Ok so now onto the final part of my 5th part of my entries on the French Open, which will cover the remaining quarter final matches on the men's and ladies, so let's get going....
Starting with ladies first we had Maria Sharapova take on Jelena Jankovic for a clash to reach the semi finals, and it promised to be quite a tough match. And it turned out to be just that and it was Jelena who got off to a great start as she inflicted a rare grand slam feat on Maria, in that she dished out a bagel set to the Russian. However that didn't last in the 2nd set as Sharapova soon took charge and started her fightback by breaking Jankovic twice, although the Serb ended up getting one of the breaks back, Sharapova still levelled the match at a set all. In the decider it was tight until Sharapova made the break and moved ahead to break Jelena again to win a gruelling encounter in 0-6, 6-4, 6-3. In this match again Sharapova showed her battling qualities and no one can fight back from a set down like she can, and she rarely ever loses a match based on that position (unless its Serena!). So this will set up her semi final with the winner of the next match....
And this is match was between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko, and the match itself was likewise a tough battle between the two players. The first set was a tough long encounter and it took a tiebreak to separate them and it was Vika that moved ahead and won the breaker 7-3 to seal the 1st set. In the 2nd set however Vika took control and went on to break Kirilenko twice, as she sealed the win to reach her first ever Roland Garros semi final. So this now means we will have another intruiging clash ahead between Vika and Maria, which promises to be quite a match, and although Victoria leads their head to head 7-5, Sharapova has the edge over Victoria on clay having won both their meetings on the red dirt. However this will be the first time they will have met in a grand slam at the French Open so it remains to be seen how it will pan out, but I just think that Maria might just edge this one in three sets, and hopefully it should be a really good match.
Now onto the men's remaining quarter final matches, starting with Rafa who took on Stan Wawrinka, and it had to be said that even before the match that Rafa was overwhelming favourite for this one, as Stan has never beaten Rafa and has failed to even take a set off him in their previous meetings! And it turned out to be no different in this match as Rafa improved his fine form that he has shown in the 2nd week so far, by thrashing Stan in straight sets dropping just a mere six games and nabbing a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Naturally this wasn't much of a match to write home about (or putting much on this blog about!) and it was decided before the two men even went on the court. Suffice to say it will set up an infinitely more intruiging match, based on the winner of the next match....
And the next match was between Novak Djokovic and the German player, Tommy Haas, who at the age of 35 has made a terrific comeback in the last year and is playing his best tennis in years. And the match itself was quite an entertaining one, although Djokovic throughout was in commanding form and he barely dropped more than 10 points on his own serve, as he served about as good as he ever has, and he broke Haas in the opening set to nab it. In the 2nd set, it was much tighter and it went by serve until a tiebreak, and despite Haas taking a minibreak at one stage, he soon lost it and Nole sealed the set to take the lead. In the 3rd set Haas managed to break back after Djokovic broke him, but after some relentless pressure, Haas started to fade as tiredness took him over, and he soon surrendered his serve at 5-5, and left Nole to serve it out and seal his semi final place with a 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 win.
So this sets up the ultimate clash between two of the best players the game has seen in Rafa and Nole and it begs the question, who will win it??????????? Well...... its not an easy one to answer because there are a number of different factors, first off the weather as its supposed to be warm and sunny on Friday, which would instantly favour Rafa for the conditions on court. Although if the weather changes to cold and damp conditions then this could favour Nole as it will allow him to take more time on the ball. And then there is Novak who has beaten Rafa in their last clay court meeting in Monte Carlo, where Nole snapped Rafa's winning streak there as well, as he had won eight titles in a row there. Another thing to take into consideration however is that both men are peaking in the tournament just at the right time, which is what makes this in itself so tough to call. But I think the result will simply boil down to who plays the best tennis on the day and we will just have to wait and see who comes out on top. But if I were to make a split prediction I would say if Nole wins it will be in 5 sets, and if Rafa wins it will be in four tight sets.
So that's it for now I will report back on Friday once the ladies and men's semi finals are out of the way and we know who this years grand slam finalists will be.......
Till then bye for noww.
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
2013 Roland Garros Part 5.2: Men's 4th round and QFs
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!
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!
