French Open 9

The second day of the fourth round is over, and even though it was a bit more exciting than the first day, it still pretty much unfolded about as one would expect. Nadal and Djokovic won in fairly straightforward matches, qualifier Gabashvili's run came to an end against Jurgen Melzer, and Fernando Verdasco was too exhausted to put up much fight against Nicolas Almagro.

The women's side was moderately more exciting, as Justine Henin lost to Sam Stosur. She just fell apart at the end of the match, making all kinds of unforced errors in the last two games. It's a shame for her first loss at RG since 2004 to come this way, but she really wasn't at her best. Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams won, as did Shvedova, but there's not too much to say about those matches. Looking ahead to tomorrow, the first day of the quarterfinals gets underway. There are four good matches on deck.

Robin Soderling v. Roger Federer - This is the match that determines whether or not Roger Federer will stay number one after the French Open, long enough to replace Pete Sampras for the most weeks at number one. If he wins this match and makes it to the semis, then he'll make it. And fortunately for him, his opponent is somebody he's won against 12 times, including in the finals here, last year. Robin Soderling, I'm sorry to say, has almost no chance against Federer - he'll need to believe he can win, which he hasn't done in any of the matches I've seen the Swede play against the Swiss. He was happy to make it to the final last year, and maybe he'll be happy to have made it to the quarters this year. I hope he puts up a fight - if he plays as well as he did against in the three rounds before the final last year, he has a chance. But he has to believe he can win, first.

The other match on the men's side is about the exact opposite - Youzhny leads 6-4 against Berdych. They're both solid players, and even though Berdych has more talent, Youzhny has better grand slam results. He's made the semis at a grand slam before, while this is Berdych's first trip to the quarters. That said, this is a tough one to call. It should be a fun match, in any case.

On the women's side, Schiavone plays Wozniacki and Dementieva plays Petrova. I think both matches could go either way, again. Wozniacki seems to be exhausted and perhaps a bit injured, while Shiavone is a solid player. Dementieva and Petrova is another good match - Petrova is a bigger hitter than Dementieva, but Dementieva is such a good returner, it should be an interesting contrast in styles.

So three out of four matches are something of a toss-up. The other one would need a spectacular performance from Soderling in order for Federer to be in any trouble. Based on the way the rest of the tournament has been going, it'll be a bit of a shock if that sort of upset happens. But - that is why we play the tennis.