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Federer Looks Good Heading into Final Week



May 31, 2005 - Two of the top contenders for the Roland Garros crown—Switzerland's top seed Roger Federer and Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal (4)—remain on a collision course as the French Open heads into its final week. If the top half of the draw holds, these two titans will clash in the semifinals giving Parisien tennis fans the match of a lifetime. Federer, who has not lost a set in the tournament, has played through to the quarters where he will meet unseeded Victor Hanescu. In six visits to the clay court Grand Slam, Federer has lost in the first round three times (1999, 2002 and 2003) and never made it past the quarter-finals (2001).

Nadal's path is somewhat more treacherous. A Sunday rain—and an unruly French crowd—stopped the super Spaniard from concluding his third-round match against France's Sébastien Grosjean. That will pick up first thing Monday.

In the bottom half of the draw, there's an equally daunting fight for dominance as the reigning Roland Garros title-holder Gaston Gaudio, last year's French finalist Guillermo Coria and Marat Safin will be battling it out for a place in the last eight. Their paths were made easier when the always dangerous Andre Agassi (6) was bounced in the first round and his countryman, No. 2 seed Andy Roddick, fell in the second round to the unheralded Argentinian Jose Acasuso.

The best of the best in men's tennis are coming to Uniprix Stadium in Montreal for the 2005 Rogers Cup, August 6-14. To purchase tickets by phone please contact Louise Durand at (514) 273-1515, ext. 235, Admission at (514) 790-1245, or visit on-line at www.tenniscanada.com

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