Norman's French conquest continues

There is a six foot, two inch Swede at Rolland Garos who people keep asking: "How come you're the world number one and we haven't heard of you?" The mild mannered Magnus Norman is getting sick of it. After playing Andrei Medvedev on a slow, interrupted, rained-soaked court, Norman advanced into the quarter-final, once again without dropping a set.

It is the third seed's fourth consecutive game in which he has not lost a set at this French Open championship. He came through against unseeded Medvedev 6-0, 64, 6-2, the first set taking only 20 minutes.

The day was disastrous for tennis. It was cold and a constant drizzle kept the players off court until late afternoon. Only two complete singles matches were concluded despite playing for long periods as it rained. Norman now meets the virtually unknown Russian Marat Safin (20), who has dramatically risen to prominence this year after his obvious talent was tempered with a little patience.

The radical improvement was enough to give him 12th seed. Safin came through at the expense of French hope Cedric Pioline in four sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, the big serve and strong ground strokes being adequately serviced with impressive mobility from the six foot four inch player. Safin subsequently said that he was angry because the court was slippery and officials refused to stop the match when he wanted to. When they finally did break they then inexplicably left the covers off.

"I showed how slippy it was to the guy on the line. He did nothing. How can a guy who hasn't play tennis say that to a professional player ?" said an astonished Safin. "I knew the crowd was shouting for him and I got a little bit nervous. You start to think and I felt under pressure," he added.

Pioline, seeded six and a runner-up at the US Open in 1993 and Wimbledon in 1997, was expected to reach the quarter-finals here for the third time. At 30, it my now be his last chance to win his home competition.