Paris - Robin Soderling protected Bjorn Borg's French Open record by beating Rafael Nadal at this year's tournament, and the Swedish
great came through with the text message that Soderling was hoping for.

"He said, 'Congratulations, and thank you for not letting Nadal break my record,"' said Soderling, who advanced to the semifinals
at Roland Garros by beating Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 Tuesday.

Nadal and Borg share the record for consecutive French Open titles with four. Nadal already broke Borg's record for consecutive
wins at the tournament when he won his 29th in a row in the first round.

Soderling put an end to all that in the fourth round, eliminating the top-ranked Spaniard in four sets. After that match,
Soderling said he was hoping to hear from Borg, who won six French Open titles overall and five more at Wimbledon.

"It was very big for me to receive an SMS from him," said Soderling, who is also from Sweden. "He's maybe the best player of
all time."
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SAFINA'S STUTTER: For the first four rounds of this year's French Open, Dinara Safina was dictating play and dominating every
opponent she faced.

All that changed Tuesday against Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals, but not enough to do any real damage to her quest
for her maiden Grand Slam title.

"She was playing well, and basically I was not doing anything to complicate it," the top-seeded Safina said after rallying to win
1-6, 6-4, 6-2. "I was playing exactly in her zone: Everything to the middle, and I was running forehand, backhand."
Azarenka's dominance started to fade, though, and Safina was ready to take advantage.

"She started to miss much more," Safina said. "I think she was missing way too much today."
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CATCHING SOME RAYS: With the sun shining over Paris, top-ranked doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan are basking in the glow of a return
to the French Open semifinals.

The American brothers, who lost in the quarterfinals last year at Roland Garros, defeated Marc Lopez and Tommy Robredo of Spain
7-6 (1), 4-6, 7-6 (2) Tuesday.

The sunshine has dried out the clay courts on the grounds, making them play faster than usual, and the seven-time Grand Slam
doubles champions are enjoying every second of it.

"We love the fast courts. It helps our big serves," Mike said.

"And these Roland Garros balls really pop when it's hot."
On Tuesday, Lopez served for the match at 5-3, but the Bryans broke back and then held to force the tiebreaker.

"We were just trying to stay positive and stay calm," Bob said.

"Trying to take one point at a time."
The second-seeded Americans will next play Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Dick Norman of Belgium.

"A completely different team than the team we played today," Bob said. "Big-serving doubles team. So we'll go back to our
conventional doubles tactics - aggressive style."
The Bryan brothers have won all four Grand Slam titles in their career, including this year's Australian Open. But they consider
the French Open as the most difficult Grand Slam tournament.

"It's so hard to hold serve," said Mike, who won the title with his brother at Roland Garros in 2003. "You miss the first serve and
you only win like 40 percent of those points, because everyone can return and set up with a big forehand. For everyone, you see a lot
of upsets here." - Sapa