LI's Lipsky reaches new heights at French

Scott Lipsky, a former state high school tennis champion at Bellmore JFK, remains alive in the French Open mixed doubles semifinals -- the deepest he ever has gone in a Grand Slam event. Lipsky and partner Casey Dellacqua will face Jarmila Gaidosova of Australia and Thomas Bellucci of Brazil on Wednesday at Roland Garros.

Originally from Merrick and now living in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lipsky, 29, was eliminated from men's doubles play in Tuesday's quarterfinals. That, too, was the farthest Lipsky advanced in 14 major tournament appearances. He and partner Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., were beaten by Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, seeded fourth at the French, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Once ranked No. 1 in 16-and-under play, Lipsky played collegiately at Stanford University and once defeated Andy Roddick in the U.S. Open Juniors' tournament, in 1999. Lipsky turned pro in 2003, but after four years of singles play on the challenger tour, during which he never was ranked higher than 315th, he has stuck to doubles play.

His current doubles ranking, 32nd, is the highest of his career. He and Ram had upset seventh-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Oliver Marach of Austria in the French Open's first round.

In mixed competition, Lipsky and Dellacqua, a 26-year Australian, won their first three matches without facing a seeded pair. But, should they advance to the final, they likely would meet the No. 1 team of Slovakia's Katarina Srebotnik and Zimonjic -- the man already partly responsible for Lipsky's loss in men's doubles.