Right now I'm onto part 5 of my posts on the French open which sees the quarter final matches and the remaining 4th round matches being covered, so let's get on with it shall we??
Right so for a change I will dedicate this post to the ladies matches and I will start with Day 9 which saw Victoria Azarenka take on Francesca Schiavone the former 2010 champion, which turned out to be a rout for Schiavone as Vika after the first set raced to victory with a 6-3, 6-0 win. This was a better performanmce from Vika after a scrappy one against Alize Cornet in the 3rd round, and Vika jokily mentioned that she had left her serve at home, but she found it against Schiavone. Next up we had Maria Sharapova who took on the American No.2, Sloane Stephens who actually gave Maria a decent contest and the two of them went at it but in the end it was Maria that came through and was more solid as she won the match in 6-4, 6-3. Maria next to Serena is easily the best player in the tournament so far on the ladies as she is yet to drop a set, atlhough that could change in her next round.
In other day 9 matches we had Maria Kirilenko take on an in form Bethanie Mattek Sands, and the two of them battled it out but eventually Kirilenko managed to win it in a tough tight straight set win in 7-5, 6-4. Jelena Jankovic faced off against the American player Jamie Hampton, and Jelena continued to show her good form as she thrashed Hampton in 6-0, 6-2. This will set up a clash for Jelena with Maria Sharapova which promises to be a good one as they have had some real battles in the past, but I think Maria will come through it most likely in two tight sets or in three.
Getting onto the day 10 matches it saw the first bout of quarter final matches, and first up on Suzanne Lenglen court we had Serena Williams and the former 2009 champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova hammer it out for a place in the semis. Serena came into the quarter final in serene form (if you pardon the pun!) having only dropped 10 games, but here Kuznetsova put a stop to that as she battled it out with the world no.1. After taking the first set comfortably, Serena was on receving end of a fightback from Kuznetsova who broke Serena twice, although Serena got one of the breaks back, the Russian managed to nab the 2nd set. In the 3rd set, Svetlana got an immediate break, but it wasnt long before Serena broke back and went on to engineer a break of her own and then sped to victory with some brutal and efficient play, winning her toughest match of the tournament in 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. This was a really good test for Serena, and in a way she needed her game tested against a real competitor, and Svetlana did her best to push Serena as far as she could. It also saw Serena drop the same amount of games that she had up until the quarter finals so far (i.e. 10 which means Serena has dropped only 20 games going into the semi final!!). So to say that Serena might just go on to win the title is a bit of an understatement, as she is now the overwhelming favourite and with her winning streak now having extended to 29 matches, its mighty hard to see anyone stop her now. And in fact the only person that can beat Serena, as she has even said at times, is herself, and if she doesn't do that, well no one else can.
So next up was Sara Errani who took on Agnieszka Radwanska, the No.4 seed, and the two of them have had their tussles in the past, with Aga having won most of them. However it was Errani who was the stronger player in the opening set, as she broke Aga to take the opener. In the 2nd set however Radwanska started to fight back and the two women traded breaks aplenty until play went to a tiebreak and it was Errani who finally came through a hard fought and highly entertaining 6-4, 7-6(6) victory. This really was one of the highlights of the ladies tournament so far, and both players played some wonderful tennis for the crowd, as they both mixed up their play beautifully, with so many slices, lobs, drop shots and smashes. It was a match that was a real breath of fresh air in the ladies tournament, as too many matches have relied on baseline bludgeoning and power play, which we see all too often from Maria, Serena and Vika. And it was almost bizarre to see Errani even hit drop shot winners off Radwanska's tame serve, but both of them deserve alot of credit for producing a match of this quality and providing some much needed variety to the game.
So that's it for the ladies coverage of Day 9 and 10, so next up I will cover the men's matches in the next post.
And I will leave it there for now.
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