Right so I'm onto my fourth post on the French Open which will cover the 3rd and 4th round matches from days 7 and 8. So without anymore ado let's get going...
OK so start as usual with the ladies we had Victoria Azarenka up on court first against the French player, Alize Cornet, who put up a good fight against the former world No. 1. Cornet started off really well by taking the opening set against, before Vika mounted her fightback and levelled the match and in the 3rd set it was Victoria that sped to victory with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Maria Sharapova, the defending champion didn't have it all her way either as she faced Zheng Jie of China and despite taking a comfortable first set, Maria found herself 4-1 down and struggling against the Chinese player. However Maria soon battled her way back until it was 5-5 and then Maria made her move for the break and she went on to nab the win in 6-1, 7-5.
Sam Stosur took on the back in form Jelena Jankovic in their match which was a real battle between the two clay court veterans. Stosur made the better start as she broke Jelena to take the opening set, and in the 2nd set it was Jelena's turned to break and she took the 2nd to level. And in the decider the two battled it out with Stosur even up a break at one point before Jelena broke back and afterwards Jelena broke to take the match in 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. This sees Jankovic continue her impressive form and she is a natural clay court player so does have a good chance of going that bit deeper and she will next face Jamie Hampton, the American player who upset Petra Kvitova in the 3rd round, which shows that Kvitova is continuing her troubling slide like Caroline Wozniacki is in form. And Marion Bartoli took on Francesca Schiavone, the former French Open champion, and despite what promised to be an intruiging match, it was Schiavone who took full control as she ran rings around Bartoli, who couldn't cope with her slices, lobs and drop shots, and the Italian won in just 6-2, 6-1.
So now onto Day 8 of the ladies matches on Phillpe Chatrier and first there was Angelique Kerber who faced the former champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova and the two of them had quite a battle out on court, but it was Svetlana who came through in three sets in 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Serena Williams next up faced the Italian No.2, Robert Vinci in a brief but entertaining match, which saw Serena in supreme form once again especially in the first set. In the 2nd set Vinci put up more resistance and showed off some of her terrific net skills and managing to level 3-3, but after that Serena put down the hammer and flattened Vinci by breaking her to love and then serving it out to love as well as she moved into the quarter finals with a 6-1, 6-3 win, having dropped only 10 games in the process! But things might get tougher for Serena in the next round as she will face Svetlana Kuznetsova who alot more firepower than Vinci and she has had plenty of close matches with her in the past. And Sara Errani faced one of her toughest rivals in Carla Suarez Navarro who fought past from a set down to reach her 2nd quarter final after an intense 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 scoreline. And finally Agnieszka Radwanska is up against Ana Ivanovic just now and is set to win it in straight sets, but we'll see.
So now onto the men from Day 7 we had Rafa face the talented and flashy Italian player, Fabio Fognini. Rafa again however started off the match very rustily and he dropped serve on a few occasions and Fabio had several chances to serve for the set but in the end Rafa pushed it to a breaker which he won 7-4. In the 2nd set Rafa took control as he got his forehand working and in the 3rd despite a small blip from Rafa in trying to serve out the match, Rafa finally closed the door on Fabio and won his first straight set win of the event in 7-6, 6-4, 6-3. This still shows troubling signs for Rafa as he is still far from his best so far in the tournament and he has said this himself, but it is a straight set victory and hopefully in the 2nd week Rafa's level will go, because he won't win the title if he plays like this.
Next up we had Novak Djokovic who took on the talented and upcoming Grigor Dimitrov in what promised to be a cracker. However it ended up being a rather disappointing straight forward win for Nole and Dimitrov just kept going for too much, who also seemed to be struggling with a shoulder problem. And in the 3rd set despite going a double break down and nabbing one of them back, Dimitrov still couldn't get it done and Nole won the match in just a mere 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. This was a letdown as far as anticipated matches go, and while it was inevitable that Nole would win I was hoping Dimitrov would get into it more. The match was also soured later for Djokovic but the sad news that his former coach Jelena Gencic had died at the age of 77, who was his first coach. Djokovic understandably cancelled his post match conference as he was too upset to deal with it, and this now sees a question mark over Novak's head as to how he will cope emotionally in this tournament. But hopefully Nole will be able to fight through his emotions and move well on into the 2nd week, and just maybe they might help inspire and motivate him even more.
