Unexpected!

This week has been full of upsets and who would of thought the last 4 of both the tournaments would be these 4.
Roger Federer and Justine Henin the top players coming into the tournament were both ousted before the Semis. Justine fell to an inspired Dinara Safina whilst Stanislas Wawrinka broke Federer in what will be his best win so far in his career. On the whole what happened to both of them or was it the destructive force of Safina and Wawrinka. We may believe that Safina and Wawrinka had a huge part to play in the loss of the two top seeds but I have to say both seemed much weaker compared to their previous performances. We have seen Federer slowly dying out of the dominace of tennis losing 6 matches already - as much as he has lost in the whole of previous years whilst Justine Henin is struggling to find the form which she had for the past two years. Will the No.1's be knocked off the spot this year! It will definitely be difficult for them to dominate the game like last year but what lingers in my mind is the Women's Roland Garros. With Justine looking flushed away would their finally be another women to take the title. Would Ivanovic make it one step further or would the Williams sisters make a mark in France, or could it be the many other top 20 players who are fighting for their 1st GS, Overall this year it is wide open I believe - no one looks in form to capture this title - and if Nicole was in form I would actually bet on her to have a chance to reach the final!
Well enough with the No.1 rant let me go into a detailed view of the draw and results.
Guillermo Canas' difficult first round definitely solidified the fact that he wasn't going to beat Federer today and that was seen when Federer comfortably cruised past him. We were seeing generally a Federer scoreline - not too difficult and not a thrashing. It was dissapointing seeing Richard Gasquet go aswell as Dmitry Tursunov, that left the draw wide open with both the seeds gone, this gave Radek Stepanek the chance to claim glory - however nobody would have guessed that glory meant he would defeat Roger Federer!
Djokovic was the stalwart of his draw and saved grace for the top seeds - all of the top seeds have been inconsistent this year but Djokovic has been slightly less. Ivan Ljubicic also showed that he wasn't going to return to the top echelons of tennis with his defeat by Steve Darcis.
Another thing that has been prominent in this tournament is the amount of retirements. The first seed to retire on the first half of the draw was Fernando Gonzalez which gave Almagro - who had previously beaten Nalbandian the chance to shine. However he then retired against Djokovic! And then a flustered Radek Stepanek withdrew against Djokovic.
On the other side Andy Roddick played well against a good draw. Jo Wilfred Tsonga showed that his form was only once lived whilst Davydenko lost out to Robredo. Well done to Ancic also. And who was to guess that the winner of the 4th group would be Stanislas Wawrinka who now plays against Djokovic in the final! With Nadal in this draw everyone seemed to put the money on him (including me) Moya and Blake were also possible fill ins if a shocking defeat for Nadal was to happen, even Murray and Ferrero would have been more expected than Wawrinka. Well in the end Wawrinka was able to ride against the luck of not having Nadal as well as beating some of my favourite players! Safin/Murray/Blake. I would also like to say - why are my favourite players dwindling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nicole and Murray my next hopefuls are losing their game.
Anyway it is quite amazing that the semifinals were decided by two retirements from Stepanek and Roddick, though I would have liked to see Roddick play Djokovic. Though Djokovic should now have this safely in the bag - and without playing a single seed! That's what I'm talking about ;-)
This week all my predictions have basically gone down the drain - from saying Dinara Safina not being a major threat, Svetlana having an easy draw Federer playing Djokovic in the semis and Justine and Nadal being strong competitors for this tournament. However I understand Nadal's loss as he has been playing so many matches recently - he should have skipped last week.
Anyway on the women's side we thought Henin was getting back to form with her thrashing of Yung-Jan Chan, however Safina toppled the clay court master. She then further shocked the crowd by defeating Williams who was playing exceptionally in the last two games. Another shocker in the system was Victoria Azarenka however I did say Svetlana's draw was easy meaing without Svetlana the draw would be wide open. I'm sad that Nicole lost in the first round but congrats to both Alona and Victoria. Also congratulations to Maria Kirilenko for beating Nadia. I was also amazed when Elena beat Jelena - I did think however Jelena was dying away this year and it looks to be true. Ana on the other hand has been out of all this commotion and I think she beat Agnes. Incoming report - Ana has left the tournament - beaten by Elena who has a massive winning record against Ana I think it is 4-0. Anyway this solidifies my point of saying how many upsets there has been. Besides Djokovic who would have guessed that Wawrinka, Safina and Dementieva would completet the final draws! I now have to eat my word for saying Elena and Dinara as not being threats as now either one of them would win the title. It also quite interesting that Elena beat both Jelena and Ana - how many people have done that in a single tournament - just wondering. Anyway who do you think we'll win between Dinara and Elena, I personally think both deserve it but I'd rather Safina win it because she hasn't won much in the recent years. But with this performance the Roland Garros is going to be an interesting Grand Slam!