The Final Five

Kudos to those readers who got my Battlestar Galactica reference! Anyway, we are into the round of 16 at the French OpenRoland Garros and there are, in additional the a bunch of Spanish guys and a lone Lithuanian, five Frenchman! Les Cinq Mousquetaires! A new dynasty dawns! Well, for the moment, at least, as Julien Benneteau gets Federer, and probably won't survive the encounter.

However, on balance, a great weekend for French tennis. I've watched some of the matches, the latest being Matheiu's win over Eduardo "Could Carillo Please Stop Making Fun of My Name?" Schwank, and I like the French players' combination of thinking man's clay court tennis and heart. They are competing as a collective expression of national character, but also for themselves. If the Americans--including the Williams sisters, who are both now out, and played most of their matches as if they were in pain--could achieve a similar synthesis, they might do better on the red dirt.

But hey, we still have Robby Ginepri!

Another thing worth noting is that the French guys, with one exception, the aforementioned Matheiu, all entered the tourney unseeded. It's just damned impressive, an expression of group will.

HOWEVER, if the draw shakes down as expected, we're still looking at Rafa and Jokerman in the bottom semi, which is a plus for Fed, as there's really no one left on his side who I see giving him a real fight, including Stepanek, who of course took the Swiss Superman out at Hamburg. If I'm the Roger, this pleases me, as a Jokerman/Rafa semi could be a real battle, draining the winner for the final.

Verdict: If Fed can play his cards right, despite the astounding quality of Nadal's play so far, he's got a very good chance to finally capture his one missing Slam.