Third seed Andre Agassi has been put out of the French Open by Sebastien Grosjean. Although Grosjean made a wretched start as he lost the opening set in just 20 minutes, the tenth seed turned the match on its head against in-form Agassi who suddenly collapsed to lose 12 of the next 14 games.
Within just 48 minutes, Grosjean went from being a set down to a set ahead as he won the second and third with ease 6-1 and he held his nerve to see off Agassi's challenge. "I was a bit nervous at the beginning," said 23-year-old Grosjean. "He was hitting great but then the fans started cheering louder for me and that encouraged me. That gave me a big boost. There was so much emotion out there."
Grosjean set up a match with Alex Corretja, who cruised through to the second French Open semi-final of his career this afternoon. The wily old fox of clay-court tennis proved too cunning for Swiss teenager Roger Federer, running out a comfortable straight sets winner 7-5 6-4 7-5 in two hours and 45 minutes. The 27-year-old Spaniard, who was runner-up at Roland Garros to Carlos Moya in 1998, was playing his fourth consecutive quarter-final and 19-year-old Federer struggled to cope with such experience.
The pair swapped service breaks and marathon rallies at will throughout the match, Corretja's ability to improvise with deft drop shots and a string of instinctive half-volley winners which was the difference between the players. Not even a short rain break with Corretja leading 3-2 in the third set could rescue Federer, the junior singles champion at Wimbledon three years ago and a player tipped by Boris Becker to become a tennis great.
At least the young Swiss went down fighting, battling back with a series of blistering backhands to break Corretja's serve in the 10th game when the Spaniard was serving for the match. Unfortunately, in a microcosm of the match, Federer then proceeded to lose his own service in the next game to allow Corretja, despite squandering three match points, to close out the clash with a rasping backhand down the line.
"It is a great victory for me," said Corretja. "Roger is an excellent player, he has improved a lot over the last month and I'm happy to be in the semis like 1998. I'm playing with confidence. I've won four matches in a row in three sets and that's important. I rested a lot at the beginning of the year and that is helping me play well now," he said.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
