A glance at the lineup for the women’s quarter-finals at Roland Garros shows four matches so superbly poised, so intriguing in their variety that the promise of each is as rich as the finest foie gras. Focus will be most intense on Justine Henin’s Parisian rematch with Serena Williams, for their 2003 semi-final remains a scar on the sport’s image for the jeers and whistles from spectators who turned violently against the American as only a French tennis crowd can.

Williams’s knees buckled that day; she was not the first and will not be the last, for this is an audience of refined tastes away from the court that acts like the meanest of juries when in close proximity to one. Each time she thwacks a ball away, tries to call the lines or scuff at the dust to identify a mark, they will be at her, and how she handles the derision will have a significant bearing on her chances.

We can but hope the populus are so distracted by the qualities of the players that they will not have need to interfere. Certainly, if the levels of playing intensity reach those of the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in April, when Serena lost the first set 6-0 and drove herself to a thunderous response, they will bear witness to a classic.

Asked who she thought owned the deeds to Court Philippe Chatrier, Williams came up with an intriguing response. “I would say it’s Amélie [Mauresmo]’s house,” the 2002 champion here said. “She’s French. Everyone roots for her. Justine’s kind of French, with a Belgium thing – she’s from the French part of Belgium.”

Well, Amélie has left by the back door once again, and the squatters have moved in. Only two of the last eight – Williams and Henin – have won the championship and of all Serena’s many grand-slam successes, the one she achieved here on the bamboozling clay when she was a novice came as the grandest surprise.

Yet as she said in a moment of vivid reminiscence yesterday, she was always quick on her feet. “I remember a game we played at school where all the kids from the class sat in a circle and then one kid was picked and they go around, they touch the kid’s head, they go around in a circle with all the kids and they say, ‘Duck, duck, duck, duck’,” she said.

“Then whoever they say ‘Goose’ to, the kid has to get up and chase the other kid around and the other kid has to get back around and sit down before the chasing kid touches him. I always wanted to be the goose because I was really fast, but the kids kept choosing their friends. I didn’t have many friends. I never got chosen unless it was about time for recess to be over. I was never the goose.”

Feathers may well fly today. Jelena Jankovic, the jolly Serb, is three victories away from the grand-slam tournament coronation that those in the women’s locker-room believe is only a matter of time. Yet Nicole Vaidisova, of the Czech Republic, has a 4-2 head-to-head lead and reached the semi-finals here a year ago.

Women’s draw
Quarter-finals
Numbers in parentheses denote seeding
(1) J Henin (Bel) v (8) S Williams (US)
(4) J Jankovic (Serbia) v (6) N Vaidisova (Cz)
(7) A Ivanovic (Serbia) v (3) S Kuznetsova (Russ)
(9) A Chakvetadze (Russ) v (2) M Sharapova (Russ)