FRENCH OPEN 2008: Women's Semifinals PREVIEW

The 2008 French Open Women's semifinals are now set. Mad Professah correctly predicted all 4 of the women's quarterfinal match results.

Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (4) vs. Dinara Safina RUS (13). For the third round in a row there is an important match between fellow Russians. The first was Dinara Safina's stunning come from behind victory over Maria Sharapova in the fourth round despite being down a match point and featuring two close tie-break sets. The round after that featured the knock down, drag out battle between Safina and Elena Dementieva. That match was a reprise of the final of the Qatar German Open, which Safina won 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. This time Dementieva was forced to eat a bagel 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-0 in the deciding set after blowing her chances to win in straight sets. Kuznetsova had a much easier path to the semifinal and sports a 4-3 head-to-head against Safina, with all but two of these matches being on clay. The Safina playing in this tournament, however, is a player we have never seen before. Clearly, she wants to be the second member of her family to bring home a major trophy to Mom (and coach). I still think that at some point, the magnitude of her results will start weighing on her mind and the bubble will pop, although I'd be very pleased if it doesn't happen until after the final. Regardless, the Russian who gets to the final is likely to lose against the Serbian in the other half of the draw. PREDICTION: Kuznetsova in 3 sets.

Jelena Jankovic SRB (3) vs. Ana Ivanovic SRB (2). The bottom half of the draw has featured last year's finalist Ana Ivanovic working methodically through the draw in an attempt to give herself another chance to win a French Open final. The two Serbs have played six times before but Jankovic has only managed to win once.

As I said before, it looks like revenge (and shame!) are two excellent motivating forces for producing excellent tennis. After being demolished by Serena Williams in the 2007 Australian Open final, Maria Sharapova returned to Melbourne with a mission to erase last year's final from everyone's memory and managed to win the title without dropping a set. Last year, Ana Ivanovic got to the final of Roland Garros and then was so overwhelmed by the occasion she couldn't play a fraction of her game and lost easily to Justine Henin in two uncompetitive (and ugly) sets. In 2008, Ivanovic returned to Paris with a mission, and she has so far not lost a set and has been handing out beatdowns (and bagels) to everyone in her path to the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen. Even if Jankovic were 100% (which she clearly isn't) she would have difficulty beating Ivanovic in this mode. The only question now is which Russian will he Serbian have to beat to win her first major title (and possibly claim the World #1 slot). PREDICTION: Ivanovic in 2 sets.