Captain Spanner

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know I am not the only one who would have put good money on Robin Soderling absolutely collapsing into a heap after his monstrous win over Rafael Nadal. What is he about, going and demolishing Nikolay Davydenko in such a manner? I was all geared up for an awesome Kolya/Gonzo semi, and now Soderling has gone and chucked a spanner in the works. Hell, he is the spanner. The captain of spanners. This is epic craziness.

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Nonetheless, this is going to be a very, very interesting semi. If there's one player in the world that Soderling's not going to be able to overpower, I reckon it's Fernando Gonzalez. This could go two ways. Either a) Gonzalez becomes the next feather in Soderling's little Swedish cap, after falling victim to his big flat strokes, or b) Gonzalez smashes Soderling off the court. Prior to the Kolya quarter, I would have put a lot of money on b). Now I am SO not sure.

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Let's talk Gonzo for a moment, because this is clearly his best performance since the Aussie Open '07, when he was just supremely dominant - until he ran into the man who invented dominance in the final. I don't want to say he had similar wins to Soderling here, because it just isn't possible to pull a bigger upset than Rafa on clay, but he also knocked out Rafa and a number of pretty highly seeded players. Murray had no chance against him today - Gonzo pretty much blasted him off the court. But then, Murray is just not a claycourter - not at this stage of his career, at any rate. For him, getting to the quarter finals is a superlative achievement. He made it further than Rafa in Paris, and that is saying something.

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So, Soderling/Gonzalez. Not the semi anyone would have picked at the outset of this tournament. I wonder if anyone is going to be winning the bracket challenge this year.

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Over to the women, and after that first set, I was sure Dinara Safina was going to crumble and collapse. Azarenka, immature whinging little brat as she is, played an excellent first set and she had some fight going in the second as well. The Dinara Safina bakery was certainly closed for business today (though she did manage to rustle up Azarenka a croissant in the third set). Nice as it was for her to be cruising along in Supreme Dominance Land, I think it was probably good for her to have to really grit a match out - particularly in the absence of oncourt coaching, which has helped her through a lot of her tournaments so far. I think this experience will stand her in good stead.

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She'll face Dominika Cibulkova in the semi final. Now, I quite like diminutive Dominika, and, as we all remember, Dominika did beat Dinara in the final of the Hopman Cup. That said, I think this one is Dinara's to win or lose. I don't think Cibulkova is going to be quite as big a test as Azarenka was - and Dinara also has experience here as well. This is Cibulkova's biggest result at a Slam so far. I heard someone say that she might have to lose a semi before she can win one, and I think that's pretty sound.

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That said, she was awesome in her demolition of Sharapova. It's going to be a good match...

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Today's Results

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French Open (Roland Garros)

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Men's Draw

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Fernando Gonzalez def. Andy Murray, 6-3 3-6 6-0 6-4

Robin Soderling def. Nikolay Davydenko, 6-1 6-3 6-1

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Women's Draw

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Dinara Safina def. Victoria Azarenka, 1-6 6-4 6-2

Dominika Cibulkova def. Maria Sharapova, 6-0 6-2