2013 Roland Garros Part 5.1: Ladies 4th round and QFs bout 1
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.
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.
Sunday, 2 June 2013
2013 Roland Garros Part 4: Making it 3 and 36 in a row....
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!
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!
Friday, 31 May 2013
2013 Roland Garros Part 3: rain delays, more delays and an unhappy camper
Right so now I'm onto the 3rd of my entries on the French Open which will cover days 5 and 6 for the mens and ladies matches, which covers the 2nd and 3rd round matches, so let's give it a look..
OK starting with ladies first on day 5 and the first match I'll look at was the biggest upset on the ladies side of the tournament so far, which was Li Na who suffered a shock defeat to the American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Li Na was in control early on and took the 1st set, but after a rain delay and play resumed Li appeared to lose her concentration and Mattek-sands took advantage and levelled the match at a set all, and in the decider she went on to break Li twice and seal one of her biggest wins with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win. This quite an upset and I think Li Na struggled to keep her consistency after the rain delay which ultimately cost her the match, which was a pity as it would have been good to see her win through, but Bethanie did well in her victory. Next up we had Sam Stosur who took on Kristina Mledenovic and she put in a convincing performance and dismissed her opponent in 6-4, 6-3. Stosur is a natural clay court player so its good to see her do well again on the red dirt, especially as she had reached the final three years ago and the semis last year. Victoria Azarenka also played her match against Annika Beck, and Vika did get off to a sluggish start and she was put through a tough opening set that lasted nearly 1 hour and 10 minutes, but she Vika won the opener and broke in the 2nd set to win 6-4, 6-3.
On Day 6 we had Marion Bartoli kick off the action against Mariana Duque of Colombia who gave the French No.1 a stern test, with Bartoli even being 5-2 down in the first set at one point, before regaining her form to push the match to a tiebreak which she won. In the 2nd set it was tight again as play went to 5-5 and Bartoli broke to eventually win the match with a 7-6, 7-5 scoreline. Maria Sharapova wasted little time in her match as she had to play a day later due to the rain delays, and she beat Eugenie Bouchard in 6-2, 6-4. Serena Williams also continued her scary form as she totally demolished Sorana Cristea of Romania and conceded just two games in the process with a 6-0, 6-2 gubbing, this sees her having only dropped six games in the tournament so far! Agnieszka Radwanska also made it past Dinah Pfizenamier of Germany with a comfortable straight set win of 6-3, 6-4 to reach the 4th round of the tournament. Angelique Kerber also progressed to the 4th round but she had a much tougher match against the American Vervara Lepchenko, as Kerber battled past her in 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
And finally getting on some of the Italian players first up we had Sara Errani continued her superb form in Paris with an emphatic victory of Sabine Lisicki (very nice!) in straight sets with a 6-0, 6-4 win. Errani is looking pretty ominous so far and although she lacks the power to take out the big hitters like Maria and Serena, she will still pose a strong threat to everyone else, so she will no doubt go deep. Roberta Vinci also made it past Petra Cetkovska in a tougher match as she was taken the distance and came through in 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. And lastly the former champion, Francesca Schiavone, who usually saves her best form for this event, had to fight past the Belgian player Kirsten Flipkens, but she triumphed with an eventual 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 score. This sets up a hugely intruiging 3rd round encounter with Marion Bartoli, which promises to be quite a cracker of a match, although Schiavone comfortably won their last meeting in Paris two years ago, so we will see how it pans out this time.
So now onto the guys matches, starting with day 5 as we had Novak Djokovic take on Guido Pella whom he had no problem getting by at all and probably didnt even break a sweat as he hammered the Argentine in 6-2, 6-0, 6-2. This is quite an emphatic result, but it will set up a much tougher and far more interesting match with Grigor Dimitrov who defeated Nole back in Madrid earlier this month in the 3rd round, which promises to be a cracker.
