THE showdown is here. The much-anticipated semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic is finally a reality, and everyone’s talking about it. Chances are, it will be the most watched match of this year’s tournament.

Watching Agnieszka Radwanska and Sara Errani fighting out their nip-and-tuck quarter-final, the main question was how on earth the Italian had contrived to lose six of their seven previous meetings.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic both reached the No.1 ranking is because when they were kids, they battled each other so hard at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida that they drove each other to new competitive heights.

Leonardo di Caprio chose Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s fourth-round match against Viktor Troickifor his first courtside experience of Roland Garros 2013, but it is doubtful he found much material for some future big-screen project.

Three things in life are inevitable: death and taxes and Gael Monfils arriving at Roland Garros carrying an injury which he heroically defies to pull off a (possibly short) series of fabulously unlikely wins, to the bellowing approval of the showcourt crowds.

Bartoli, Cornet progress at Roland Garros
Sportal.com.au
Of the matches that were completed, the Roland Garros crowd were delighted with the progression of three of their locals.

It is one of life’s stranger facts that Roland Garros has never been the happiest of hunting grounds for Richard Gasquet, but perhaps (20)13 will be his lucky number. 11 years after his much-heralded debut, he opened this campaign with an uncomplicated 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 win over the world No.101 Sergiy Stakhovsky

It appears that Kei Nishikori’s upset of Roger Federer in Madrid was no fluke. Japan’s top player was in fine form on Monday when he dusted Canada’s Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 in the first round.

In a sweet measure of revenge for her loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2009 quarterfinals, Serena Williams stopped the Russian 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals for the first time in a decade.

Make no mistake about it – David Ferrer is good on clay. Very good. Approaching Rafael Nadal standards of good.

A Friend Indeed
Following his quarter-final win Tuesday in the Roland Garrosquarter-finals, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shared a warm exchange with Roger Federer at the net. “I thanked him, because I said, ‘Okay, thank you to let me win this time because in the past it was not always this way.

Samantha Stosur, who must reach at least the quarter-finals here to retain her top ten ranking (and even then is dependent on the results of others), got another step closer when she beat Kristina Mladenovic in the second round.

Milos Raonic is finally finding his feet on red clay and if the young Canadian can continue to be as resourceful as he was in dispatching the hard-charging Michael Llodra of France 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 in the second round, he will be tough to stop in the rest of the tournament.

On a normal day at Roland Garros, Novak Djokovic might have expected to get on court for his opening round match against David Goffin a little after noon.

As a tennis player, you must get an inkling it’s not going to be your day when you serve at 95% and you lose a set 6-1. Such was the fate of the world No.38 Elena Vesnina against her ex-doubles partner, the two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka

It's impossible to play till 1.15