FRENCH OPEN Three is Grand Slam record

Argentina is guaranteed to have a men's finalist.
PARIS (AP) -- Standing at the net as he smiled and waved to the crowd, David Nalbandian received a polite ovation for his impressive victory over Gustavo Kuerten in the French Open quarterfinals.
Then Kuerten rose from his chair for a curtain call, and fans responded with thunderous cheers for the popular Brazilian.
"It's not easy to play against Guga," Nalbandian said. "He's almost a local here."
Actually, it's Nalbandian and his Argentine compatriots who seem most at home this year on the Roland Garros clay. They'll fill three of the four slots in the men's semifinals, a Grand Slam record for Argentina.
Nalbandian can do the math.
"It's great for the country, whoever wins," he said. "We have a 75 percent chance."
With Nalbandian, Guillermo Coria and Gaston Gaudio playing Friday, their nation is at least assured of its first men's finalist at Roland Garros since Guillermo Vilas was the 1982 runner-up.
Nalbandian's opponent Friday will be the unseeded Gaudio, who advanced by beating No. 12 Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Nalbandian, seeded eighth, defeated three-time French Open champion Kuerten 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
The other semifinal will be between No. 3 Coria and No. 9 Tim Henman of Britain.
Argentine record
Three Spanish men made the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2002, but Argentina has never before advanced more than two men as far as the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam event.
"This is like a history event," Gaudio said. "Maybe an Argentinian guy is going to take the final, and it's going to be like a dream."
The last time that happened in a major event was in 1979, when Vilas earned the last of his four Grand Slam titles by winning the Australian Open.
Coria has been the most consistent player on clay over the past year, winning 36 of his past 37 matches on the surface that's most popular in his country. But among the Argentines, Nalbandian has enjoyed the most Grand Slam success.
He reached the 2002 Wimbledon final before losing to Lleyton Hewitt and advanced last year to the semifinals at the U.S. Open, where he held a match point before losing to Andy Roddick.
"Nalbandian -- he can play anywhere," Gaudio said.
Scrapper
Gaudio, like Coria, is a speedy scrapper who's better by far on clay. He's 13-5 at Roland Garros and 7-15 in other Grand Slam events.
Now 25, he considered quitting the sport when finances were tight during his early years on tour.
"Sometimes, there was no money to travel," he said. "Sometimes you had to stay in Europe for an extra month to wait for the next tournament. We couldn't go back home because we couldn't pay the airfare."
Playing in the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career, Gaudio rose to the occasion with a nearly flawless performance. He finished with 27 winners to just 19 errors against Hewitt, and even strayed from his comfort zone at the baseline to win 20 points at the net.
"I thought I was going to be really nervous," Gaudio said. "But, in fact, I was not at all."