Ljubicic eyes first Slam

But the quietly-spoken giant might be troubled by a partisan French crowd as he takes on home favourite Julien Benneteau in the second of the day's matches on the Court Chatrier at Roland Garros.

Even if Ljubicic, who's best performance on clay this year has been a quarter-final spot at the Monte Carlo Masters, has yet to win a clay court title, the world number four is everything but surprised to see himself go that far.

"Until the age of 15, I didn't play on anything else than clay" admitted Ljubicic "So I cannot say that I'm surprised. Of course, a lot of things happened positively for me. I played well when I had to play. The draw helped little bit. But, you know, you cannot just go with the draw.

"I think this result, it's somewhere where I belong, being number four seed. When you're in quarterfinals, that's nothing amazing. If I did it like five or six years ago, I would tell you, yes, it's incredible.

"But now I feel much more complete player and I think I deserve this place."

Ljubicic is may well be confident ahead of his last eight encounter with Benneteau but the Frenchman heads into the match well-rested after Alberto Martin retired in the last round on Monday to gave the 24-year-old an extra rest for his injured left hand.

"If I had to play a long match, three-and-a-half, four hours, I don't know how my body would have reacted," Benneteau said of the injury, which occurred during his second round defeat of No19 Marcos Baghdatis.

If the match goes the distance, expect Ljubicic to reach his first major semi-final.

Benneteau and Ljubicic have met twice before, but never on clay, with each winning once. Their last meeting was a straight set win for Benneteau in Miami two years ago.

Postcards from Roland