slouch and that should have been a much tougher match for Djokovic, but he really made it look easy.  And he beat Gasquet (another very fine player who should have given him trouble) without breaking a sweat.  He is looking unbeatable.  I don't think Roger stands a chance and I'm kind of worried about my Rafa Nadal as well.

Murray has yet to win a major and he certainly has the skills.  Roger is Roger, so he certainly has to be a real posibility.  Nadal is going for a record fifth French open title.  He's only lost ONE match at the French in his entire career (against Soderling two years ago--yesterday he wiped the floor with Soderling--it was nice to see Soderling lose so completely--ok, he rallied in the third set, but Rafa kicked some Soderling behind.).  And then there is Noli Djokovic.  He has the calm presence and confidence of a man who is playing the best tennis of his career right now.  He's 100% healthy and his skills are top notch.  I hate to say it, but I think he can take Nadal this year.

I'll be in Australia for the men's finals.  Wish me luck in finding tv coverage.  Otherwise, I'll be in a coffee shop trying to get a radio feed on my computer over the internet.  Pauvre me.