Bottom half of quarterfinals set

Patty Schynder played outstanding tennis to get to the quarterfinals of the French Open

A talented Spaniard got a chance to show people how good she is; a sniffling, aching contender did it the hard way; a clay master showed her absolute best stuff; and a top contender skipped the croissants and served bagels for brunch.

Carla Suarez Navarro, a player most people have never heard of, is very at home on clay, and today, she took another clay specialist--Flavia Pennetta--out of the French Open. This is a match I really wanted to see, but alas, I was not prepared to rise at 4 a.m., so I missed it. The stats indicate that Suarez Navarro's serve was very much on, and that she was quite successful at the net.

Jelena Jankovic has had trouble with her right arm throughout this tournament. It was better, but now she says it's hurting a lot, and she has a wrap on it. She also had shoulder problems, which, I think, would account for her poor serving. Jankovic's serving has improved significantly of late, which is why I suspect the shoulder and arm--and not technique--caused the problem. Her opponent Agnieszka Radwanska, had a lot of difficulty with her serve also. And Jankovic, as usual, has some type of cold or allergy irritation, which is hampering her success. I saw only the last quarter of this match, but apparently, Jankovic had a good first set and opportunities to close out the second, but things went wrong, and she had to wait for a tiebreak to finally end the thing. It could have been worse--it could have gone to a third set.

Patty Schnyder, for her part, could not have played better in her first clay court meeting with Katarina Srebotnik. She used her swinging forehand to throw a lot of heavy topspin at Srebotnik, and her backhand was working very well, too. Schnyder was at her clay court best--changing the pace, hitting drop volleys and lobs, keeping topspin on the ball. Schnyder fans (and I'm one of them) know, however, that with Schnyder, such brilliance does not often occur two matches in a row. Patty has been in so many Tier I and Tier II finals, and has won so few of them. The talent is there; the head is not. Schnyder fans--hold on to the sides of your chairs: She plays Ivanovic in the quarterfinals.

That would be Ana Ivanovic, who beat Petra Cetkovska 6-0, 6-0 today. Cetkovska, ranked number 77 in the world, has some more positive memories to take from this French Open, however: She upset 23rd seed (and good clay court player) Alona Bondarenko in the first round, and defeated Galina Voskoboeva in the second round.

Suarez Navarro def. Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 6-2
Jelena Jankovic def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-3, 7-6
Patty Schnyder def. Katarina Srebotnik, 6-2, 6-4