Justine Henin-Hardenne beat a visibly nervous Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 on Saturday to win the French Open, capping a remarkable comeback from a blood virus with her fourth grand-slam title and her second at Roland Garros. It was the most lopsided major final since Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 to win the French Open in 1988.
As a teen prodigy, Rafael Nadal’s achievements match or surpass those of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Mats Wilander, suggesting that his first grand-slam title is unlikely to be his last. Few expect 19-year-old Nadal to become a one-slam wonder. He’s too big and strong, too cool and creative, too pugnacious and precocious.
Former champions Mary Pierce and Justine Henin-Hardenne will contest the first-ever Franco-Belgian French Open women’s singles final after both recorded easy victories in Thursday’s semifinals. The champion in 2000 and 21st seed, Pierce defeated 16th-seeded Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-1 in just 58 minutes.
Justine Henin-Hardenne’s impressive recovery from illness and injury continued on Thursday when a 6-2, 6-3 win over outclassed Russian Nadia Petrova put her within touching distance of a second French Open title. For the Belgian 10th seed, the 2003 champion, it was her 23rd successive win.
Nikolay Davydenko celebrated his 24th birthday a day early on Wednesday when he reached his first grand-slam semifinal with a dramatic 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Spain’s Tommy Robredo in a marathon French Open last-eight clash. The 12th-seeded Russian will now face Argentina’s unseeded Mariano Puerta.
Built like a boxer rather than a tennis player, Rafael Nadal is listed at 74kg in the annual ATP Tour media guide but actually weighs nearly 86kg. Just a growing boy, the Mallorcan says his muscular physique isn’t the result of any secret Mediterranean diet.
Mariano Puerta advanced to a grand-slam semifinal for the first time in his nine-year career on Wednesday by beating fellow Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-2, 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the French Open. Three-time grand-slam champion Justine Henin-Hardenne is the heavy favourite in the women’s final four.
Mary Pierce took a moment to absorb what was happening on centre court, because she knew that one day it would make a beautiful memory. The crowd was chanting ”Ma-ry”. She was beating top-ranked Lindsay Davenport in the French Open quarterfinals. And all the while, she felt some magic was on her side.
France on Monday unveiled five new faces in a 28-strong squad for the three-Test tour of South Africa and Australia from June 12 to July 4. Deprived of 101-time capped skipper Fabien Pelous, the team will have two co-captains in Biarritz duo Jerome Thion and Dimitri Yachvili.
Frustrated with his play, Marat Safin said he did what any normal person would do: He whacked his changeover chair with his racket, leaving a gaping hole in the wooden base. ”I destroyed the chair, I destroyed the racket because I couldn’t take it anymore,” said Safin, who lost his fourth-round match on Monday at the French Open — but not without putting on a show.
Argentinian duo Gaston Gaudio and Guillermo Coria saw their 2005 Roland Garros dreams come crashing down in the fourth round on Monday. Teen sensation Rafael Nadal swept past the challenge of French hope Sebastien Grosjean; Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Svetlana Kuznetsova; and Maria Sharapova beat Nuria Llagostera Vives.
Veteran grand-slam queens Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce battled through to a French Open quarterfinal showdown on Sunday, but Bulgarian 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva gave notice that the clock is ticking on the old-timers. Men’s top seed Roger Federer eased into the quarterfinals for the first time in four years.
Umpires have been taking plenty of verbal abuse at the French Open. Damien Steiner of Argentina, the chair umpire for the match on Sunday between Rafael Nadal and Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, was jeered long and loudly, first by Grosjean, then by the centre court crowd.
Amelie Mauresmo saw her French Open hopes go up in flames once again on Saturday on a bad day for the home fans. Mauresmo lost 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 to 17-year-old Serb Ana Ivanovic in a centre-court stunner as three other French women were sent packing from the third round. Meanwhile, the Russians were on a roll.
Venus Williams did plenty to beat herself, and 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva took care of the rest. The young Bulgarian upset an erratic Williams 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 on Friday in the third round of the French Open. Lindsay Davenport survived her toughest test yet and beat unseeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal won the battle of the boy wonders in the French Open on Friday, dispatching home hope Richard Gasquet in straight sets to reach the last 16. The fourth seed won comfortably 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to set up a tie against either France’s Sebastien Grosjean or Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic
Top seeds Roger Federer and Lindsay Davenport took huge steps towards claiming first French Open titles on Friday as Roland Garros eagerly awaited the teenage duel between Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet. Federer survived a blistering first-set assault by Chilean 25th seed Fernando Gonzalez.
