If the title of my post confuses you (or anyone who might read this, that I haven't drawn any attention toward as this blog is actually more for my own personal amusement, but if anyone is reading it, feel free please!) it refers to the grunts of two tennis players that played today at the French Open.
The first un is the defending ladies champion of the French Open, Francesca Schiavone, who played today against Jelena Jankovic. Up until now Schiavone had quite an easy time of things with her opponents, but beating Jelena is no easy feat as the current FO champion battled it out with the Serb for nearly 2 hour and 40 minutes before the Italian finally prevailed in 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. But it once again showed Schiavone's sheer determination and class, Jankovic also provided some great quality tennis also as the two players shared out the breaks and kept on the pressure. Its good to see Schiavone so motivated as well and so passionate out on court in Paris, as she really feels at home there and without a doubt she brought her best tennis to Roland Garros so far, she knows what it means to her to defend her title and she is going the right way about it. Francesca was so pleased in fact at the end of the match she got on ground and kissed the clay, like she did last year after she won the title, well ok, Fran you're not quite there yet! But well done to her.
The other player's grunt in the title of my post, of course belongs to Novak Djokovic who took on home fav Richard Gasquet. However as I predicted it was a fairly straightforward win for Djoko as he beat Gasquet in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. I didn't think somehow Gasquet had in it him to test Djokovic much anyway, to be fair he did play quite well for the first two sets, and he now and then fired out a few winners, but in the end he wasn't consistent and Djokovic was nothing but and that cost him the match. So by the third Djokovic broke Gasquet quite easily and after that it was steamroller time and it saw Gasquet's gasket well and truly blown oot. Next up for Djokovic is the Italian player Foginini who came through an epic 5 set battle against the Spaniard Albert Montanes, however Foginini suffered from leg cramps so what his state will be like by Tuesday is unsure, one way or another, the guy won't trouble Djoko too much.
A quick word about Federer who played his native bud Stan Wawrinka, who Federer beat relatively comfortably in 3 sets, although Stan did mount a mini battle in the 3rd set, as he was a break up but then Fed broke back to level it out 5-5, and then after that Federer took the set in 7-5. So Federer will next face the winner of the David Ferrer and Gael Monfils match, which has been suspended until tomorrow but so far has itself proved to be a great match already into the 4th set, with Monfils leading 2 sets to 1 so far, in 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, 0-2.
And finally some more good news today for the French fans as the ladies French No.1 player Marion Bartoli made it into the quarter finals of the French Open for the first time in her career. Unfortunately though it was the result of a retirement from her opponent Gisela Dulko who retired due to a thigh inury, but she's through and I'm sure she'll be pleased. However Marion has been in great form throughout this tournament so far, and more impressively she also defeated in the previous round Julia Goerges who already has twice defeated Caroline Wozniacki on clay. So to see Marion beat a player of Goerges's calibre was really quite impressive, especially on clay, so I wish Marion the best of luck for the remainder of the tournament as she is up against Svetlana Kuznetsova next, which will be a tough one. And more recent developments on the women's draw, Andrea Petkovic is through to the quarter finals, as is Maria Sharapova who defeated Agnieszka Radwanska, and Li Na also who defeated Petra Kvitova, which saw Li Na get revenge for her defeat at Madrid. Although at her post match conference she sounded a bit negative saying "I don't like clay courts, if you don't like the weather, the arena, and the surface, you still have to play". Feck sake Li Na, you are only into the quarter finals of the French Open, not to mention she is the first Chinese woman to reach that far at Roland Garros. Try and lighten up a bit and be more positive!! It sounded like she didn't want to be there. What if she won the title, would she give it back??? Anyway the Chinese No.1 is through.
On the Muzza front, Andy after some practice play decided to play his 4th round match against Viktor Troicki the 15th seed. And at the start it looked like a real disaster for Andy, as he was all over the place in the first set and was 0-5 down, but clawed it back to 4-6, and in the second he had a break but he squandered it and lost 4-6 as well. In fact things looked pretty bleak for Andy, also I think his ankle was still troubling him, but at one point he wanted the strap taken off it. But when things looked bad, Andy fought back in the 3rd set and took it 6-3, and in the fourth he maintained his momentum and took it 6-2. But due to the light curfew at 9:30pm, play was suspended, so it will resume tomorrow, with both players having to play the final deciding 5th set. It was quite incredible to watch Andy come back from 2 sets down, he has done it a few times before, but considering his injury, its quite remarkable, and by the time he got to the 4th set he had a lot more spring in his step. So tomorrow sees the decider, I'm hoping and I am fairly certain Andy will win it, as he is the hungrier of the two players. But Troicki is an excellent player as well, and I have to commend his great efforts. So can't wait to see that one!
So that's....... it!
No comments:
Post a Comment