OK its 3 days into the French Open, the second grand slam of the season, and I thought I would get things under way on my coverage of it and my thoughts on the event so far.
So starting off with the ladies, on day 1 quickly, we had Sam Stosur, seed No.6, who played against the British No.1, Elena Baltacha. For Elena this was a pretty cruel draw, and the match promised to be quite an unforgiving one, and it proved to be just that, as Stosur showed ruthlessly efficiency. After a tight first set won by Stosur, Baltacha was nowhere to be seen in the match and Stosur broke three times to hand a second set bagel and her place in the 2nd round, winning in 6-4, 6-0. This was a pity for Elena as you would hope she could have had an easier first round opponent than the 2010 finalist, but it was just fate of circumstances, so Elena will go on and head for the grass courts in Nottingham in a week or so, so better luck to her there.
In other ladies matches, on Day 2, Victoria Azarenka survived a real serious scare as she took on Alberta Britanti, and after losing the first set 6-7 in a tiebreak, she went a double break down 4-0, before she clawed her way back into the match, taking the 2nd set, and going on to break twice in the 3rd, to close out a gruelling encounter in 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. This really was a shocking performance from the World No.1, as she looked so close to going out in the 2nd set, and I suppose Victoria deserves some credit for pulling herself through such a tough encounter, but it does leave a question over her form for the rest of the event. In another match, Agnieszka Radwanska, had very little trouble closing out against her opponent Bojana Jovanovski, by conceding only one game, and routing her opponent in 6-1, 6-0. Marion Bartoli, the 2nd seed also made smooth progress through to the 2nd round as she beat Korlina Plizkova, a qualifier, here's hoping she can go deep like she did last year, reaching the semi finals. Jelena Jankovic also made it through a tough encounter against Mary-Achleitner in 3 sets, and Li Na won her first round match convincingly in 6-2, 6-1, which marks a really good start to her title defence. Maria Sharapova also brushed ruthlessly past her opponent Alexandra Caduntu in a brutally emphatic manner, handing her opponent a double bagel, 6-0, 6-0. Petra Kvitova also breezed past Ashleigh Barty, the youngest player in the draw, at just a mere 16 years of age, in 6-2, 6-1. And finally Caroline Wozniacki also raced past Eleni Danillidou in 6-0, 6-1, to seal her second round place.
And now for the news of the day, which saw one of the biggest upsets of the year, never mind the tournament, as the hot favourite to win the tournament, Serena Williams went out against the unseeded French qualifier, Virginie Razzano, in a dramatic 3 hour battle. After taking the first set, Razzano had to battle against Serena matching her on serve, pushing the 2nd set to a tiebreak, and despite being 5-2 up, after a line call on Razzano's ball, which was revealed to be in, Serena's concentration went way off and went to lose the breaker, which saw Razzano level the match. And in the 3rd, Serena's poor form continued as she ended up being 5-0, before Razzano started to show signs of fatigue and injury, as she suffered from cramp, and her occassional cries of pain got her a warning from the umpire for hindrance, which cost her two points. Serena however managed to break back and win 3 games in a row, but at 5-3 to Razzano, the two players had an epic game, which lasted 25 minutes, with Razzano battling to serve it out, and after 12 deuces and 8 match points, Razzano pull off a massive upset by putting out Serena Williams, the No.5 seed, and top favourite to win the title.
Well this was definitely unexpected and almost certainly probably the match of the ladies tournament (and this is only day 3!) with an incredible atmosphere from the French crowd living every point that Razzano played, cheering her on every time she won a game or crucial point. But Serena's form was puzzling after losing the 2nd set, she just seemed to go walkabout, and she did what she could to get back into the match at 5-3, but she made a host of unforced errors, that were uncharacteristic of her. But Razzano deserves nothing but credit for her incredible effort and pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport. How much farther Razzano gets is anyone's guess, she could go out in the next round, or she could withdraw with cramp injury. I hope she doesn't and last few more rounds before going out. One thing I thought was a bit harsh on Razza was Eva Ezderacki's decision to given away a couple of points to Serena for hindrance, when she cried out in pain because of her cramp. Its a bit over the top, even though it is apparently in the rules, and for once I had to side with the booing French crowd as it seemed to really go against their player in an unfair way.
This also means there is now no outright favourite to win the title, so there are a few possibles, such as Li Na, Sharapova, Kvitova or even Sam Stosur, and all of sudden things are more interesting. I'm not so convinced by Azarenka's form so far, but she could have a chance too, especially as Serena is now out, her form can only get better after her near disastrous first round, it has to, if she wants to progress.
Anyway quickly onto the men, Novak Djokovic is through, despite a tricky first set from his Italian opponent Pitito Starace (or Starched Potatos to me!), Djoko made easy work of him, and won comfortably in 7-6, 6-3, 6-1. Federer also won with fair ease against Tobia Kamke in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. Other seeds such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had a slightly tougher passage into the 2nd round, as he defeated his opponent Viktor Kuznetsov in 4 sets, and Juan Martin Del Potro took out Albert Montanes in 4 sets, winning 6-2, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1. Out today Rafa made easy work of the Italian player, Simon Bolleli, dropping only five games, in 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. Tomas Berdych also scooshed his way past his first rounder, Dudi Sela in 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, and David Ferrer, a clay court specialist, made short work of the Slovak, Lucas Lucko, winning also in 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.
And Andy Murray the British Numero one, took on his first round opponent Tatsumo Ito from Japan, who for the most part was no match for the Muzza. In the first set it was all about Andy, as Tito struggled to produce anything more than one game, however in the 2nd, Tito found his form and Andy dropped his serve to open the door for Tito, who started to find his range, hitting flat and clean winners. Andy also nearly went a break down in the 2nd at 3-4 as he was 0-40 at one point, but he managed to serve his way out of trouble to level, and at 5-5, Andy broke Ito and went on to a 2 sets up lead. And in the last set, Ito clearly felt the pressure and capitulated on serve, and everything for that matter, as Andy handed him a bagel to go with, which secured his placed in the 2nd round, with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 win.
This was a pretty good start from Andy Murray, and after a poor run of form on clay so far, hopefully here at Roland Garros he can turn things around. Andy did drop serve once though, which is still cause for concern, as it has been something he has been doing quite a bit of late in matches. However physically he looked to be in good fettle, and showed no signs of his back bothering him, which is just as well as many tough rounds will be ahead of him, with Gasquet being a possible 4th round opponent, and Ferrer a quarter final one. And his next opponent will be the Finn, Jarko Nieminen, who is a far more experienced player than Ito, so he will be tougher, although Andy has won all three of their previous meetings, so hopefully he should progress through to the 3rd round. And although Andy can be beaten with relative ease on the ATP tour events, its quite another thing to beat him in the best of 5 sets, in a grand slam match, and he will be more motivated to come through the tougher matches, which I hope he does, to setup the ultimate challenge in Rafa in the semi finals.
Right so that's it for now. More to follow on the 2nd round when it comes up.
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