[SirBloody Idiot]

Roland Garros II - Men's Singles
GRAND SLAM - Wednesday (Day Eleven) - Paris, France - Clay (Red)

FIRST AND SECOND QUARTER-FINALS

• The magnificent run of Brett Read has come to a disappointing end as he was outplayed and outclassed by József Boros, the Hungarian seventh seed. It appears that Read's heavy schedule finally took its toll as he struggled to match the Hungarian who has dropped just one set in the tournament so far. Read has profited from wasteful opponents, but Boros is more in the mould of Blanco in that he happily camps on the baseline and waits for his opponent to make errors. The similar styles did not make for an aesthetically pleasing match at times as both players refused to pull the trigger in some repetitive rallies.

Serving second, Read was left to play catch up against Boros and struggled to make any inroads against his serve. He was down a break early in the first set, and despite breaking back to be level at 3-3 he was unable to hold on at 4-5 as Boros prevailed in a twenty-four shot rally with a backhand down the line. Needing a better start to the second, Read refused to depart from the tactic that has served him so well and was made to pay as he made too many errors and gave Boros too many chances.

The unseeded West CWLander was unable to create a break point chance in the second set, and watched as a meek second serve was cracked cross-court by Boros to bring up two set points. Having saved five already in the set, Read saved a sixth before Boros outsliced him to take a two sets to love lead at the two-and-a-half hour mark.

On the brink of destruction at 0-3, Read tried to mix things up by serving and volleying a little bit against Boros. But after allowing the Hungarian to crack two clean return winners to bring up three break points, Read was clearly left without answers as the Hungarian went ahead a double break. Bagelled in the third, it was a hugely disappointing end to a very fine tournament as Boros took a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 win in a tick over three hours to advance to a maiden Grand Slam semi final.

Read will find some positives in defeat as it clearly exposed his weaknesses. His serve is still lacking - particularly his second serve - while he needs to find a way to add more strings to his bow if he is to effectively compete with the world's top twenty players.

• Earlier, unseeded Frenchman Jean-Christophe Genghini became the first of the local players to bow out at the semi final stage in a straight sets loss to Ukrainian eleventh seed Illya Altman. Genghini threw everything he had at Altman in an entertaining contest, and really should have taken the second set after romping to a 5-2 lead. Unfortunately for the locals, Altman withstood a barrage to move into the semis for the first time 7-5, 7-5, 6-2. It is an amazing result for Altman who, although being gifted a very generous draw, had a woeful preparation marred by injury and embarrassing defeats.

• Seeded players out: None.