Now I''ll move onto day 6 as there were alot of matches being suspended due to the rain and to start I will mention Rafa who faced Martin Klizan, the Slovak player in his 2nd round encounter. Rafa however continued his rusty form from the 1st round as he dropped the opening set to Klizan, but after a slow start Rafa soon cranked up the gears and broke his opponent in the 2nd set and claimed it. And it was the same story in sets 3 and 4, but Klizan did still put up a good fight, however it was Rafa that inevitably won out in 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. This does show one or two slightly troubling signs for Rafa as he has gotten off to another slow start in this match, but no doubt he will pick up as the rounds carry on. Rafa was also pretty riled by the scheduling as he felt it wasn't fair how his match scheduled due to the rain delays and how he felt other players got a better deal than he did. So that means that Rafa will need to play his 3rd round match against Fabio Fognini on Saturday.
So next up we had Roger Federer who so far has moved effortlessly in his progress and in his 3rd round against Julienne Benneteau he continued to remain largely unthreatened. Although Benneteau did pose a slightly bigger threat than Roger's opponents so far, and he kept the scoreboard close but Roger broke the Frenchman easily in each set when it mattered and he closed out a rapid paced but entertaining match in 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. So Rog will next face Gilles Simon, another Frenchie who battled his way past Sam Querrey in 5 sets, so poor Gilles might end up being on the receiving end of a hammering but we will wait and see. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also showed some really good form against his fellow countryman Jeremy Chardy and he wasted little time in dispatching him with a 6-1, 6-2, 7-5 win. David Ferrer also made it past his fellow compatriot Feliciano Lopez with a straight sets win in 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 to set up a 4th round encounter with the giant South African fella, Kevin Anderson, who took out Milos Raonic in straight sets.
And the last match I will mention will be Gael Monfils, yet another French player who has made an impressive comeback on the tour this year, and made some good progress in the tournament so far. However Monfils came up against a real stern opponent in the Spanish player, Tommy Robredo, and despite taking a two sets to love lead, Monfils soon found himself on the recieving end of a fightback from the Spaniard. However Monfils in the 4th set had four match points against Robredo, but he was unable to take any of them as Robredo fought back and played aggressively to stay in the match and he soon levelled the match at two sets all. And in the 5th set, Monfils started to show signs of fatigue as he cramped up, and ran out of steam, with Robredo breaking Monfils twice and his heart with it as he completed his remarkable fightback from two sets down with a 2-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-2 victory.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed for Monfils that he lost this match as he had an excellent chance of closing the match out in the 4th set at 5-3 as Robredo went match point down twice, but Monfils let him off the hook, and when Monfils tried to serve it out he got tight and it was 5-5 before we knew it. However despite his loss, Monfils has shown great promise this week in his form and if he carries on like this it won't be long before he rises back up in the rankings again to the top 20 or even top 10. As for Tommy Robredo he deserves alot of credit also for completing such a remarkable comeback, as he also had to fight from two sets to love down in his 2nd round match as well. Next up for him will be a clash with Nicolas Almagro, who has also been in great form so far in this tournament, so I would expect Almagro however to come through that one.
So that's it for now, more to follow on the men's and ladies matches over the next couple of days as I will cover days 7 and 8 in the next post.
Till then bye for nowww!
OK starting with ladies first on day 5 and the first match I'll look at was the biggest upset on the ladies side of the tournament so far, which was Li Na who suffered a shock defeat to the American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Li Na was in control early on and took the 1st set, but after a rain delay and play resumed Li appeared to lose her concentration and Mattek-sands took advantage and levelled the match at a set all, and in the decider she went on to break Li twice and seal one of her biggest wins with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win. This quite an upset and I think Li Na struggled to keep her consistency after the rain delay which ultimately cost her the match, which was a pity as it would have been good to see her win through, but Bethanie did well in her victory. Next up we had Sam Stosur who took on Kristina Mledenovic and she put in a convincing performance and dismissed her opponent in 6-4, 6-3. Stosur is a natural clay court player so its good to see her do well again on the red dirt, especially as she had reached the final three years ago and the semis last year. Victoria Azarenka also played her match against Annika Beck, and Vika did get off to a sluggish start and she was put through a tough opening set that lasted nearly 1 hour and 10 minutes, but she Vika won the opener and broke in the 2nd set to win 6-4, 6-3.