Andy Roddick failed to make it through the opening week at the French Open for the fifth time in as many tries, blowing a two-set advantage on Thursday and a fifth-set lead against Argentine Jose Acasuso. Roddick was broken twice after going ahead 3-1 in the last set and lost 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 8-6.
Justine Henin-Hardenne’s latest ailment failed to slow her down on Thursday at the French Open. The tournament favourite and 2003 champion advanced to the third round by beating Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-1, 6-4. Maria Sharapova, seeded second, committed just 13 unforced errors and beat 18-year-old Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai 6-3, 6-2.
Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet set up a dream French Open third-round showdown as teenage talent threatened to sweep the old guard out of Roland Garros on Wednesday. Top seed Roger Federer, bidding to win the only grand slam to have eluded him, moved ominously into the third round.
Triple champion Gustavo Kuerten, still recovering from the effects of two hip operations, slumped to his worst defeat in 10 years at Roland Garros on Tuesday when he was dumped out of the first round of the French Open. The 28-year-old Brazilian was the champion in Paris in 1997, 2000 and 2001.
Grand-slam record-setter Andre Agassi insists his shattering, injury-hit French Open first-round defeat will not rush him into retirement. The 35-year-old says he fully intends to play Wimbledon and the United States Open this year, even if he has to undergo more cortisone injections to dull the crippling pain he endured on Tuesday.
Andre Agassi’s record 58th grand slam appearance ended in a shattering first-round defeat at the French Open on Tuesday, the loss surely marking the final act of the 35-year-old American’s Roland Garros adventure. Dominant at the start and shaky at the finish, Justine Henin-Hardenne won her first-round match on Tuesday.
Russia’s Anastasia Myskina wrote herself an unwanted chapter in the Roland Garros record books on Monday when she became the first defending champion in history to crash out in the first round. There were no such dramatics in the men’s first round where Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Gaston Gaudio and Tim Henman all won in straight sets.
World number one Roger Federer of Switzerland cruised into the second round of the French Open on Monday with a straight-sets win over Israeli qualifier Dudi Sela. Rafael Nadal’s dream of becoming the first man in 23 years to win the French Open on his debut got off to a flying start on Monday with an impressive first-round win.
Amelie Mauresmo has tried to play down the Yannick Noah effect as she sets her sights on breaking her Roland Garros jinx at the French Open, which gets under way on Monday. Mauresmo has been touted as a potential winner in Paris since she burst on to the scene at the Australian Open in 1999.
The Child, a Belgian drama about a petty thief who sells his baby son, won the Cannes film festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or on Saturday at a red-carpet ceremony. The movie, by director brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, triumphed over a field of 20 other pictures by a veteran pack of filmmakers.
Marat Safin has been voted the sexiest man in tennis, but it’s success at the French Open he really craves as he desperately tries to pull his season out of a depressing tailspin. His second career grand-slam victory at the Australian Open in January has been the only highlight of what has become a wretched 2005.
Roger Federer’s campaign to become only the sixth man to win all four grand slams faces another gruelling examination at the French Open, a tournament where his mediocre record shames his standing as one of the greatest players of all time. In six visits to the French Open, Federer has never got beyond the quarterfinals.
Côte d’Ivoire’s main opposition parties signed a deal in Paris on Wednesday ahead of general elections later this year, an alliance that will see them govern together should they defeat President Laurent Gbagbo. The agreement formalises an alliance born last year at talks in Ghana, aiming to jumpstart the moribund Ivorian peace process.
A tiny Canadian shrub is the quickest-moving thing in the plant world, using a catapult mechanism to eject its pollen at a speed hundreds of times faster than a launched rocket, scientists have found. The plant, bunchberry dogwood, grows in thick carpets in the vast swampy, spruce-fir forests of the North American taiga.
The French national assembly launched a campaign on Tuesday to raise pay for women, who despite laws dating back to the early 1970s still earn on average 25% less than their male counterparts. ”This gulf is unacceptable morally and it is unacceptable economically,” the state secretary for equality, Nicole Ameline, told Parliament.