Minus Nadal, Federer closes in on French title

June 4, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

FRENCH OPEN/ News and notes

Twisted ankle: This time, Svetlana Kuznetsova wasn’t going to let Serena Williams get away. Despite twisting an ankle and covering herself in red clay in the second set, the seventh-seeded Kuznetsova rallied to beat Williams in the quarterfinals of the French Open, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5. Quite the opposite from the same round at the Australian Open in January, when Kuznetsova again won the first set and blew a 5-3 lead in the second. That time, Williams went on to win the tournament. “It was same scenario,” Kuznetsova said. “I was pushing myself to fight, and still she was [a] break up. With her, it’s a big difference. She started to serve great, and I’m very proud that I push myself and I could fight still for the third set.” After saving a set point in the first set, Kuznetsova led 4-2 serving in the second. As she was going for a ball, she turned her right ankle and fell to the court. When she got up, the back of her clothes were covered in clay, and she even had dirt in her hair and had smudged on her forehead. Kuznetsova was unsure at first whether she had hurt herself.

Seeing doubles: With Serena Williams’ loss, no Americans are left in singles at the French Open, but three U.S. players will compete in the mixed doubles final. The all-American team of Liezel Huber and Bob Bryan, seeded No. 1, won its semifinal match against Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, 6-2, 6-2. In the other semifinal, unseeded Vania King of the United States and Marcelo Melo of Brazil beat No. 4-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 tiebreaker. The top-seeded women’s doubles team of Huber and Cara Black of Zimbabwe lost to No. 3-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in a semifinal match. The 12th-seeded duo of Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Elena Vesnina of Russia beat Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China, 6-3, 7-5 in the other semifinal.

Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Roger Federer knows it.

So does everyone else.

And they all keep telling him — fellow diners at restaurants, passers-by on the street, people who hop out of cars at red lights and ask for an autograph.

“Everybody,” Federer said, “is like, ’This is your year. You’ve got to do it.’ ”

By beating 11th-seeded Gael Monfils of France 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-4 Wednesday, Federer moved into the French Open semifinals for the fifth consecutive time.

There is one significant difference in 2009: Rafael Nadal is not around to prevent Federer from claiming the only Grand Slam singles title he’s never won.

Federer lost to Nadal in the past three French Open finals, and in the semifinals the year before that. Put another way: Since the start of the 2005 French Open, Federer is 0-4 against Nadal at Roland Garros, 28-0 against everyone else.

“Roger is respected,” Monfils said. “People want Roger to win for the first time here.”

Even other players.

“Everybody wants Roger to win this tournament,” said No. 5-seeded Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who eliminated No. 16 Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the last quarterfinal. “If I can’t win this tournament, I want to see, next Sunday, Roger with the trophy.”

There is plenty on the line for Federer over the coming days.

If he can get past del Potro in Friday’s semifinals, then defeat No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez or No. 23 Robin Soderling — the man who knocked off Nadal — in Sunday’s final, it would make Federer only the sixth man in history with a career Grand Slam.

It also would give Federer a 14th major singles title, tying him with Pete Sampras for the most in history.

While the top-seeded Nadal’s exit, and those of No. 3 Andy Murray and No. 4 Novak Djokovic, made Federer’s path to the title easier, the pressure to finally win at Roland Garros has increased, too.

The second-seeded Federer thought about that before facing Monfils.

“It’s also one of the reasons why I was nervous going into this match, because the whole stories of Nadal losing, Murray losing, Djokovic losing, maybe opening up the draw a little bit — obviously, they also play with my mind,” Federer said.

Perhaps. But after three consecutive so-so performances, Federer was challenged only fleetingly by Monfils en route to reaching the semifinals at a 20th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, extending his record.

Federer faced two break points in the opening game of the match, and another at 5-5 in the first set — but saved each of them.

Then, in the tiebreaker, Monfils held a set point at 6-5, but again Federer held steady, and the Frenchman sent a backhand wide to make it 6-all. Two points later — a service winner and a volley winner by Federer — the set was over, and so, essentially, was the match.

“Everything just started to click,” Federer said.