OK so now I'm onto the sixth part of my entries on the French Open, the second grand slam of the tennis season, which saw the ladies and mens quarter finals matches get under way, and it was once again quite a day for tennis, at what must be one of the best French Open tournaments in recent years.
So starting off with the ladies as usual, the first match on was the Italian player Sara Errani, who has been on form coming into the French, and she faced the fast rising German player who is now ranked as No.10 in the world, Angelique Kerber. However it was Errani who got off the better start, breaking Kerber once in the 1st set to take it, and in the 2nd the two players shared breaks, with Kerber at one point serving at 6-5 for the 2nd set, but Errani had other ideas and broke back to take it into a tiebreak. And in the tiebreak, Errani was quick to stamp her authority she refused to yield and closed out the match in straight sets to reach her first grand slam semi-final, winning in 6-3, 7-6. For a player ranked in the top 30, this really was a great effort from Sara Errani, and she has been highly imperssive throughout this event and this was her first victory over a top 10 player in quite a while. And it makes you wonder if she could be a potential dark horse for the title, but that remains to be seen.
In the next match Sam Stosur, the sixth seed took on Dominika Cibulkova, and with Stosur having won their only previous encounter, we saw right away she was prepared to assert her authority over the Slovak once again. But Dominika did put up some good resistance in the first set, being broken early on, she did break back, but Stosur still had too much for her and finished the set 6-4. In the 2nd Dominika made a rash of unforced errors which did nothing for her chances against Stosur as she was broken twice, and before we knew Stosur had wrapped up the match in 6-4, 6-1, to reach her second Roland Garros semi final. It really has to be said for me anyway that Stosur is fast looking like the favourite for the title, as Sharapova has been a bit ropey in her last match, and Stosur's next opponent, Sara Errani has never beaten Sam. So I might be wrong but for me Stosur has already booked her place in the final and it would be great if she could win.
Anyway now onto the men's matches, and I will start with Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro who played out on Suzanne Lenglen court. Their previous encounters this year have been pretty straightforward victories for Fed, however this time it was anything but as Delpo came out swinging and soon went to a 2 sets to love lead, with Roger struggling to find out how to hurt the big un. However in the 3rd set, Roger finally found a way back in, and broken Delpo's serve twice to take it, and in the 4th, Delpo's knee injury started to trouble him and Roger handed him a bagel set. In the 5th Delpo tried to regroup but he went a break down and despite a brave fightback he finally succumbed once again to Federer, who is now through to the semis after a scrappy 5 set win in 3-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-0, 6-3. This wasn't quite a convincing performance from Roger as we had thought, as he really did struggle in the first two sets against Delpo, and it was partly in thanks Delpo's injury that he managed to come through it, although he is one of the greatest players of all time, so you would expect him to win, and he did.
Now onto the undisputed match of the day, as the World No.1, Novak Djokovic took on the World No.5 and French No.1, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in what promised to be a real belter of match, and boy did it live up to expectations. In the start however Djokovic was comfortably ahead of Tsonga, who faltered badly in that first set. But in the 2nd set Tsonga drastically upped his level and produced some spectacular tennis, as the crowd got right behind him and went on to break Djokovic at 6-5, and more incredible tennis in the 3rd which he broke Djokovic in again. But the 4th set was probably one of the best sets of tennis you will see all year with both players not giving the other an inch, and Tsonga a match point at 6-5, but Djokovic against all the odds held on, and in the tiebreak again Tsonga had his chances but he was thwarted again, and after saving match points, Djokovic levelled the match to make it 2 sets all. And unfortunately for Tsonga after the incredible effort he put into the previous 3 sets, he came undone and was broken twice by Djokovic, who after 4 hours of incredible tennis made it to the semi finals winning in 6-1, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6, 6-1.
Without a doubt this truly was a remarkable match and both players produced some incredible tennis, especially Tsonga who played some of his flashiest shots, and probably some of the best tennis he has ever played. And for quite a while Tsonga looked the likely winner as he had the whole crowd behind him and Djokovic seem to falter under pressure. But.... Djokovic is no stranger to dealing with pressure and he managed to save all the match points against him with great aplomb, going for the lines when he most needed to. And after Djokovic won the 4th set you just knew that the match was his and it was all over for Tsonga and it would be hard not to feel sorry for the Frenchman after the match, as he sat down, towel over his head as shed a few tears for his tough loss. In fact Tsonga's reaction to his loss reminded me of Andy Murray's semi final defeat at Wimbledon to Rafa, as he slumped in his chair post-defeat, looking absolutely gutted. And the fact that Tsonga came ever closer to defeating Djokovic on that occassion than Andy did against Rafa in Wimbledon, must have been so hard to take, and he said himself it was the toughest loss of his career. But Tsonga showed today that he is a world class player and that he really can go toe to toe with the very best, and while he lost, he lost to the best player in the world in a match that was for the most part of the highest quality imaginable. So hopefully Tsonga won't feel too dispondent and I hope he does really well on the grass court season, as he is a top 10 player and rightly so.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrright that's just about it, more on the remaining men's and ladies quarter final matches tomorrow, which will see Rafa take on Nicholas Almagro, and Andy Murray take on David Ferrer, the latter promises to be a real belter, as Andy and David are always great to watch. Ferrer will be Andy's sternest test yet at Roland Garros, but if he continues playing the form he has already, and doesn't let his level dip too much, then he will come through. Whichever way it goes, it should hopefully be a treat. And on the ladies, Maria Sharapova will Kaia Kanepi, and Petra Kvitova will play the Kazak qualifier, who knocked out Li Na, Yaroslava Shvedova.
Annnnnnnnddd soo that will do her.
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