French Open Betting / Editor / 04 June 2007 /

Who can stop RAFAEL NADAL reaching his third consecutive French Open final and celebrating yesterday's 21st birthday by making it a hat-trick of titles in Paris?

Former US and Wimbledon champion, LLEYTON HEWITT, is the next man standing in his way. And, if anyone can stop the young Majorcan matador, then maybe Hewitt can.

After all, he leads Nadal 4-2 in head to heads - although Nadal's two wins have come in their only meetings on clay. But the most recent was in Hamburg last month when Hewitt pushed him all the way in their semi-final before losing 7-5 in the third.
That softened up Nadal for Roger Federer, who ended Nadal's record-winning streak on clay in the final, the unbeaten run ending on 81 matches.

Hewitt loves nothing better than a scrap but it remains to be seen how much his five-set comeback win from two sets down against Gaston Gaudio in the second round has taken out of him. On Saturday he had to come from behind to beat Jarkko Nieminen in four sets - and he has never been beyond the quarter-finals in Paris.

In contrast, Nadal has yet to drop a set and the 10 games he conceded in his first-round clash with Juan Martin Del Potro are the most he has given away. Maybe his Hamburg experience was the little jolt needed to fire him up again.
Theirs is the pick of the Monday matches at Roland Garros

The winner will play Spain's 23rd seed CARLOS MOYA or the redoubtable JONAS BJORKMAN in the quarter-finals. Bjorkman, the doubles specialist who is still an awkward customer at singles is the oldest man left in the draw at 35 and is one of three unseeded players in the bottom half still going strong.

They have met eight times and it stands 4-4 with Moya winning the first two and the last two. But they have not faced one another since the Bastad quarter-finals in 2003 in their only meeting on clay.

Bjorkman is trading at 4.5 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in 15 consecutive visits to Roland Garros while 1998 champion Moya is trading at 1.27 to make the last eight.

Perhaps the real danger to Nadal's hopes is his possible semi-final opponent NOVAN DJOKOVIC. The 20-year-old sixth seed from Serbia will be favourite to win his last 16 clash with FERNANDO VERDASCO as he looks to repeat and then better his quarter-final effort of last year.

Verdasco had never been beyond the second round until today and yet he holds a 2-0 lead over Djokovic. But they have not met this year and Djokovic's surge into the world's top 10 means he is trading with Betfair at 1.17 to march on while Verdasco in only trading at 6.4.

A Djokovic win would leave him waiting for the winner of the clash between 16th seed MARCOS BAGHDATIS and the unseeded Russian IGOR ANDREEV. The players have never met but Baghdatis has yet to drop a set this year at Roland Garros and is trading at 2.62 to reach the last eight for the first time. Andreev, still feasting on that four-set thrashing of third seed Andy Roddick in the first round, is trading at 1.61.

In the women's singles the pick of the women's quarter-finals will pit two-time defending champion and three-time winner JUSTINE HENIN against eighth seed and Australian Open winner SERENA WILLIAMS.

Williams, the French Open winner in 2002 but an absentee in Paris the last two years, won their most recent meeting, coming back from a 6-0 reverse in the first set to win the Miami title 7-5 6-3.

Henin, 25 last Friday, is trading at 1.63 with Betfair to make the semi-finals. Williams is trading at 2.54 to win their clash and is 6.6 to recapture the title.

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