On Day 6 we had Marion Bartoli kick off the action against Mariana Duque of Colombia who gave the French No.1 a stern test, with Bartoli even being 5-2 down in the first set at one point, before regaining her form to push the match to a tiebreak which she won. In the 2nd set it was tight again as play went to 5-5 and Bartoli broke to eventually win the match with a 7-6, 7-5 scoreline. Maria Sharapova wasted little time in her match as she had to play a day later due to the rain delays, and she beat Eugenie Bouchard in 6-2, 6-4. Serena Williams also continued her scary form as she totally demolished Sorana Cristea of Romania and conceded just two games in the process with a 6-0, 6-2 gubbing, this sees her having only dropped six games in the tournament so far! Agnieszka Radwanska also made it past Dinah Pfizenamier of Germany with a comfortable straight set win of 6-3, 6-4 to reach the 4th round of the tournament. Angelique Kerber also progressed to the 4th round but she had a much tougher match against the American Vervara Lepchenko, as Kerber battled past her in 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
And finally getting on some of the Italian players first up we had Sara Errani continued her superb form in Paris with an emphatic victory of Sabine Lisicki (very nice!) in straight sets with a 6-0, 6-4 win. Errani is looking pretty ominous so far and although she lacks the power to take out the big hitters like Maria and Serena, she will still pose a strong threat to everyone else, so she will no doubt go deep. Roberta Vinci also made it past Petra Cetkovska in a tougher match as she was taken the distance and came through in 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. And lastly the former champion, Francesca Schiavone, who usually saves her best form for this event, had to fight past the Belgian player Kirsten Flipkens, but she triumphed with an eventual 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 score. This sets up a hugely intruiging 3rd round encounter with Marion Bartoli, which promises to be quite a cracker of a match, although Schiavone comfortably won their last meeting in Paris two years ago, so we will see how it pans out this time.
So now onto the guys matches, starting with day 5 as we had Novak Djokovic take on Guido Pella whom he had no problem getting by at all and probably didnt even break a sweat as he hammered the Argentine in 6-2, 6-0, 6-2. This is quite an emphatic result, but it will set up a much tougher and far more interesting match with Grigor Dimitrov who defeated Nole back in Madrid earlier this month in the 3rd round, which promises to be a cracker.
Now I''ll move onto day 6 as there were alot of matches being suspended due to the rain and to start I will mention Rafa who faced Martin Klizan, the Slovak player in his 2nd round encounter. Rafa however continued his rusty form from the 1st round as he dropped the opening set to Klizan, but after a slow start Rafa soon cranked up the gears and broke his opponent in the 2nd set and claimed it. And it was the same story in sets 3 and 4, but Klizan did still put up a good fight, however it was Rafa that inevitably won out in 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. This does show one or two slightly troubling signs for Rafa as he has gotten off to another slow start in this match, but no doubt he will pick up as the rounds carry on. Rafa was also pretty riled by the scheduling as he felt it wasn't fair how his match scheduled due to the rain delays and how he felt other players got a better deal than he did. So that means that Rafa will need to play his 3rd round match against Fabio Fognini on Saturday.
So next up we had Roger Federer who so far has moved effortlessly in his progress and in his 3rd round against Julienne Benneteau he continued to remain largely unthreatened. Although Benneteau did pose a slightly bigger threat than Roger's opponents so far, and he kept the scoreboard close but Roger broke the Frenchman easily in each set when it mattered and he closed out a rapid paced but entertaining match in 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. So Rog will next face Gilles Simon, another Frenchie who battled his way past Sam Querrey in 5 sets, so poor Gilles might end up being on the receiving end of a hammering but we will wait and see. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also showed some really good form against his fellow countryman Jeremy Chardy and he wasted little time in dispatching him with a 6-1, 6-2, 7-5 win. David Ferrer also made it past his fellow compatriot Feliciano Lopez with a straight sets win in 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 to set up a 4th round encounter with the giant South African fella, Kevin Anderson, who took out Milos Raonic in straight sets.
