Right now for the men's side of the net as I will cover the men's matches from the first four days of 2014 French Open, the second grand slam of the tennis season on red clay courts at Roland Garros. And without further ado let's get cracking...
So starting with day 1 we had Roger Federer on court first as he took on the Slovak player, Lukas Lacko, and Roger had no trouble whatsoever in getting past the almost Rafa lookalike-esque player and he put out Lacko in straight sets in 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. Jo Wilfried-Tsonga, the French No.2, also put in a convincing first round display against his fellow countryman, Eduardo Roger-Vasselin, as after two tight sets, which saw Tsonga take a two set lead, Tsonga secured a double break in the 3rd and won the match in 7-6, 7-5, 6-2. Milos Raonic of Canada, the big server, also secured his way into the 2nd round as well as he defeated the Australian player, Nick Kyrgios with a straight set 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win. And lastly John Isner, the big Yank with just as meaty a serve, also managed to get into the 2nd round as he took down the Frenchman, Pierre Hughes Robert in a tight straight set match with a 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 scoreline.
Moving onto day 2, Novak Djokovic opened up his quest to try and win a maiden French open title and complete his career slam, and he played Joao Sousa of Portugal, who he dismissed with ease and secured a straight set 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win. Rafael Nadal, the eight time RG champion started off his campaign as well and he made a very impressive start as he faced the American player, Robby Ginepri and he lost only three games as he raced past the American in 6-0, 6-3, 6-0. Gilles Simon, the Frenchman, also got off to a solid start as he defeated the Croatian player, Ante Pavic in just 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. However all was not happy with the seeds on day 2 as Kei Nishikori, the 9th seed crashed out in his first round match in straight sets, which was possibly due to injury. But the biggest upset of the day was Stanislas Wawrinka who took on the Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and the reigning Australian open champion was far from his best and Stan could not deliver as Garcia-Lopez put in a fine performance to stun the World No.3 with a four set 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 surprise victory. This was a real shock given Wawrinka's form this year, and although he has had a few losses on the tour, I would have expected him to have a delivered a more consistent performance at the French open, given that clay is his best overall surface and his recent performances in the slams which have been excellent. And it was almost a surprising coincidence that both the ladies and mens singles Australian open champions have both gone out in the first round as that is Li Na and Stan Wawrinka both out now. However with them gone it certainly does open up the draw a bit for some of the other players which makes things that bit more intruiging.
And lastly the match of the day was between Julienne Benneteau and Argentine qualifier, Facundo Bagnis as the two of them battled it out as Bagnis was playing in his first grand slam main draw match and as both men levelled the scores at two sets all, they played an epic 5th set which matched the scoreline of the longest 5th set in the history of RG in terms of games played. And in the 5th set despite the odds, it was Bagnis that finally broke Benneteau's serve and went on to win his first ever grand slam match with a remarkable 6-1, 6-2, 1-6, 3-6, 18-16 victory.
Now onto day 3 we started with last year's finalist, David Ferrer, who is easily the 2nd best clay court player on the tour just now (next to Rafa and Djokovic) and he put in a very solid performance in dismissing Igor Slijsling of the Netherlands in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Gael Monfils, the popular French player had a tougher time of it but still came through his match in four sets, defeating Victor Hanescu with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 score. Richard Gasquet on the other hand started off his campaign in fine style and he breezed past the Aussie, Bernard Tomic, whom he beat in 6-2, 6-1, 7-5. And lastlty Andy Murray started his first French Open since 2012, as he was forced to withdraw last year due to his back injury and Andy was up against the Kazahkstan player, Andrei Golubev. This promised to be a tricky opener as Golubev so far has alrady had a good season and help his team mates in reaching the quarter finals of the Davis cup and he defeated Stan Wawrinka in the process. But Andy made a very good start as he played some excellent tennis to take the first two sets, despite trading breaks in the 2nd. However in the 3rd set, Andy's level dipped and Golubev broke to go ahead and take the set to take a foothold in the match. But in the end it was short lived and Andy broke Golubev again in the 4th set and served out the match to reach the 2nd round in 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
This wasn't a bad start from Andy at all but his serve once again brought his game into question and he was up a break early in the 3rd set and should have closed out the match in straight sets, but in the end he wasn't able to. But all things considered Andy played a pretty good match in very tricky conditions as the court was damp and it was very windy on court also. So next up Andy will faced Marinko Matosevic, the Australian player and thankfully for Andy their last meeting saw the Brit beat Matosevic convincingly and hopefully Andy can do so again tomorrow when they are set to meet, so maybe Andy can get a straight sets win there.
Now we move onto day 4 which saw some routine wins for the top seeds, starting with Novak Djokovic who wasted little time in beating another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy with a very efficient straight set win 6-1 6-4, 6-2. So far Nole is looking pretty good in the tournament and as he is yet to drop as set this bodes well for him in saving his energy for the more demanding rounds ahead. And Novak's next clash with Marin Cilic, the big Croatian player, might prove to be his first test and should be one to watch out for, but I think Novak will come through in either 3 or 4 sets. After that we had Roger Federer who also had an easy time of it as he played Diego Sebastian-Schwartzman and he put the Argentine player through his paces and Rog produced a very efficeint and clinical performance to win the match in just under 1 hour and 45 minutes in 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Roger so far is also looking very good in the tournament and confident as he should as he is making very good progress so far in the early rounds, although tougher tests lie ahead with Dimitri Tursunov up next and either the in form Ernest Gulbis or Radek Stepanek in the 4th round.
In other day 4 matches we also Jo-Wilfried Tsonga take on Jurgen Melzer and he also had an easy time of it against the Austrian and Tsonga raced to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Tsonga so far is looking very good in the tournament however he will have his work cut out soon as he could very well face Novak Djokovic in the 4th round, and if its anything like their incredible 2012 encounter, it will be one to watch. And Gilles Simon continued his progress as a home favourite by beating Alejandro Gonzalez in just 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 to reach the third round. Tomas Berdych who won his first round match with ease, had to fight hard in his second round match against another Kazahk player, Aleksander Nedoyesov and came from a set down to win in four sets 6-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. And lastly John Isner managed to battle his way into the 3rd round as well as he defeated the Kazahkstan player (quite alot of them here!), Mikhail Kukushkin in a four set scrap with a 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 win. As for the losing seeds, Alexandr Dolgoplov is out as he was beaten by the Spaniard Marcel Granollers, who won in 1-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 and Mikhail Youzhny lost to Radek Stepanek who won in four sets 6-0, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Right so that's me caught up with the tennis so far at the French Open I will be back in a couple of days with more results of the men's and ladies 2nd and 3rd round matches.
Till then bye for now!
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