OK so now I'm onto the men's quarter final matches from the French Open which saw the last eight guys go at it to reach the semi finals of Roland Garros. So let's see how they panned out...
Ok starting with Day 9 and the remaining 4th round matches starting with the defending champion, Rafael Nadal, who took on the Japanese player Kei Nishikori. And it was not only Rafa's 27th birthday that day but the sun was also out and Rafa finally hit his stride after a sluggish start to the tournament by taking Nishikori apart on Court Philippe Chatrier and racing to a straight sets win of 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. In this match we finally saw Rafa's level go up a gear and it started to look like the Rafa from last year's French Open, dominating the rallies, bossing the points and keeping ontop of his opponent right from the word go. And I'm sure Rafa, who was given a splendid birthday cake afterwards couldn't have asked for a better day or result.
So moving onto the next match we had Novak Djokovic who took on the German player, Philipp Kolschreiber. Nole had received the bad news that his first coach Jelena Gencic had died just at the weekend there, so it was natural to imagine he would be off to a slow start and he did indeed as Kolschreiber broke Nole and went on to take the 1st set. However after that Novak regrouped and went on to break the German in sets 2, 3 and 4, and eventually won after a tight encounter in 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. This was the first time we had seen Novak being tested in the tournament so far (excluding Goffin in the first round) and it was the first set he had dropped in the tournament aswell. So while it wasn't a razor sharp performance it did get Nole through the quarter finals, where he would await the next opponent I will discuss. Which was Tommy Haas who played against the Russian player, Mikhail Youhzny and the German looked totally untroubled out there as he dismissed the Youhzny in straight sets with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win. This match really was an impressive result for Haas who at the age of 35 had reached his first ever quarter final at Roland Garros. As for Youzhny well the most remarkable thing he had in the match was when he smashed his racquet against his chair nine times in frustration at being on the receving end of a drubbing, which in itself was the most memorable thing about the match!
But the match of the day, and possibly the tournament so far came from Richard Gasquet and Stanislas Wawrinka. Gasquet and Wawrinka were both bidding to reach their first quarter final at Roland Garros and the two men shared an epic encounter which saw Gasquet take a two sets to love lead against the Swiss. In the 3rd set however Stan started a spirited fightback which saw him level the match at two sets all. And in the 5th set both men continued to produce some spectacular tennis for the crowd on Suzanne Lenglen and it went by serve until 6-6, but Gasquet already had shown signs of fatigue and cramp which soon saw him broken by Stan, who went on to serve out a spectacular match. This saw Stan reach his first ever Roland Garros quarter final with an epic scoreline of 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-5, 8-6. There was no doubt that this was an amazing match and it had a tremendous atmosphere at the crowd were cheering as loud they could for Gasquet, who was looking at his best chance of reaching his first quarter final in his home slam. But in the end it wasn't to be as fatigue had taken over Gasquet, and Wawrinka was just that bit fresher and I think that made the difference, but the match itself was superb and one of the best of the year so far.
Which brings me onto Day 10 and the first round of the men's quarter final matches, starting with David Ferrer who played the comeback man, Tommy Robredo, who had won his previous three matches from two sets to love down. Ferrer however in this match was in no danger of losing his two set lead, as in the third Robredo had nothing left in him to mount a fight a comeback and Ferrer breezed to victory with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win. Ferrer has been in great form so far in the tournament and he has yet to even drop a set and this sees him make his second successive French open semi final, and for once it sees him with an excellent chance of reaching his first major final. But will he????
As that all depends on the winner of the next match I will discuss, which was between Roger Federer and the home favourite and hope, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, which promised to be a real cracker of a match. However the match itself was a bit of a disappointment as Roger looked sluggish throughout and was missing some of his bread and butter shots, such as overhead smashes and serve and volleys, which he failed to execute. But on the other hand Tsonga played an unbelievable match, as he served really well and he bossed Federer around the court, and with the whole French crowd behind him they certainly served (no pun intended!) to fuel his belief to win. And it was Tsonga that saw out the match with a stunning straight sets win over Roger in 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.
This certainly wasn't the result everyone was expecting although I did think this was Tsonga's best shot at beating Roger in a slam this year, and he had already beaten him at Wimbledon two years ago. But no doubt this will be a special victory for Tsonga and for the home crowd as it sees the first man to reach the semi finals of RG since Gael Monfils a few years ago. As for Roger well it was shocking to see him fall in such a manner, although if you remember last year he had a similar defeat to Djokovic in the semi finals, and perhaps his match with Gilles Simon had a few tell tale signs about his form. So for Roger he will just have to move on to the grass court season where he is the defending champion at Wimbledon, but we can leave that for another day.
So this sets up the first men's semi final between Tsonga and Ferrer and its an exciting match up as neither man has reached the final of the French Open. So who will win it???? Well the head to head is in Ferrer's favour as he leads 3-1 and he beat Tsonga in their only previous clay court meeting. However this will be the first time they will have played each other at Roland Garros and let's not forget that Ferrer has never reached the final of a grand slam, but Tsonga on the other hand has (back in 2008 at the Australian Open). So its hard to say who it will go in favour of, but going by his record on clay I would be inclined to go with Ferrer. But I would really like to see Tsonga win and reach his first final at the French, as no native player has reached the final since Henri Leconte back in 1988. However who joins him in the final should he win, will tip things dramatically out of his favour, but we can leave that until Friday once we know who's won the semis and is in the final.
Right so that's it for now, more to follow soon and Days 11 and 12, which will cover the remaining quarter finals and the semi finals for the men's and ladies (so it will be split into two parts).
Until bye for now!
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