I have been away, now I am back.

The French Open has been ticking away nicely in my absence and is gearing up for an explosive last few days. Mixed metaphors but you get the point. The women's draw has seen seeds falling left, right and centre and we have been left with a rather surprising final four show down:
Li Na v. Screamy Sharapova
Scary Schiavone v. Beastly Bartoli

I need a nickname for Li Na but can't think of one right now. Screamy seems back to her crushing best after she annihilated German Petkova 6-0 6-4. Her injuries (shoulder/elbow) have all but gone and she can even serve again. (Do you remember her serves when she came back from her shoulder injury? Very very bad form.) She was moving brilliantly and the penetration and length she got on her shots was nothing short of majestic. Petkovic could do nothing in the first set and Shara could do nothing wrong.

Li na continues a wonderful couple of years of winning and very entertaining press conferences and speeches (particularly enjoy when she talks about her husband) with a straight sets defeat of in-form but never-been-past-a-Grand-Slam-quarter-final Victoria Azerenka whose shrieks could be heard throughout Paris (as could Shara's on the other court) - 7-5 6-2. Thank God it won't be an Aza/Shazza semi final; the noise would have been too much to bear. Li Na can bring a little decorum to Shara's silly screaming.

In the other half Scary Schiavone saw off a sublime Pavlyuchenkova, who crushed Zvo on her way to her first Grand Slam quarter final. The teenage Russian is a 2011 sensation and many predict her to go far. Watch this space for more Pavly . Schiavone eventually came through the match 1-6 7-5 7-5, having, at one stage, been a set and 4-1 down. The defending champion will meet Beastly Bartoli in the semi-final who defeated a resurgent Kuznetsova 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. The double-handed Bartoli (do not understand double-handed forehand and backhand players - how do they do it?) looks in pretty good knick and Scary Schia will have to up her game if she wants to carry on defending her title and stop Bartoli from reaching her first Slam final.

Where there are no seeded ladies left, in the men's half there are only seeds:
Djoko v. The Fed
GoNads v. Ray-ray

Yes indeedy; the top four men are the only four men left in the competition. Where there is a lot to be said for seeds going out and seeing people you may not know much about and seeing a new winner of a Grand Slam... It's also pretty tasty when the only four players left in a tournament are the top four players in the world (according to rankings, of course). Who could resist the pull of Djoko/Fed? The man of the moment and the 16 time Grand Slam winner. Djoko has got the better of The Fed the last few times they've played but The Fed has looked in fine fettle thus far, not dropping a single set on his path to his 28th Slam semi. If Djoko wins on Friday he'll chalk up his 44th win in a row (42nd in 2011), will take the number 1 spot from GoNads and will still be on course for a Grand Slam (winning all four majors in a single year). Can he do it? I think probably yes.

The other semi involves the all-time great (especially at the French), world number 1 (for now) GoNads and the battling Briton, Andy Murray. Neither one of these players has had a straight-forward route to the semis - GoNads was given a scare in the very first round against John Isner who took him to five sets, and has openly admitted to struggling for form and confidence in his bid to retain his title and win it for a sixth time to match Bjorn Borg's record. His quarter-final performance against Soderling went a long way to settling his nerves, however, as he emerged a comfortable winner in straight sets - 6-4 6-1 7-6. Ray-ray, on the other hand, has had nothing but a torrid time of it. He rolled his ankle in the third round (against Berrer) and has been drugged up to the eye-balls and, except when on court, seems to have had a permanently frozen foot ever since in order to keep him fit, mobile, and, most importantly, on court. He has, perhaps miraculously, reached the semis of the French for the first time in his career. He says he feels good, is confident that he can beat GoNads if he plays tactical tennis, and is happy to have reached the semis now in all four Slams.

The time is 1300 hours; Ladies semi-finals here I come!

I'll keep you blogged...