Mixed doubles semifinals set

Top seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic will play the unseeded team of Zheng Jie and Mahesh Bhupati, and number 2 seeds Kveta Peschke and Pavel Visner will play number 3 seeds Victoria Azarenka and Bob Bryan tomorrow in the French Open mixed doubles semifinals. Srebotnik and Zimonjic, who won the tournament in 2006, were the finalists last year. They were defeated by Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram.

4 women standing (one just barely)

Two Russians and two Serbs will play one another in the 2008 French Open semifinals tomorrow. Dinara Safina, whose adrenal gland is working overtime, will compete against countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Ana Ivanovic will play Jelena Jankovic.

Head to head, Kuznetsova has a 4-3 lead over Safina, including a 3-1 lead on clay. Ivanovic holds a 5-1 lead over Jankovic, with a 1-0 lead on clay; however, the two have never before met on red clay.

Here are the tournament paths of the four semifinalists:

Safina def. Katyerina Bondarenko, Magdalena, Rybarikova, Zheng Jie, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva

Kuznetsova def. Aiko Nakamura, Vania King, Nadia Petrova, Victoria Azarenka, Kaia Kanepi

Ivanovic def. Sofia Arvidsson, Lucie Safarova, Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Cetkovska, Patty Schnyder

Jankovic def. Monica Niculescu, Marina Erakovic, Dominika Cibulkova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Carla Suarez Navarro

If Martina Navratilova were still playing doubles...

She would want Agnes Szavay to be her partner.

Warning: Watching Safina play tennis can raise your heart rate

Dinara Safina turns up the heat at a cooking demonstration--she's cooking in Paris, too

In Berlin, Dinara Safina came back from a set down in the third round to beat then-world number 1 Justine Henin. In the semifinals, she came back from a set down to defeat Serena Williams, and in the final, she came back from a set down to defeat Elena Dementieva. In the third round of the French Open, she kept the drama going by coming back from a 6-7, 2-5 near-defeat, and again, from a break down in the second set tiebreak, to beat Maria Sharapova.

I thought that the Sharapova match would be the thrills-and-chills highlight of the tournament, but Safina was not finished creating drama. Today, she appeared physically exhausted in her quarterfinal match against Elena Dementieva, and her shot selection was often less than intelligent. She lost the first set (of course) in a tiebreak, and was down 2-5 (again) in the second set. But when Dementieva served for the match, Safina broke her. She held, then broke Dementieva when she served for the match a second time. After saving a match point, Safina barely held it together in the next game, and then failed to capitalize on two set points in the tiebreak. She did win that tiebreak, though, with a crack backhand down the line.

The third set was all Safina. By this time, she was practically radiating adrenal energy, and she stopped playing Dementieva's game by changing the pace more and looping the ball, denying Dementieva the speedy balls she loves to hit. Dementieva made a variety of unforced errors, and--though she saved a couple of match points--the match was over.

According to the commentators on Radio Roland Garros, Safina is the first person in the Open era to save match points in two rounds. I don't know if that is a reference to the French Open only, or to all the majors.

The sometimes hot-headed Safina smacked her racquet on the court once, then--to keep from getting a penalty--smacked it on her shoes. And in possibly the first case of flower abuse in tennis history, she also used her racquet to shave the blooms off of several geraniums in a courtside flower box. The feisty Russian then picked the petals out of her racquet and carried on.

Zvonareva withdraws from Birmingham

Vera Zvonareva has withdrawn from the DFS Classic Birmingham. I do not know the reason for the withdrawal.

Kuznetsova into the French Open semifinals

Svetlana Kuznetsova moved to the semifinals of the French Open today

The first set of today's match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Kaia Kanepi was solid and very well-played by both contenders, but toward its end, it appeared that the heretofore cool Kanepi finally realized she was in the semifinal of a major. Her game broke down, allowing Kuznetsova to break her and take the set, 7-5. I did not get to see much of the play after that, but the match went true to form: An unexpected quarterfinalist fights hard for one set, and is then easily overwhelmed in the next set.

Getting to the quarterfinals is something for Kanepi to be really proud of, however. She has been knocking off some of the better players for a while now, and is someone worth watching.

Kuznetsova def. Kanepi, 7-5, 6-2

Black and Huber upset in Paris

Tenth seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual defeated top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber today, 6-4, 7-6.

In the other semifinal, unseeded Casey Dellacqua and Francesca Schiavone defeated Australian Open champions Alona Bondarenko and Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-2, 6-1. The Bondarenko sisters were seeded number 7 at the French Open.