No squeaking — Franco storms into quarters

Squillari has exceeded all expectations after not having made it past the third round of any previous Grand Slam he has contested. The last Argentine player to make the last eight in any Slam was Franco Davin here in 1991.

“I just concentrated on getting the ball in,” said Squillari. “I’m really happy. It’s my first quarter-final. Viva Argentina!”

Earlier, Magnus Norman stayed on target to end a 12-year Swedish drought at Roland Garros when he raced to a quickfire but rain-interruped fourth-round men’s singles victory over Andrei Medvedev.

Third-seeded Norman stayed on target for the first Grand Slam title of his career by downing Medvedev, last year’s beaten finalist, 6-0, 6-4, 6-2 on an unseasonally bleak and damp afternoon. The match was halted by rain after 1 hour 23 minutes with Norman leading 4-1, 15-15 in the third set. He wasted little time in completing the win when play resumed after a delay of over two-and-a-half hours. Mats Wilander, in 1988, was the last Swedish champion at Roland Garros.

Medvedev, beaten by Andre Agassi in last year’s final, had made good-natured fun of Norman in a press conference earlier in the week but the Swede had the last word. The 24-year-old Norman, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January and winner of two tournaments already this year, was in sublime form as he swept through in a total court time of just 1hr 33min. He is the highest seed left in the tournament after the early departures of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras and reached the last eight without losing a set, or having even played a tiebreaker.

The Swede took just 20 minutes to win the first set after the start of play had been delayed for over an hour by morning rain. Medvedev was able to win just six points. The Ukrainian had points for a 4-2 lead in the second set but Norman held on, broke for 5-4 and then served it out. When Norman broke in the opening game of the third set there was no way back for Medvedev. It was the first time the Ukrainian had lost to a Swede on the slow red clay here.

Norman, who first made the quarters here back in 1997, now plays either sixth-seeded Frenchman Cedric Pioline or 12th-seeded Russian Marat Safin, who were locked at one-set-all on Centre Court.

With some three hours having been lost to rain on Monday, Tuesday saw a heavy schedule of matches with two men’s quarter-final matches to come and all four women’s quarters.

A battle of two former men’s champions was awaited on Centre Court with 1997 winner Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, the fifth seed, facing Russian fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who lifted the title the year before him.

That encounter was to be followed by an all-Spanish clash between 10th-seeded former finalist Alex Corretja and new hope Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded 16 and a French Open debutant at the age of 20.

All the women’s last eight clashes were to take place on the Suzanne Lenglen Court.

Top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland was to play Chanda Rubin, an unseeded American, while eighth-seeded Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, a three-time winner, was taking on fourth seed Venus Williams.

Another three-time winner, American Monica Seles, was meeting Mary Pierce of France and Conchita Martinez facing fellow Spaniard and qualifier Marta Marrero.