OK well as the French Open gets into its latter stages and all the mens and ladies quarter finals matches are now complete, the semi finals await, so let's see how the matches went today.
Well on the ladies front we had Maria Sharapova take on Kaia Kanepi, the Estonian player, but Kaia was unfortunately no match for the mighty Pova, who bludgeoned her way past her in 6-2, 6-3. Right from the start we knew that Maria would come through, and although she didn't player he best, she still played a solid match, breaking twice in the 1st and once in the 2nd. So onto the second match, which was between Petra Kvitova, the No.4 seed, and the very impressive qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova, who in the previous round put out the defending champion Li Na. However her match with Petra was anything but easy, altough she got off to a great start, breaking Petra to take the set 6-3, but in the second Petra fought her way back into the match, breaking Yaro twice. And in the final set, which was very entertaining the two players shared breaks, but it was Petra that came through it in the end, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. So this completes the ladies semi final set up, which will be on tomorrow, with Sharapova taking on Kvitova, and Sam Stosur taking on Sara Errani, so they both promise to be really good matches, and hopefully very competitive.
So onto the men's matches today, starting with Rafa who was up against his fellow Spaniard, Nicholas Almagro, and the two of them had a fairly close match on Philip Chatrier centre court. Almagro came out strong and upset Rafa's ryhthym in the 1st set, as he pushed Rafa further than any player up until then, to a tiebreak in the 1st, but Rafa came through unscathed. In the 2nd set however Rafa took control, breaking Almagro twice, and in the 3rd he went for the decisive break to reach his 7th Roland Garros semi final, winning in 7-6, 6-2, 6-3. Although it was a fairly comfortable match win for Rafa, it did show a few first signs of a test for the Spaniard, but in the end he came through it without too many problems.
The following match however was quite a different altogether, which was between Andy Murray and the World No.6, and Spanish No.2, David Ferrer. Ferrer has never lost to Andy on clay, and he came into this match as the favourite, and right enough Ferrer came out strong, as did Andy early on, with a few break point opportunities, which he wasn;t able to convert. After breaking back at 5-4, Andy struggled on serve (not for the first time!) and dropped the first set 6-4, however in the second he battled his way back in and took it to a 2nd tiebreak, which Andy dominated well to level the match. However after that, Andy's game progressively collapsed, as his serve and his return game both broke down, and he made a rash of 59 unforced errors, which to lead him handing the break Ferrer needed for the 3rd set, and in the 4th, despite breaking straight away, Andy yet capitulated on serve, and before we knew, we were probably all begging for Ferrer to put the Muzza out of his misery, which he duly did, and sealing his fate in being denied yet another chance at a grand slam. And Ferrer came through very impressively in 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, to reach his first RG semi final.
Well this match definitely was a curates egg for sure, which saw Andy start off well, followed by a few ups and downs, and then it was a headlong fall after that. But Andy knew before the match even started that it would be a very tough proposition to beat Ferrer on clay, especially as Ferrer has had such as good record on clay throughout his career, and that Andy had never beaten him on that surface. So as usual in a big match, Andy came up short, and the match had a lot of worrying signs in it, particularly his first serve percentage which was so bad. After levelling the match a set all, I thought Andy had a chance to turn it around, but play was interrupted by another rain delay, which can also halt player's ryhthym. But overall Andy was just too erratic in the match, and made way too many unforced errors, and he gifted so many points to Ferrer along the way, even when Ferrer got tight, Andy had his chances, which he took one or two only to hand them straight back. And the most worrying thing about the match for Andy is how he just couldn't hold onto his own serve, which was something Ferrer did with fair ease, and that really is something he needs to look at. But Ferrer played a very solid match and he served and returned so well (pretty much the opposite of Andy!) and he really deserves his place in the semi finals with Rafa, which will make for a very very good match.
So this signals the end of a rather disappointing clay court season for Andy, but he does deserve credit for reaching the quarter finals of the French Open, and to be fair he did play some great tennis there as well, despite ending on a low note. So here's hoping he can pick up his game again on grass, and Queens club championships next week, if he is still playing that is, which I think he is, but we will see how his back fares up. But he really needs to work on his serve as well which was worryingly about as bad as I had ever seen it, as it dropped as low as about 38% at one point! So if I were him I'd practice asap!! And its his serve that is his biggest hindrance, and in that match he was lucky if he got 1 out of 10 first serves in, and to make matters worse he was only winning about 40% of the points on his second serve. But again no one seems to mention it on TV, except Greg Rusedski, which I've heard him speak of it from time to time, but it is almost like a taboo subject, yet its as plain as the nose on your face, it remains the main weakness in his game, and until the day that he sorts it, he will never win a slam, its that simple.
And another issue with Andy Murray is that after his superb effort that he put into his Australian Open campaign, and even when he played in Dubai, was after that he started to revert back to type, as he went from playing aggressive back to being passive in rallies and adopting his counterpunch style of play. He basically seems to have undone the good work he had done earlier in the year, and in Dubai he looked sharp and focused in game, serving well too. But after his defeat in Dubai, that's when Andy started to go back to type and that is the main concern, how can he move forward if he maintains the same attitude as before??? So when Wimbledon comes up, can we expect more of the same, play aggressive for a short while then back off? Its simply not going to work against the likes of Rafa and Djoko, as he needs to step it up again, like he did in Melbourne, should he meet them at Wimbledon. For me it has to be said that the remaining slam finals this year will most likely be contested by Djokovic and Rafa, and sadly not by Andy or any other player. But what we can hope for, is even if he loses, that he steps up his game again like he did Melbourne and be prepared to fight to win, and not whinge and moan on court.
Anyway more to follow on the remaining matches from RG, especially the ladies semis tomorrow, so should be great!
Till then, that's it!
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