2005 French Open News
By Alix Ramsay| May 30, 2005

Many players have come to Roland Garros and felt the wrath of the French crowd and, once it is over, they have left in tears and a taxi. Rafael Nadal, though, is not as other men and having taken on Sebastien Grosjean, 15,000raucous and patriotic spectators in the Philippe Chatrier stadium and an overnight rain delay, he stormed into the quarter finals of the French Open 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.

The match began on Sunday night in the dark and the dank and, for a set and a game, Nadal was all over Grosjean like a rash. And then, on break point in the opening game of the second set, everything changed. Grosjean was convinced that Nadal's forehand had sailed just long but he continued to play the point. Only when Nadal had put away a winner and broken the Frenchman did Grosjean start to complain.

Circling the mark where he thought Nadal's shot had landed, he marched over to Damian Steiner, the umpire, and demanded that he come down to inspect the evidence. Steiner was not playing ball and stayed in his chair, pointing out that Grosjean had continued to play so had not been distracted and that the break of serve stood. At which point all hell broke loose.

Grosjean refused to play on and insisted that Norbert Peick, one of the tournament supervisors come and sort out the confusion. Peick watched from afar as the crowd got in on the act, jeering, booing and whistling. Eventually Peick relented, spoke to Grosjean and persuaded him to resume the match.

Meanwhile, poor old Nadal waited patiently to serve. Delayed by almost 10 minutes, he fluffed his first attempt as the crowd erupted in rapturous applause. If Grosjean could not win the match by himself, they were more than willing to help. Nadal, unsurprisingly, lost his serve. After a valiant attempt to focus on the little man in the baseball cap in front of him and not his 15,000 best friends, Nadal dropped the second set.

"I was saying to myself: 'don't be stupid, get on with your job'," Nadal said. "You miss your first serve and everyone starts cheering, but in the third set I started to concentrate. The crowd yesterday didn't really behave as they should when they watch a tennis match. I've never seen anything like that in Spain but this is France. When the crowd got rowdy and started whistling, we should have gone to the locker room until they calmed down."

Finally Nadal got back into the groove in the third set but just as he had established a 3-0 lead, the rain and the dark called them off court. Back in action after a decent night's sleep, he showed Grosjean and the French exactly what he thought of them, rattling off the first four games and then laying into Grosjean with terrifying power. He may only be 18 years old and he may have been awfully alone on the Philippe Chatrier court, but Nadal was not going to take stick from anyone.

So now there is David Ferrer to deal with for a place in the semi finals. Ferrer ended Gaston Gaudio's run, beating the champion 2-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-4 while last year's runner up, Guillermo Coria, went out to Nikolay Davydenko 2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2. That Gaudio went out in the fourth round was no great surprise - no one, not even him, expected him to win last year. But that Coria capitulated to Davydenko came as something of a shock.

"I was never completely at ease in this match," Coria said. "He really pushed me all the time. It's not that I lost it because I was nervous or anything. I played as I could and he won."

Marat Safin, on the other hand, was pushed and did not win. He had Tommy Robredo where he wanted him - briefly - and then managed to lose 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 4-6, 8-6 when Robredo pushed a little harder than he did.

Maria Sharapova wasted no time in reaching the quarterfinals. Her match with Nuria Llagostera Vives (to name but a few) was held over from Sunday night due to rain. Sitting pretty at 6-2, 3-3 when play resumed on Monday morning, Sharapova allowed her Spanish rival just five more points as she sped into the last eight 6-2, 6-3. For those who thought the Wimbledon champion would be shown up on clay, Sharapova was happy to prove them wrong.

"I never thought I needed to prove anything to anyone," she said. "I think I'm getting better and better - I've said this before. If people underestimate me on clay then they'll be surprised."

Justine Henin-Hardenne has surprised her doubters by reaching the last eight. A sore nerve in her back and leg has left her unsure how much longer she can keep going without a little rest and recuperation and, taking 3.5 hours and another three dogged sets to get past Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 will not have helped. By rights, Kuznetsova should be in the last eight but a fragile nerve and a handful of missed chances cost her dear.

"I was seeing that she was very nervous," Henin-Hardenne said. "She was afraid to win the match, that was clear. And when you see that in the eyes of your opponent, that is very good for you."

With Sharapova and either Nadia Petrova or Ana Ivanovic, the 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 winner over Francesca Schiavone, standing between her and the final, the workload is not going to get any lighter, either.

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