All-French Duel Isn’t for Birds

Eventually, a bird had to die at Melbourne Park. It was only a matter of time before the curse of the Australian Open hit a flying object too.

Four Frenchmen were playing in the men’s doubles semifinal today--Julien Boutter and Arnaud Clement vs. Michael Llordra and Fabrice Santoro. The birds were particularly active, especially since the roof of Rod Laver Arena was opened.

One bird swooped down to eat a stranded moth on the court but missed ... unforced error. Later, in the third set, one of Boutter’s forehands smacked into a bird flying over the net, taking it out. And no, despite the French theme, it was not a little sparrow.

“It was either a swallow or a swift,” said one Australian reporter. “The problem is that there are some swifts that look like swallows.”

This development led to questions from French reporters about one of the more famous bird deaths in sports. Most recently, and dramatically, Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson’s fastball in a spring training game last year in Tucson killed a bird, sending its feathers flying.

Eventually, Llorda and Santoro prevailed in a marathon, winning 6-3, 3-6, 12-10, in 2 hours 55 minutes. In the final, they will play second-seeded Americans Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer or No. 9 Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada. Johnson and Palmer beat twins Bob and Mike Bryan, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Johnson and Palmer were attempting to reach their third consecutive Grand Slam doubles final. Last year, they won at Wimbledon and lost in the U.S. Open final.

*

Seventh-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany survived another tough test in the quarterfinals, needing four sets and 3 hours 17 minutes to beat Chilean Marcelo Rios, a finalist here in 1998.

Haas, who had played five-setters in his previous two matches, defeated Rios, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5). He had 22 aces to 17 for Rios.

This will be the second Australian Open semifinal for Haas, who lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999. He advanced despite the artistic shot-making of Rios, and other distractions, including the loud crying of Rios’ infant daughter in the first set.

“It was in a long rally,” said Haas, who will play Marat Safin of Russia in the semifinals. “My eye was kind of like [on] the baby when I was playing, and then she [Rios’ wife Juliana] was quite nice to leave. So it was OK.”