Superb effort by Dewulf

The French Open continued to have upsets both in the men's singles and women's singles as the champions in both events fell in the quarter-...

The French Open continued to have upsets both in the men8217;s singles and women8217;s singles as the champions in both events fell in the quarter-finals. In the women8217;s singles, the second seed Steffi Graf seed went down for the third time this year to the little South African Amanda Coetzer.

Coetzer, seeded 11th here, had beaten Graf in the Australian Open in January and then beat her again last month in Berlin 6-0 6-1. Coming into this match, Graf was low in confidence and Coetzer knew it. The fact that she had also beaten the German twice this year gave her the confidence she needed to beat the champion. Even a rain delay of thirty minutes did not stop Coetzer from getting her well deserved victory 6-1 6-4.

The No 3 seed Monica Seles nearly fell to No 12 Mary Joe Fernandes but managed to get away 7-5 in the third set to set up a semi-final clash against the top seed Martina Hingis, who comfortably beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-2, 6-2 to take her match winning streak to 36 this year. She herself thought her game was in top gear to brush aside the former French champion.

The No 9 Croatian Iva Majoli won a tight three-set match against unseeded Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania to pit her against Coetzer.

More surprises in the men8217;s singles as the champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov fell to the unseeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil in five long sets. Having led two sets to one, it looked like the Russian had overcome the danger. Just then he started slow in the fourth set and the Brazilian, seeing his chance to make it two sets all, played a magnificent fourth set to even the match. In the final set, the unseeded Kuerten realised his time was now and came through with the finest win of his career.

His opponent in the semi-final will be another unseeded player, Filip Dewulf of Belgium who beat the more experienced Magnus Norman of Sweden 6-2 6-7 6-4 6-3. The Belgian, who had to qualify for this event, has had to look every morning in the papers to believe that he has actually made into the semi-finals. A superb effort by a qualifier, who has made more money this week than in his entire career.

It is interesting to note that Kuerten of Brazil plays Dewulf of Belgium in the semi-final for a place in the finals.

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No recognisable names here but terrific tennis and great guys!