Rafa Has Feet of Clay

At the Queen's Club grasscourt tournament in Great Britain (a precursor to Wimbledon), Rafael Nadal (top seed), Fernando Gonzalez (3rd seed), Novak Djokovic (4th seed), and Ivan Ljubicic (5th seed) all lost in the quarterfinals.

France doesn't dominate on either type of surface (slow clay or faster hardcourts and grass). Nor does it have players at the top of the game. But when you look down the list, you find a stunning number of French players. In other words, for its size, France has an awful lot of very good tennis players. Therefore, it's only a matter of time....

We got a little preview of that Friday at Queen's Club. In the morning, Nicolas Mahut of France (ranked 106 in the world) defeated Ivan Ljubicic in a rain-delayed match of the third round, then came back in the afternoon to defeat Rafael Nadal 7-5, 7-6.

It's the best day in my tennis life. I beat Ljubicic this morning and Rafa now. To beat two top-10 players in the same day is amazing.

I'll say.

Another interesting Frenchman, Arnaud Clement, first defeated Djokovic, then returned four hours later to win another round.

In other action, second seeded Andy Roddick advanced to the semifinals. He will face Dmitry Tursunov, who rallied to upset Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4. The two Frenchmen, Clement and Mahut will face each other in the other semifinal.

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