French Open – Federer Continues; Kuznetsova Upsets Williams in Quarterfinals

World No.2 Roger Federer is just two victories away from obtaining the only Grand Slam title that he has never won in his entire professional career and if he wins, he will also tie the record that Pete Sampras currently has of 14 titles of major tournaments. After some regular participation in the last tournaments and after being defeated by Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, Federer is now working very hard to achieve one of his main goals for this year. He defeated Gael Monfils on Wednesday at the Roland Garros quarterfinals 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-2. As expected, the local Monfils was the crowd’s favorite, but Federer knew how to overcome that pressure and at the end he obtained the victory. Federer said that it was not an easy match for him; at the beginning, he said, maybe he took many risks and that is why the first set was kind of difficult for him to win because he was worried about Monfils forehand. For the second and third set he took everything with calm and with a very solid game he demonstrated why he is one of the best tennis players of the world. Federer has lost during the last three years the French Open final against Rafael Nadal, who was the four-time defending champion, but he is now out of the tournament since this time he was beaten by a surprising Robin Soderling in the fourth round. However, the tournament itself has not been very easy for Federer; most of the matches that he has played had been extended to four sets and the one against Tommy Haas was extended to five sets, were he had to overcome the two sets that he lost at the beginning. Nevertheless, this may be the best chance that the Swiss has had to complete his career Grand Slam, since his most fierce rivals – Nadal and Djokovic – are out, and the rest of the players remaining have negative records against him. “Doesn’t mean because I have a great record against all the players left in the draw that, you know, I’m going to win this,” Federer said, “but I’ll definitely try everything I possibly can to do it.” Federer will have to face Juan Martin Del Potro in the semifinals on Friday. As for the women’s singles, Serena Williams was defeated on Wednesday by the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets 7-6 (3), 5-7 and 7-5. Williams had a great opportunity to reach the semifinals when she took the lead 3-1 in the third set, but then it got lost when the Russian made a great comeback and end up the set winning 7-5. Serena blames the defeat on her nerves. She was seeking for her third consecutive major title and the 11th of her career at Roland Garros. For her part, Kuznetsova is looking for the second major title of her career; she had a breakdown on the second set but then he took all of the energy that she had and with a solid performance she sealed the victory with a defeat on the third set. The match that lasted almost three hours was a reminder of what had happened in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but backwards; this time Kuznetsova gave everything that she had and overcame the nerves and tension and the one left out was Williams. Kuznetsova will have to face Samantha Stosur from Australia in the semifinals on Thursday.