Roland Garros Friday Diary

© Getty ImagesLleyton Hewitt will face Nadal at Roland Garros for the fourth time in six years.

Federer 700: On the day Roger Federer celebrated his 700th career match win, fans of ATPWorldTour.com’s facebook page weighed in on Federer’s chances of one day reaching the 1000-wins milestone. Only Jimmy Connors (1242) and Ivan Lendl (1071) have done that.

Expect Federer, who turns 28 in August,  to pay closer attention to his schedule as he ages. We won’t see him rack up 92 wins a year like he did in 2006, but if he could top a relatively modest 50 wins a year from here on out [he has topped 60 wins a year for seven straight seasons], then Federer could reach 1000 wins sometime in the 2016 season, when he would be 33 or 34. The Swiss has said that he plans to continue playing for many years to come, partly so his twin daughters can watch him play.

Here’s what fans are saying about Federer 1000 on facebook:

Guillermo Andres Gonzalez Velez: not just 1.000 wins, 100 titles too.

Kamille Alexis: Amazing, Roger! Wow 700, and he'll have 1000 in no time. God bless and best of luck at RG, Roger! Wish I was in France to see it

Shane Powell 1,000 is a bit much!! But I'd say 850

Carin Venter Alberts: He could win 1000 ... but why think about that now - let's concentrate on enjoying the 700!!!

Chuck Keenum: If he plays til he's 35 he could get to 1000. Otherwise it's not likely.

Have your say on facebook!

Tough Test: Lleyton Hewitt’s fitness will be fully tested Saturday when he backs up from a five-set win Friday over Denis Istomin to play defending champion Rafael Nadal. It will be the fourth time in the past six years that Hewitt has faced Nadal at Roland Garros. The Australian scrounged just five games last year but in 2006 he did take a set from the Spaniard.

“That's the reason you play tennis, to get opportunities to play the best players in the world,” Hewitt said in anticipation of the clash. “In the Grand Slams, I feel like I've put myself in a position my whole career that's it's taken the best players most times in a Grand Slam to beat me.  Hopefully I can give him a good match tomorrow."

Rafa Streak: It may not get the same attention as Roger Federer’s streak of reaching 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals, but Rafael Nadal has a tidy Grand Slam run of his own in play. The lefty has reached the fourth round or better in his past 15 major appearances, with 13 of those results being quarter-finals or better.

Hot Debut: Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov has engineered a remarkable reversal of fortune in the past month and continued his surge Friday with a stunning upset of 2009 semi-finalist Fernando Gonzalez.  At 21 years and 6 months, Dolgopolov is the youngest member of the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings Top 100.

Dolgopolov reached three Challenger finals in the space of four appearances in February and March, taking the title in Meknes, Morocco. But he had been on a six-match losing streak on the ATP World Tour before Madrid, where he reached the second round and took a respectable seven games from Rafael Nadal. He then beat tough dirtballer Albert Montanes in the first round of Nice and won the first set against eventual champion Richard Gasquet 6-0 before the Frenchman hit back to win in three sets.

He’s at a career-high No. 56 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings and into the third round of Roland Garros in his first Grand Slam appearance.

Dolgopolov’s mother, Elena, was an ex-gymnast who earned a gold and silver medal at the European Championships. His father, Oleksandar, was a former ATP World Tour pro who coached his son from a young age until 2008.

The Halves & The Halve Nots: With Albert Montanes’ loss to 2009 finalist Robin Soderling Friday, none of the six Spaniards in the top half of the draw survived the first three rounds.  But Spanish fans should feel a lot better about the bottom half of the draw, where five countrymen will play their third-round matches Saturday. And it’s possible that Spaniards could make a sweep of the bottom-half quarter-finals. A possible line-up: Ferrer vs Ferrero, Verdasco or Almagro vs Nadal.