In other Day 7 matches we had a cracker against John Isner and Tommy Haas, who has been playing the tennis of his life in the last year. And it was Haas who got off the better start taking a two set lead, but Isner being the marathon man that he is, fought his way back in and took sets 3 and 4 to level, and in the 5th it went by serve until 8-8 when Haas got the break and served it out for an incredible 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 10-8.
So onto Day 8 for the men's which kicked off with David Ferrer playing against the South African giant, Kevin Anderson. But it was a case of David and Goliath as Ferrer hammered Anderson and cut him down in size to win in a convincing 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 gubbing. And his next opponent would be the winner of the match between Nicolas Almagro and Tommy Robredo, who had won his previous two matches from two sets to love down, but could he manage a third time? Well it looked unlikely as Almagro looked the stronger earlier taking the two set lead, but it wasn't long before history looked to repeat itself as Robredo did carry on to win the next two sets. And in the 3rd Robredo did the impossible once more as he broke Almagro and went on to close his 3rd consecutive victory in 6-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarter finals. This was quite an incredible achievement for Robredo as no player has manage to win from two sets to love down in the open era in a grand slam, so this was great stuff from him and he deserves alot of credit for it. However I'm sure he will struggle to do the same against Ferrer, but we will wait and see.
Now quickly onto Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who faced Viktor Troicki in his 4th round match, and Tsonga has been in great form so far having not even dropped a set. And he continued to do this in this match and Troicki never was able to deal with Tsonga's firepower and the Frenchman won the match in another staight set win of 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Which brings me onto the last match of the day and probably of the tournament so far which was between Roger Federer and the French player, Gilles Simon. And to start with it looked like a walk in the park for Federer as he raced through the first set and early in the 2nd Simon showed signs of struggle but he managed just to hold on to serve. But 3-2, Simon served to make it 3-3, he sealed the game with a point and Roger tripped and fell on the court, although he was apparenly not injured, but this saw the momentum swing in Simon's favour as he started to play out his skin and broke to take the 2nd set. Simon continued his inspired form in the 3rd set as well and he broke Federer twice to take a 2 sets to 1 lead. But in the 4th, Roger potentially staring down the barrell dug deep and refound his form to take break Simon twice and level the proceedings. And in the 5th set, Roger nabbed the immediate break, but Simon still kept battling and he managed to just hold onto his serve to avoid the double break. And at 5-3 with Roger serving for the match, Simon made one last stand as Roger had to stave a couple of break points, but in the end he managed to seal an incredible victory with a 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 score in just under three hours, which saw Roger reach his 36th consecutive grand slam quarter final.
This was one of the best matches of the tournament so far, with both guys producing great tennis and Simon deserves a great deal of credit for his incredible fight in this match. The audience also took turns in supporting Rog and Gilles with roars of chanting, although it was probably Roger that got the most cheers. And it was down to Roger's unquestionable champion qualities that he was able to dig deep and come back into the match after going two sets to one down. And its matches like this that make the French open a special tournament as the crowd really get involved in the points it must give the players a real of adrenaline rush. And for me I also think that the French open crowd are argubaly the best crowd out of the four majors as they are almost like a panto crowd as they can never resist a chance to boo, or get involved in a point. So overall this was a terrific match and a great battle from both players, but I'm sure even better matches are yet to come.
So that's it for now, and next up I will cover days 9 and 10 as we move into the business end of the tournament with the 4th round and quarter final matches.
Till the next un, bye for now!
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