Fernandez is French's breakout star

PARIS -- On a cloudy, moody day, the top three players in the women's game -- a triad that simply towers above the rest of the field -- advanced to the semis. The fourth quarterfinal match went virtually unnoticed, except in certain precincts of Buenos Aires. But in the spirit of zigging while everyone else was zagging, let's discuss Argentina's Clarisa Fernandez, the lowest-ranked French Open semifinalist in 25 years.

She stands nearly 6-foot and is slender enough to hide behind a car antenna. But Fernandez, 20, has shown the mettle to match her bold ballstriking, taking out fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters and 13th-seeded Elena Dementieva, and Tuesday beating countrywoman Paola Suarez in three sets. "The truth is that it's a great shock to me to reach the semifinals here," Fernandez says. Though she's quick to add: "I had a great deal of confidence in myself."

It's a far cry from where she was five years ago. As a young girl in Cardoba, she was wild about Gabby Sabatini and played some tennis at Sabatini's club, but she also had plenty of other interests. It wasn't until age 15 (downright middle-aged in tennis years) that Fernandez decided to get serious. She hit thousands of balls to develop her consistency -- "So I could do it without thinking about it," she says -- and worked to improve her conditioning. By 1998, she had turned pro.

Before Roland Garros, Fernandez had never won a match at a Grand Slam. In fact, coming in ranked No. 87, this was the first WTA event for which she had an automatic-in, making the main draw without first having to qualify. Regardless of how she fares in her semifinal match against Venus Williams on Thursday, she will make more prize money at this tournament than she had earned over the course of her entire career.

Fernandez is part of a wave of Argentinian players making their mark here. The country's economy might be in the sinkhole, but the stock of their tennis stars is soaring. As Fernandez was beating Suarez, their countryman Guillerno Canas was locked in a tight match with Albert Costa. On Monday another 'Tine, Gaston Gaudio, gave Juan Carlos Ferrero all he could handle. "Tennis in Argentina has many talented players and many good coaches," says Fernandez, who is coached by Leo Lerda, but also works with renowned trainer Pat Etcheberry at Saddelbrook. "I like to go to school and to see the youngsters who play tennis at this level. It's a great pity that we live a long way away, that we're not an economic power. But I'm happy about the young players that are coming along."

On Tuesday Fernandez traversed the service line only when she absolutely had to, but she is no mere clay-court specialist. Though her strokes are swathed in topspin, her biggest asset is consistency. "I've been working on my volleys and making my serve more powerful," she says. "Honestly, I'm very excited to try grass."

She has at least one more match to play here, though. And then her professional life will get an automatic upgrade. Even if she falls to Williams, she'll leave the continent with a whole mess of Euros. And more important, she'll leave Paris ranked No. 34 on the WTA computer, more or less good enough to assure her automatic-ins for the rest of the year. Will she play the California hard-court circuit? Will she subsidize her parents' traveling with her this summer, so she won't have to figure out the time difference in order to phone them immediately after her matches? Will she change rackets if she gets a new sponsorship deal? "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," she says smiling. "Right now, it's still all too unbelievable."

Half volleys

The women were justifiably irate about Tuesday's scheduling. The four quarterfinal matches, featuring the sisters Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Mary Pierce and Monica Seles, were played on Court Suzanne Lenglen, while the men's matches (Costa-Canas and the Alex Corretja-Andrei Pavel snooze-a-rama) were on Court Central. Says Venus: "It's disappointing to see doubles on [Court Central] when there were so many great women's matches today. It's something I hope we can work to change." ... Pierce received the People's Choice award, voted on by the fans for the most natural and nicest player. ... World Cup fever hits men's tennis. Monday night at the Parc des Princes, a team of French ATP players beat the rest of the world 6-4 in a soccer match. Morocco's Hicham Arazi, however, scored the most aesthetically pleasing goal of the game. ... Matthew Perry was in the box for Capriati's match. ... The formerly ATP Championships/Cincinnati Masters Series event has been renamed the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters. The Williams sisters have played matches that didn't last as long as it takes to spit that out. ... Canas kept his streak alive of winning the first set of every match he's played in this tournament. ... Hot scuttlebutt here is that Pat Rafter will train seriously next month and is planning a return to the ATP. But another Australian player says dismissively of Rafter's possible return: "I'll believe it when I see it.".... From the Well-Placed Sources Dept.: Expect to see more joint ATP and WTA events in the next few years as well as a joint men's and women's year-end championship. Stay tuned.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim is in Paris covering the French Open and will file regular reports from Roland Garros. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.

 

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