Franco Squillari hung with Andre Agassi Monday, but in the end was sent to the showers with a five-set loss.
It wasn't the Davis Cup, but allegiances were obvious in a couple of fourth-round matches Monday.
France drew first blood against Spain as Sebastien Grosjean
beat Galo Blanco 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals for the
first time.
Grosjean took the
first two sets in 92 minutes and raced into a 4-0 lead with two
breaks in the third.
Spain got its revenge later in the day when Alex Corretja crushed Grosjean's countryman, Fabrice
Santoro, in straight sets.
Corretja, French Open runner-up in 1998, beat Santoro 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the quarters.
"It was my first match on Centre Court this year against a
Frenchman who had already beaten Greg Rusedski and Marat Safin,"
the Spaniard said. "I knew I had to be in top shape."
Russian Yevgeny
Kafelnikov says fate has decreed that he must face Gustavo
Kuerten in the French Open quarterfinals for the third time in
five years. And Kafelnikov has plenty to avenge.
The Russian lost a five-set thriller to the Brazilian top
seed in last year's quarterfinals and he also lost over five sets to
Kuerten in the final eight in 1997. Both years, Kuerten went on to win the title.
"It's our destiny," said Kafelnikov, who won the title at Roland Garros in 1996. "If it was written before the tournament that we have to
play in the quarterfinals there is nothing we can do to escape
from it."
Roger Federer's quarterfinal appearance marks only the fifth time that
a Swiss has survived to reach the final eight of a Grand Slam
and the first since Marc Rosset in 1996.
The only other Swiss players to see the quarterfinals of a Grand
Slam were Jakob Hlasek at the French in 1991 and Heinz
Gunthardt at the U.S. Open and
Wimbledon in 1985.
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Hewitt knocking 'em out
He runs up and down sand dunes to get in shape.
Before matches, he often listens to music from "Rocky" and even
calls himself Balboa on the court.
Lleyton Hewitt's intense, self-promotional style inspires some and rubs
others the wrong way. But no one can deny the 20-year-old Aussie is
steadily climbing to the top of the game.
He advanced to the French Open quarterfinals on Monday, finishing off a match against Guillermo Canas that took five sets -- and two days -- to complete.
But as well as he's playing, Hewitt rubs some the wrong way. He has drawn criticism for
his on-court vocabulary, and was fined $1,000 Monday for insulting
the umpire in his latest match, which was suspended for darkness on Sunday with Hewitt leading 4-2 in the fifth.
He returned to the court Monday and blew three match points at
5-2. He then closed out the match on his fifth match point for a
3-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 victory, completing his first-ever comeback from two sets down.
Hewitt beat a wild card and a qualifier in the first two rounds.
He won his third-round match against American rising star Andy
Roddick, when the American retired because of a thigh injury.
On Tuesday, he faces fourth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain,
by far his toughest matchup so far. Ferrero won the only time they
have played.
"I love competing," he says. "I love getting out there, I
want to win. That would have been the same in anything I did."
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Canine credentials: Even a dog can't get into the French Open without a pass.
Several of the women players brought their pet mutts to
Roland Garros for company, so organizers of the
tournament have provided canine credentials.
Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, three-time winner of the
French Open, aptly named her two pets Roland and Garros.
But it's been a dog's life for the dog owners this year.
Sanchez-Vicario went out in the first round, as did
Amelie Mauresmo of France and Venus Williams, who were both
accompanied to the Grand Slam event by their dogs Bob and Sofia.
Their early demise has left Venus's sister Serena
flying the flag for dog lovers.
"Her real name is Byla Jackie but everyone calls her
Jackie," said Serena of her Jack Russell.
The Williams sisters have a third dog, Pete, who they
left at home in the United States.
"Pete is usually the one that travels," she said. "Pete
has a broken heart right now."
Drink up: Wimbledon may have strawberries and cream, but where else
can you wash down your lunch with lashings of free Beaujolais?
In something of a tradition, journalists covering the
French Open can drink their fill of one of France's best
known reds.
One hundred bottles are laid on each day in the press
restaurant.
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ANDRE AGASSI
After five-set victory over Franco Squillari:
"I feel like I'm dancing out there."
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LLEYTON HEWITT
About completion of suspended match:
"It's a strange situation coming out and on my first service
game of the day all of a sudden I'm serving for the match in the
fifth set."
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SEBASTIEN GROSJEAN
After his 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Spain's Galo Blanco:
"At the end of the second set I think he kind of gave up."
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