The Dream Continues for Gaël Monfils

France is once again basking in potential tennis glory asthrough four sets to upset the Spaniard.
Gaël Monfils carries the hopes of the country inAppearing on French prime time news later in the
today's semi-finals of the French Open at Rolandevening, he was uncharacteristically coy about his
Garros.exploits, preferring not to mention his planned strategy
If he makes it past the world number one,for this semi-final duel with Federer.
Switzerland's Roger Federer, Monfils will be theOf course the odds are stacked against Monfils
second Frenchman to make a Grand Slam final thiscausing an upset. The two players have only met
year.three times before with Federer coming out the winner
In January, against all expectations, fellow French tennison each occasion - the last time was on clay in Monte
ace, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, made it to the final of theCarlo in April. Indeed Monfils has never taken a set off
Australian Open, before losing to the Serb, Novakthe Swiss.
Djokovic.The Frenchman might well start as the underdog, and
Perhaps the exploits of Monfils at this year's Frenchin a sense will be mixing it with the modern greats of
Open are all the more extraordinary as he wasn'tthe game, cutting a somewhat odd figure perhaps
really given much of a chance going into thealongside the three most highly ranked players in the
tournament. He's currently only ranked 59th in theworld going into the final four.
world and he had been short of match practice goingBut don't underestimate the power of the centre court
into Roland Garros, winning only five matches on thecrowd who will surely be right behind him.
ATP tour this year.And let's not forget, Federer doesn't have the best of
The 21-year-old had been nursing a hamstring injury,track records at Roland Garros. The French Open is
which forced him to withdraw from the last two Grandthe only Grand Slam title missing from his collection.
Slams in the United States and Australia.Should Monfils against all the odds make it through to
And in his short professional career Monfils has beenthe final, he would then have a crack at becoming the
overshadowed by other French players of hisfirst French player to win the men's singles title since
generation such as Richard Gasquet.1983, when Yannick Noah famously scored a straight
But now the 21 year-old has come of age as far assets win over Sweden's (then) defending champion
the French are concerned, and they will be willing himMats Wilander.
on not just to make it through to the final, but alsoFrance is hungry for success at its own tournament
become the first Frenchman to lift the trophy on homeas was clear from the front pages of all the country's
soil since 1983.national dailies, which carried pictures of their new hero
His appearance in today's semi-finals also marks theahead of today's match.
first time a Frenchman has made it this far in theAlthough it has been a long wait for a French victory in
tournament since Sébastien Grosjean in 2001.the men's singles, there has been more recent
In Wednesday's quarterfinal match against number fivesuccess in the women's draw with Mary Pierce lifting
seed, Spain's David Ferrer, Monfils grunted his waythe title back in 2000.