French Open notebook

Rising American tennis star Andy Roddick says he fully expects to play at the Queen's Club tournament later this month, considered a grass–court warmup to Wimbledon.

"I will be fine by then," Roddick said Wednesday in Paris, where he is receiving treatment for his injury.

The 18–year–old took a nasty tumble in the third set last Friday against Lleyton Hewitt. Roddick tried to continue, but played only four more points before retiring because of a strained left thigh.

"It's been all positive so far," Roddick said Wednesday of his recovery. "It's recovering even better than I thought, which is good. I'm really optimistic right now."

Roddick said he hasn't felt any pain the last couple of days and planned to play Thursday for the first time since retiring his match.

He stayed at Roland Garros to attend an awards banquet Tuesday, where he was honored as the No. 1 junior player of 2000.

"It was kind of weird getting an award for juniors – like turning back the clock a little," he said.

–––

TENNIS RAGE

It's official: Belgium has caught tennis fever.

Never before has a Belgian made it to the semifinals at Roland Garros and now Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, seeded 12th and 14th, face each other in a faceoff Thursday.

The teen–age sensations were thrust onto the front pages of newspapers heralding them as national heroes. "We are writing history," headlined the daily Het Volk.

Clijsters' coach, Carl Maes, was elated at the unique matchup. "It is amazing for Belgium that they so quickly redeemed the sport here," he told daily De Morgen.

The Belgian media was giving the edge to 19–year old Henin to beat 17–year old Clijsters in the semifinal.

Henin has a 2–1 record against Clijsters but lost their most recent match, a third–round meet at Indian Wells last March.

–––

ODD COMPANY

Alex Corretja said he knew there was something unusual going on Wednesday at Roland Garros.

Upon entering the men's locker room, he spotted men performing clearance checks for the upcoming visit of former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton, who is in Paris this week, attended part Wednesday's match between French player Sebastien Grosjean and Andre Agassi.

"I was kind of thinking that some important guy was coming," Corretja said. "Usually when you get to the locker room, you don't see guys looking at the garbage and all this stuff, you know."

Despite the initially odd occurrence, Corretja said he was excited about the celebrity attendance at the tournament.

"It's good to see that they show some interest in tennis," he said. "I think Clinton has a lot of charisma."

–––

LUCKY SEEDS?

If the record of previous women's seeds is any indicator of success, Jennifer Capriati appears primed to win the women's title.

The lucky No. 4 seed, which Capriati holds, has won the women's title twice, most recently in 1998.

Capriati faces off Thursday against top–seeded Martina Hingis. The last No. 1 seeded women's player to take Roland Garros was Steffi Graf in 1996.

The Belgian teen–agers facing off in the other semifinal matchup face historically slimmer odds. No women's player with their seeds has won the women's title since 1925.

Kim Clijsters enters the semifinal match seeded 12th and Justine Henin, 14th.

–––

KILLER SERVE

An injured Andy Roddick may have had to retire his third–round French Open match, but the rising American tennis star's huge serve has made him the tournament's serve speed leader.

Roddick tops the list as of Wednesday with a 131.1 mile per hour serve (211 kilometer per hour).

Trailing right behind with serves of 129.9 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour) are Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina, Wayne Arthurs of Australia and Greg Rusedski of Great Britain.

By comparison, French semifinalists Gustavo Kuerten and Sebastien Grosjean have had slower serves.

Kuerten has reached serves of 123.1 miles per hour (198 kilometers per hours) and Grosjean, 121.2 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour).

Serves must be in play in order to count in the tournament's rankings.