Robin gets another shot: this time against Rafa

Nadal broke the Melzer serve in the sixth game of the first set and was cruising until he dropped serve at 5-4 in the third set but steadied himself to win a tiebreak.

Earlier,Robin Soderling wore down Czech Tomas Berdych 6-3 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-3,to make his second successive final at Roland Garros.

In sweltering conditions Soderling looked jaded at the end when Berdych hit a backhand into the tramlines to end a three hour 27 minute contest full of fierce baseline rallies. “It was more than tough,” the sweat-drenched 25-year-old said on court.

“Tomas played really well today. It was really tough for me to play my game,because he was hitting the ball so hard and so flat. Everything was 10 centimetres from the baseline.”

Soderling,who beat Roger Federer in the quarter-finals,could hardly believe that he was back in the final after losing to Federer last year.

“It’s unbelievable. When I came here,I was thinking about only the first round,” he said.

Sisters capture crown

Venus and Serena Williams have won their fourth consecutive Grand Slam doubles title and 12th overall by beating Katarina Srebotnik and Kveta Peschke 6-2,6-3 on Friday.

The top-seeded Williams sisters’ victory in final makes them only the third women’s doubles pair to win four major titles in a row.

Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver did it in 1983-84,and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva did it in 1992-93.

Late bloomers clash

It is the French Open women’s final no one could have predicted. Francesca Schiavone vs. Samantha Stosur in Saturday’s championship match is the biggest surprise yet from a tournament full of them.

Stosur is the first Australian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in 30 years. Schiavone is the first Italian woman ever to do so. Venus Williams and her much talked-about dress are gone. So are Serena Williams and Justine Henin,both beaten by Stosur,who showed those victories were no fluke by drubbing former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in Thursday’s semi-final.

Stosur cracked the top 10 in the rankings for the first time just last month. The Australian is 26 but hardly a late-bloomer compared with Schiavone,a 29-year-old Italian who will move into the top 10 for the first time next week. Schiavone is seeded No. 17. Only once,in 1933,has the title been won by a woman not seeded in the top 10. She and the No. 7-seeded Stosur are both first-time Grand Slam finalists.