By RICK GANOAP SPortS Writer

CHICAGO — Three years ago, a pingpong ball took a fortuitous bounce for the Chicago Blackhawks, almost like a sliding puck, and they came out win-ners in a lottery that has revived the franchise.

With just little more than an 8 percent chance of winning the top pick in 2007, the Blackhawks were able to leapfrog the team with the worst re-cord, the Philadelphia Fly-ers, and they made Patrick Kane their No. 1 choice.

Kane went to Chicago and became the rookie of the year, while the Flyers took James van Riemsdyk with the second pick. Now both players are in the Stanley Cup finals, facing each other with Game 1

set for Saturday night at the United Center.

“It seems like it’s al-most worked out good for both teams,” Kane said.

“They’re here three years later. I’m here three years later, our team is, and that’s the most important thing for this franchise.”

The Blackhawks are searching for their first ti-tle since the days of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita in 1961.

The Flyers are looking for their first champion-ship since the Broad Street Bullies socked their way to the second of back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 1975 — long before Kane or van Riemsdyk, both 21, were born.

The two played together in the world juniors and remain close. They went to dinner when the Black-hawks were in Philadel-phia for their only meet-ing with the Flyers this season. Now comes a shot at the Cup.

“You never know what could have happened. I think going into that draft, the Blackhawks were like fifth to last place or what-

ever you want to call it at that time,” Kane said. “So it was kind of a shocker they got the first overall pick. ... To be honest with you, I was kind of excited when Chicago got it.”

Kane headed right to the NHL after he was selected No. 1 and quickly emerged as a star, a consistent scor-ing threat with his speed and puck handling skills. Van Riemsdyk took a dif-ferent route, heading off to college first and then sign-ing with the Flyers a little more than a year ago.

“We were both put in different situations and we were in different stages of our hockey development and, you know, I did what I thought was best for me to be a better player,” van Riemsdyk said. “He was obviously ready to make that jump right after the

draft. He’s done a good job for himself.”

And for his team. The Blackhawks were playing before a half-empty arena before Kane and 22-year-old captain Jonathan Toews arrived and became the centerpieces of the team’s rebirth on the ice and the accompanying marketing campaign.

Now the Blackhawks are one of the hottest tickets in Chicago, a young team that made it to the Western Conference finals a year ago before losing to Detroit.

Winning four more games will be a challenge against a Flyers team also considered a championship contender entering the sea-son before it had to make a remarkable run to get to the finals for the first time since 1997.

Roland Garros a day later. Both Williams sisters; Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal; Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Lleyton He-witt — all played and won.

The only upset of real significance came when de-fending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to 30th-seeded Maria Kirilenko in a third-round match that lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours. Even that wasn’t exactly shocking, when you consider Kirilenko already beat Kuznetsova on clay at Rome this month and knocked out Sharapova at the Australian Open in January. Plus, Kuznetsova arrived in Paris with a losing record this year and

barely eked through the second round by saving four match points.

“I have to move on. I have to grow and to im-prove,” said Kuznetsova, who will fall out of the top 10 in the rankings for the first time in four years. “I didn’t come here with my best game, but I gave it my

all.”With so many other top

players still around, some must start facing each oth-er. Four-time French Open champion Nadal meets past Wimbledon and U.S. Open winner Hewitt on Saturday. That is scheduled to be followed in the main stadium by Sharapova vs.

Henin, two women with decidedly different ways of looking at their most recent encounter, a straight-set win by Sharapova in the 2008 Australian Open quar-terfinals.

It turned out to be Henin’s last Grand Slam match before her hiatus.

“It seems so far away. I mean, even seems like it never existed, that mo-ment,” the Belgian said after eliminating 79th-ranked Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3. “I didn’t want to be on the court anymore at that time, and now I have a lot of motivation to be out there and to fight and try to keep winning.”

Here is Sharapova’s take: “Actually, feels like we never left. Or it was just yesterday. That’s so funny. It was a couple of years

ago, and here we are. We’re back. It’s a different Slam, but it’s the same drill.”

Like Henin’s second-round match, Sharapova’s was halted in the second set because of darkness Thurs-day night. Like Henin, Sharapova wasn’t chal-lenged much in a 6-3, 6-3 victory, hers coming against

71st-ranked Kirsten Flip-kens of Belgium.

Clay never has been the 6-foot-2 Sharapova’s preferred surface; she’s only once been as far as the semifinals in seven previous trips to the French Open, while she won each of the other Grand Slam tournaments.

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OPEN, FROM PAGE 1B

AP Photo/LioneL Cironneau

Justine Henin returns the ball to Klara Zakopalova during a second-round match of the French open in Paris Friday.

Kane, Van Riemsdyk share bond as they go for Cup

AP Photo/nam Y. HuH

Chicago’s Patrick Kane, right, controls the puck as he works with Bryan Bickell during hockey practice Friday. The Black-hawks host the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals today.