Only one showed up at a news conference wearing a Miami Hurricanes football jersey.
And only one likened his next match to the NBA finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, although he was sure to clarify: "It's not Game 7.''
An American in Paris, perchance? No, they're all long gone. This is a Frenchman, 21-year-old Gael Monfils, who happens to have trained in Florida, and he is the most surprising member of a Roland Garros final four that also includes Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Monfils (mohn-FEECE) plays Federer on Friday, and Nadal takes on Djokovic, with berths in Sunday's championship match at stake.
In the women's final Saturday, No. 2-seeded Ana Ivanovic will meet No. 13 Dinara Safina, and one will earn her first Grand Slam title. Ivanovic beat No. 3 Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and Safina defeated No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals Thursday.
Monfils is the first man from France to reach the semifinals since 2001, and, not surprisingly, the locals are quite excited.
The front page of Thursday's L'Equipe newspaper, a sports daily, did not contain a single article. Instead, there was an all-capital-letters headline, "La Gloire de Monfils'' ("The Glory of Monfils'') above a large color photo of the player.
He certainly is an outsider among the remaining quartet. Consider: Federer is ranked No. 1, Nadal is No. 2, and Djokovic is No. 3. Monfils, meanwhile, is No. 59, the lowest-ranked men's semifinalist at Roland Garros since Andrei Medvedev at No. 100 in 1999.
There's also this: Federer extended his own record by reaching a 16th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal. Djokovic is only the fourth man in the 40-year Open era - Federer, Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker are the others - to get to a fifth straight Slam semifinal. Nadal has reached this stage at four of the past five majors.
And Monfils? This is his first trip beyond the fourth round at any of tennis' four most important tournaments.
Which means, of course, he also is the only one of the four men without a Grand Slam title. Federer owns 12, two shy of Pete Sampras' career record, and the French Open is the only Slam he hasn't won. Nadal is trying to become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1978-81 to win four French Open titles in a row. Djokovic won the Australian Open in January.
"I've not reached my objective,'' Monfils said. "I'm very happy I'll play a semifinal on the central court, but this is not my last objective.''
Asked after upsetting No. 5 David Ferrer in the quarterfinals whether his goal is to win the tournament, Monfils replied: "Well, the first objective is to beat the No. 1 player in the world, and we'll see about the rest later.''
Greatness has been predicted for Monfils for quite some time.
In 2004, he nearly completed a junior Grand Slam, winning the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon boys titles that year. His progress has been slowed by a long litany of injuries, however, including a bad knee that kept him off tour this season until March. He was only 5-7 in 2008 before stringing together five consecutive victories at the French Open.
Even that limited action this season includes an 0-2 mark against Federer, who nevertheless called Monfils difficult to play "because he's French, and he's very fit at the moment.''
Nadal is 26-0 at Roland Garros and never even has been extended to five sets. This year, he's been more dominant than ever, dropping only 25 games through five matches.
He is 7-3 against Djokovic and has eliminated him at the French Open each of the past two years. If Djokovic wins Friday, he'll overtake Nadal in the rankings, ending the Spaniard's 150-week stay at No. 2.
"He's going for some shots much more. He combines that with his great physical strength and then patience, and it's impressive on this surface,'' Djokovic said. "But I don't want to go out there in semis and just try my best. I don't want to do that. I want to win.''
2008 Calder Cup Playoffs: Division semifinal previews
Marathon men need OT again
Nadal ties most lopsided win of Slam career
