A couple of surprises at the Roland Garros Final Rounds

                                                                                         

Since it started, the 2008 French Open at Roland Garros has had everything but boredom, even though there have been some expected results; there have also been very unexpected and exciting events in the tournament, especially at the final rounds.

Starting with the Men's singles, the semi-finals round came with three expected: the Top 3 tennis players of the world, and a completely unexpected Gael Monfils, No. 59 of the world ranking who amazed everyone becoming the first Frenchman in 7 years to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals, defeating No. 5 Spaniard David Ferrer.

21 year old Monfils was the world No. 1 junior in 2004, and won three of the four Grand Slams titles of this category (Australia, Wimbledon and Roland Garros) and in the same year he turned professional, even though he hadn't had a prominent career in the ATP on last years and in 2008 he had just won 5 games before arriving to Paris. Monfils had a great run here at the most important tennis event of his own country before falling on semi-finals to World No.1 Roger Federer on Friday but not without giving Federer a hard time who needed 4 sets to defeat him on a very exciting game that lasted more than 3 hours.

Federer will now face the defending champion Rafael Nadal for the third time in a row on the Finals, after World No. 2 defeated on three sets No.3 Novac Djokovic. Nadal has come to Paris with the faith and conviction that he will take home his fourth "Coupe des Mousquetaires"and has been unstoppable and flawless winning every single set with an amazing record of 110/37 games on the tournament. Nevertheless, Federer has noticeably improved his clay play and will try his best to win his first French Open as this is the only Grand Slam title he hasn't been able to earn in his career.

On the other had, the Women's singles have also been witness of a very surprising performance from an unexpected player: 22 year old Russian Dinara Safina, currently No. 13, who is having a great moment of her career and has been playing her best on this tournament, defeating three Top 10 players on her way to her very first Grand Slam Final.

Safina defeated No.1 Maria Sharapova in the 4th round and No. 7 Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals after saving match points on both games, and finally defeated in two sets No.4 Svetlana Kutnesova in the semi-finals. Now she will meet with the favorite to win the tourmanent, last year's runner up No. 2 Ana Ivanovic, who is two years younger than Safina, but way more experienced than her on the big stage as this will be Ivanovic's third Grand Slam Final.

Ivanovic has also had a great tournament, and after next Monday she will be officially the new World No.1, position that she secured defeating Jelena Jankovic on the semi-finals and after Sharapova lost important points and her recently acquired ranking when she was defeated early on the competition. Ivanovic becomes the first Serbian to reach the top ranking and she could increase her points if she wins the final which would also be the first Grand Slam title of his promising career.

This way, this year's French Open promise to finish the same way it started, with the world's eyes fixed on the Roland Garros clay courts to watch the best tennis of the World.

About the author:
Cindy Ferguson is a high-ranking writer on tennis in the sports betting industry. You can also find more of her work at http://www.instantactionsports.com/uk/.
Feel free to reprint this article in its whole on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com