It's Not All About Serena's Diamond-Studded NavEl

Warriors: Come out and play
Santoro, Ferrero, Navratilova, Capriati will die trying

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA

Serena showed off a diamond in the navel while Jennifer showed off determination in the gut.

FROM ROLAND GARROS – Roland Garros has always been the tournament where gladiator-type battles are as common as Jennifer Capriati's '70s style bandana, but there may never be another first Tuesday like May 25, 2004.

Today, Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement broke a record and played until the bottom of their shoes fell off; defending champ Juan Carlos Ferrero sucked in a cortisone injection into his bruised ribs and courageously chopped down Tommy Haas; Martina Navratilova skinned her knees and didn't make a fool out of upper-middle-aged population in her straight loss to Gisela Dulko; and Capriati played Xena the Warrior Princess once again and came from 0-3 down in third set to cool off the red hot Yulia Beygelzimer.

Serena 'Is Bursting Out All Over' Williams wore her "it's-springtime-for-fuscia-in-Paris" outfit and may have stolen many leering glances. But, her impressive win over Iveta Benasova was barely a footnote of the day, as was Venus Williams' ankle-aching victory over Tamarine Tanasugarn, Roger Federer's nearly perfect display and Lleyton Hewitt's survival in his 2003 place of death, the Bull Ring, against Arnaud Di Pasquale.

It began with the quirky Santoro and the flashy Clement, whose match had been interrupted due to fading light at 9:30 p.m. on Monday evening with the score at 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(4), 3-6, 5-5. They went back on Suzanne Lenglen Court on Tuesday morning with many folks expecting the contest to end within a half-hour or so. But that was not to be and the two soared straight into record books, when the contest finally ended 16-14 in the fifth for Santoro, a 6-hours, 33-minute battle royal in what is now the longest match in the Open era. From 5-5, The two compatriots, dove, sweated, gasped and whizzed winners for an hour and 54 minutes on Tuesday and no one wanted the contest to end.

Santoro fought off two match points – one on Monday, another on Tuesday. He kept chopping two-handed forehands, charging the net, playing sharp angles and not backing off even when Clement left him staring at laser shots down the lines. The crowd was memorized, as 'Battling Fab' and 'La Clé' kept punching at each other.

Then, on old man Santoro's first match point, he blitzed a backhand, down-the-line winner and slipped to his back in a exhausted, emotional celebration, eventually sobbing hard into a towel.

The man who France had almost forgot and had been booted off the Davis Cup team had risen again, wearing the new moniker of "Fabrice the Lion-Hearted." "You have to be brave," Santoro said. "It takes courage and will."

Serena and Venus weren't off the court in a flash, but were on court long enough for Serena to forget her emotionally devastating loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semis last year. She wore a 'can't miss" two-piece and as Venus later said, whatever she wears, "You can't miss Serena."

Even her great rival Capriati tipped her ponytail to her, saying that although it's not exactly her style (she wore a red bandanna she bought off a street vendor on court). "You got to give her credit for being confident, really wearing what she wants to wear and not caring what anyone says," Jen said of Serena.

Neither Venus nor Serena missed enough ball to be seriously threatened, but Martina Navratilova did.

MARTINA IS A MARVEL, BUT NOT A DOMINATOR
The 47-year-old ran and ran, sliced, diced, fell on her fanny, recklessly charged the net and was thoroughly beaten by the petite Argentine Gisela Dulko. In many ways, it was a lousy match-up for Navratilova, who may have been better off playing a star-struck basher in the mid-20s range, not a cagey player who was only in third grade the last time that Navratilova struck a ball here. Dulko likely has not real memories of the dominant Martina.

Dulko may have a large collection of tennis videos at home, but Navratilova was unable to rewind the tape to the time when she could knife a deep approach shot and climb all over the net. She simply can't hit the ball hard enough to take down the consistent baseliners, who pass her at will. She tried every trick in her bag, but her sack is pockmarked with holes now. She was willing to tear her body up and fight like an enraged bull on Court One, but Dulko was quite patient, waited until Martina's head hung close to the earth and slayed her at the appropriate time.

Don't count Navratilova out of doing a psyche and volley routine at Wimbledon and grabbing a couple matches on her beloved grass. However, as willing as she is to battle, she did not, as she said, show on Tuesday that she can play Top-120 tennis.

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Ferrero's sliding out-stretched Haas' strokes.

When you have a set of bruised rib on your right side, it is extremely painful to try and stretch out for a serve and forehand. The right-handed Ferrero looked quite uncomfortable in the first set of his four-set win over Tommy Haas, but defending this title means more to him than anything in the world. Once he began to "feel" his forehand and get his feet set in the second set, the Spaniard looked like last year's champ, very quick of foot and imposing his deep, flying attack from all angles of the court.

He made a huge statement as to how hard it will be to take the trophy from him and everyone on his side of the draw, including '02 champ Albert Costa, who he's likely to meet in the quarters. Add in Federer, who if he plays the way he did in crushing Belgium's Kristof Vliegen 6-1 6-2 6-1, is sure to reach the semis. A cage match between those two would be very appropriate.

SHOWING GUTS, NOT A NAVEL
Capriati was in deep, deep trouble against Ukrainian Yulia Beygelsimer, a 20-year-old who was slapping low-flying forehand winners all over the place. But Capriati knows that inexperienced players often can't "tree" until the end of the match, and ran side to side retrieving blasts until she began to force the action right back. The crowd was with the underdog (Capriati called them "finical," a brilliant combination of the words "finicky" and "fickle" that must immediately be considered by Webster's for its next edition). Jennifer told them to "Shut up!" and the American pumped herself up.

While this '01 champ doesn't win every battle, she loves being involved in them and against a player who was making her debut here, will win the match 9 times out of 10 on guts alone. Capriati knows that when you come to Roland Garros, you better be prepared to nearly die on court.

"That should be the mind set in any Grand Slam," she said. "That's where you expect people to bring the best stuff. This definitely requires more physical conditioning and I think [these kind of matches] make you stronger as the tournament goes on."