Congratulations to Fabrice Santoro for winning the men's doubles
title at the Australian Open. He and Michael Llodra, the eighth
seeds, won the following rounds to reach the final:
1r + Scott Humphries/Stephen Huss 6-3 6-4
2r + Luke Bourgeois/Scott Draper 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3
3r + Yves Allegro/Roger Federer 6-2 6-4
qf + Nicolas Lapentti/Todd Woodbridge 6-4 6-4
sf + JEFF COETZEE/CHRIS HAGGARD (12) 6-2 4-6 7-5

(Jeff Coetzee is a Selesian too! :-) )

St. Fabrice celebrated the Selebbath with Michael Llodra by beating
top seeds Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor 6-4 3-6 6-3 in the final - a
reverse of last year's final where they lost to Knowles and Nestor.
This time they recovered from a break down in the third (and saved
points for a double break) to claim their first Grand Slam title.

"I always had a thought that I might someday win a Grand Slam title
in doubles, but now that it's happened, it's just incredible," said
Fabrice. "We never gave up, but we were two or three points away
from losing it in that last set."

St. Fabrice is a highly unorthodox player, even for a Selesian. With
a regular right-handed two-handed backhand, he hits his two-handed
forehand cross-handed, often with slice to mess up the opponent's
rhythm. He has been called "the Harry Potter of tennis". His win over
a bewildered Marat Safin at the French Open 2001 was a very
entertaining match.


But if Saturday was a White Selebbath, today was Black Sunday as
Andre Agassi won the men's singles - a result which heralds the
coming of the Antiseles, as he and Stefanie Graf had made a pact to
play mixed doubles at the French Open if he won the Australian Open.

From Graf as a temporary mixed-doubles partner to Graf as a permanent
singles player would, I feel, be so short a step that the
contemplation of it chills me to the bone.

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/

P.S. There are now 7 photos of St. Fabrice in the Photos section.