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NOTES ON A DRAW SHEET

Canas, Costa dampen marquee matchups
Women provide strong matches

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

FROM ROLAND GARROS – After two-time defending Gustavo Kuerten and No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt were bounced out of Roland Garros by the strong legged Albert Costa and Guillermo Canas, the top half of the men's draw lost much of it's marquee value outside or Southern Europe and Latin America. A Rocky Vl-Guga match would captured the world's attention, even those wonks who sometimes get pleasure more out of watching tired old wizards like Hicham Arazi school some middle-of-the-road 20-year-old on Court 17.

But Guga was too pooped to put up much of a fight against Costa and Lleyton doesn't quite believe in himself on the big points on clay. Who could have predicted that he would have let go of six set points in the second set against Canas, which would have given him a two sets to love leads and likely would have locked the match up for him? But Canas never seemed to lose much of his vigor and played a courageous match, chest-thumping with the Aussie Tarzan and never becoming intimidated by Hewitt's steely stares. It was a hell of a brawl that transformed Court Suzanne Lenglen into a dark back alley. There was racket tossing from both guys, a thrashing of red geraniums by Lleyton and plenty of sharp barks at the crowd.

CANAS: HEWITT IS 'A LITTLE TOUGH INSIDE THE COURT'
"I think he's a nice guy off the court but maybe is a little tough inside the court," said Canas. "But everybody knows this and I have no problem with him." Canas now has the look of a Grand Slam finalist and should be favored in his match against Costa, who played the Grand Slam match of his life in running over Guga but has never taken a leading role on the big stage. Both the Argentine and Spaniard look more like brawny World Cup defensemen that they do tennis players. But Canas has more flair and is a more inventive shotmaker.

"He's physically strong," Hewitt said. "He has a good chance [to win the title]. He is getting better and better with every match he plays." How about the other quarter between wiley vet Alex Corretja and the sometimes brilliant Romanian Andrei Pavel. The Romanian has been kicking serious butt here and really got into Tommy Haas's head on Sunday. The accomplished Alex will be a more severe test, but Pavel has more than enough weaponry to hurt the Spaniard should he keep head in the match.

Imagine a Pavel-Canas semifinal. Great on court theater for tennis aficionados, but you think NBC might try to pawn it off on the Home Shopping Channel?

Women provide strong matches
On to the women's quarters, which on paper shouldn't be very competitive matches. Venus-Seles should be the tightest contest, but only if Monica brings her A-Plus game: meaning she has to serve extremely well and bury her returns. Once the rallies get longer than six balls, you have to like Venus' chances.

Of Jennifer and Jelena Dokic, you'll see on Foxsports.com that Ms. Harwitt picked Jennifer in three, a very solid call. Jennifer says she loves to play Jelena, which means that she feels she can hang with her athletically and the Dokic offers few surprises in the strategy department. Much of this contest will be determined by who returns more effectively and who exhibits the most patience, because you know they can both rip the cover off the ball. If Jelena gets blown out, it may be time for her to start thinking about hiring a coach, because she does have the tools to extend Jennifer if she keeps her head in the match and possibly pull off an upset.

As I said on Fox today, Serena is substantially better than the rusty Mary Pierce at this stage and the only way that Mary will win the match is if Serena starts slow, lets Mary into the match and gets psyched out by the crowd. That remains a distinct possibility.

How may people outside of South American care about the Paola Suarez-Clarisa Fernandez match? Maybe not many, but we do. Suarez is a terrific fighter with unspetacular but solid strokes who took France's top three players en rout to this contest. Sure, French women have a tendency to gag, but out gutting Testud, Dechy and Mauresmo in Paris is a testimony to Suarez's ability to und erstand her circumstances. I'm not sold on Clarissa Fernandez's game yet -- she is certainly no Mary Joe. But given that the lanky lefty only starting playing tennis seriously at age 15, should could have a decent upside. But Paola is the queen of Argentine tennis right now and Clarisa must pay her respects.