Well day 4 and day 5 didn't see too much spectacular tennis on display, however both of those days did nonetheless have some interesting moments.
On Day 4 for starters, Djokovic and Federer both breezed through in straight sets against their opponents, although Djoko's opponent Victor Hanescu had to retire due to a thigh injury, which was a shame as he seemed to be playing well to begin with. One great match which I didn't get to see however was Marion Batoli who took on Olga Govortsova in a real 3 set scrap, which saw Marion drop the 2nd set in a tiebreak, but she came back impressively in the 3rd and sealed the win in 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 in just shy of 3 hours. Also quite good to see Bartoli out there on court so long, despite her injury last week in Strasbourg which cost her the title there to Petkovic, it shows Bartoli has good stamina, shame she didn't get a full chance to pitch that against Wozzer back in Indian Wells.
Other matches that day saw one or two upsets and a bit of drama, mainly on the woman's court. To start off Caroline Wozniacki played her similarly surnamed opponent Alexandria Wozniack, which to start off appeared to be a fairly straightforward match but in the second Wozniack stepped up her game and pushed the World No.1 to a 2nd set tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker things were going Wozniack's way (yep Alexandra not Caroline!) as she was 6-2 up in the tiebreak when all of a sudden, Caroline thought her serve was in but it was called out by the umpire, but Caroline refused to accept it and ended up arguing with the umpire, provoking the infamously fickle French crowd to boo her. In the end Caroline had to get on with it, even with her dad shouting at her to get on with that match, and she won the tiebreak regardless as Wozniack's serves faltered, but Caz walked off the court receiving more boos from the crowd.
The other upset of day 4 saw World No.3 Vera Zvonareva who took on Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Vera was a set down but came back into the second set and took it 7-5, and in the third set Lisicki again to appeared to have the advantage but Vera came back again and claimed the 3rd set 7-5. This was also in part due to the fact that Sabine started suffering from leg cramps and dizziness which worsened in the 3rd set, so at the end of the match it saw her go down on her knees, sobbing, and having to be taken off court on a stretcher.
So onto Day 5, which did see more upsets in the French Open. For starters Kim Clijsters went out in a shock result as her opponent Arantxa Rus defeated her in 3 sets 6-3, 5-7, 1-6. After the first set and despite being 5-1 up, Kim's game just completely disintegrated and she haemorraged more unforced errors than any other player on tour so far, at a record of 65! I think though her loss might be attributed toward not enough match play, as this was her first return to the game since Miami in March, also she was trying to play on clay in an attacking way, which probably wasn't the right way for the surface. Upsets on the men's side also saw top seeds Jurgen Melzer and Nikolai Davydenko go out too.
So onto the anticipated men's matches of the day, starting with Andy Murray who played the Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli, who Andy defeated in straight sets, however it was anything but easy, as the Italian made things very difficult for Andy. Throughout Andy made many mistakes and dropped serve, however fortunately for him, Bolelli did the same thing, allowing Andy to break back when he needed to. The blustery conditions on court also made things very difficult for the players to hit through the ball well without it changing direction. But in the end after nearly 3 hours, Andy pulled through and took the match in 7-6(3), 6-4, 7-5. It wasn't by any means Andy's best performance, but given the difficult windy conditions on the court, he did well to pull through the match in straight sets. But it was a shame to see the other two British players, Elena Baltacha the ladies No.1 and Heather Watson the now No.2, go out in their second round matches against Kaia Kanepi and Ivana King respectively. But at least the Muzza is still in the mix, next up he plays Michael Berrer, a German player who beat Armand Clemaunt in 4 sets, no doubt it will be another test, but hopefully one that Murray can win.
Next up Nadal went on court to face fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar in what might have seemed a fairly easy match up after his epic 1st round battle with John Isner. However Andjuar proved also to be quite a tricky customer, as he gave Nadal a bit of a headache, especially in the 3rd set where Nadal was trailing badly 1-5 down. But Rafa being Rafa, did what he needed to do and stepped up his level to break back and make it 5-5 all, after the set went to a tiebreak and Rafa prevailed winning in 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(4). Again it does raise questions over Rafa's ability and current performance in light of his recent defeats against Djokovic, which have certainly left him more vulnerable than before, as it has shown that he can be pushed alot more than he used to. At this rate he is in danger of losing his throne as the king of clay, and if he is going to pull out a win against Djokovic, he's going to have to grind like he's never grinded before. I think he will get to the final but the path he has taken to get there seems to be far from the easy one. Hopefully Rafa can pick up things a bit more as he goes on, I just hope he doesn't receive a slew of these tests as it could leave him with less in the tank if and when he does reach the final.
Anyway that's enough for the last two days tennis at the French, while not spectacular, it has been interesting. But tomorrow should be very interesting as there are quite a few promising not to mention tough matches ahead. The most high profile one of course is Djokovic who faces the mighty Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, who was the US Open 2009 champion. Delpo has made quite a comeback so far this year, and I think this match might well be Djokovic's first true test at the French Open. Can Delpo defeat the Djokster and end his unbeaten run??? Most likely not, but then again there have already been quite a few upsets at this tournament, and Del Potro is the sort of guy when he sees chances, he does seize them. And if he played Djokovic in Rome and was in Murray's shoes, he would have beaten him. But on the other hand, no matter how big the test is, Djokovic has time and time again proved so far this year to be unbeatable, and I don't think the mighty Del Potro will even stop him, but it should hopefully be quite a match.
Other very intersting matches tomorrow will include: the Wozzer (Caroline) vs Daniella Hantuchova, David Ferrer vs Sergy Stakhosky, Marion Bartoli vs Julia Goerges (real tough one to call, but I think Goerges might edge it), Richard Gasquet vs Thomaz Bellucci (the Brazillian Murray and Berdych beater in Madrid) and of course Shuai Peng vs Francesca Schiavone. Schiavone so far has been really impressive at Roland Garros, she hasn't held back and has so far been blootering her opponents off the court, but Peng Shuai will be her first test, so it will be intersting.
And well that's a big post, so enough of that for now.
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