And the last match I will mention will be Gael Monfils, yet another French player who has made an impressive comeback on the tour this year, and made some good progress in the tournament so far. However Monfils came up against a real stern opponent in the Spanish player, Tommy Robredo, and despite taking a two sets to love lead, Monfils soon found himself on the recieving end of a fightback from the Spaniard. However Monfils in the 4th set had four match points against Robredo, but he was unable to take any of them as Robredo fought back and played aggressively to stay in the match and he soon levelled the match at two sets all. And in the 5th set, Monfils started to show signs of fatigue as he cramped up, and ran out of steam, with Robredo breaking Monfils twice and his heart with it as he completed his remarkable fightback from two sets down with a 2-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-2 victory.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed for Monfils that he lost this match as he had an excellent chance of closing the match out in the 4th set at 5-3 as Robredo went match point down twice, but Monfils let him off the hook, and when Monfils tried to serve it out he got tight and it was 5-5 before we knew it. However despite his loss, Monfils has shown great promise this week in his form and if he carries on like this it won't be long before he rises back up in the rankings again to the top 20 or even top 10. As for Tommy Robredo he deserves alot of credit also for completing such a remarkable comeback, as he also had to fight from two sets to love down in his 2nd round match as well. Next up for him will be a clash with Nicolas Almagro, who has also been in great form so far in this tournament, so I would expect Almagro however to come through that one.
So that's it for now, more to follow on the men's and ladies matches over the next couple of days as I will cover days 7 and 8 in the next post.
Till then bye for nowww!
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
2013 Roland Garros Part 2: top drawer on the clay...
Ok so now I'm onto part 2 of my posts on the French Open as I will cover days 3 and 4, as the action continues for the 1st and 2nd round matches, and already we have seen some terrific stuff in the first few days and some great matches so let's have a look at the results...
So to kick off let's start with day 3 and the ladies matches, starting off with Marion Bartoli who played a cracker of a match against Olga Govortsova, as the two of them battled it out on Philippe Chatrier with play taken to a decisive set. And in the 3rd set Bartoli went a break down with Olga serving for the match, Bartoli showed her battling qualities as she broke back and then went on to break Olga's serve at 5-5 and then finally after four match points went on to serve out the match after a gruelling 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 win. This was a great encounter and once again it shows just why Marion Bartoli is one of the best players on the tour, and she is almost the female equivalent of David Ferrer, in her relentless nature and her ability to chase down a ball, and it was great to see her come through this one. Elena Baltacha however was far from fortunate in comparison as she went up against Marina Erakovic of Australia, who hammered poor Bally in 6-3, 6-0 to mark a poor end to her tournament.
Due to the heavy rain delays a few of the ladies matches were delayed on Day 3, so I will move onto Day 4, which saw Victoria Azarenka make her first round appearance against Elena Vesnina, and she had little trouble in getting past the Russian and dismissed her in 6-1, 6-4. Serena Williams moved effortlessly through in her 2nd round match against Caroline Garcia as she only conceded 3 games enroute to the 3rd round with an easy peasy 6-1, 6-2 win. Petra Kvitova also made it through in a tougher test against Aravane Rezai as she fought past her opponent in 3 sets to secure a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win.
Caroline Wozniacki however after an impressive start against Laura Robson in the first round, regressed to her decline in form as she was outdone by the Serb player, Bojana Bovanovski after losing the first set tiebreak, she went further downhill in the 2nd as she was broken and the Bojana served out the match with a 7-6, 6-3 win. This really is showing some worrying signs over Caroline's form once again and I'm sure this is one clay court season she will want to forget asap having only won one match on that surface! And its hard to believe that this is the same player who only two years ago was at the top of the rankings and was winning most of the tournaments on the tour at that time. So let's hope Caroline regroups her form for the grass court season, or if not then for the hard court season later in the year
Sam Stosur also made her debut on court and she displayed top form as she dismissed the Japanese player and oldest lady in the draw, at 42, Kimiko Date Krumm, with Sam just dropping two games and winning in 6-0, 6-2. Sara Errani last year's finalist, also continued to show her very impressive clay court form as she dispatched Yulia Putintseva of Kazhakstan with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Angelique Kerber also scooshed her way through to the 3rd round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Jana Cepelova. And Ana Ivanovic also showed her impressive form by dimissing Mathilde Johansson of Sweden in a popular scoreline (today anyway!) of 6-2, 6-2.
And finally I will get on to Heather Watson who less than fortunate in her match against the Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland, but she fared alot better than her other two compatriots, as Heather battled against the Swiss player and pushed play into a 3rd set. However in the 3rd set Heather dropped her serve and Vogele consolidated the break and went on to serve out the match with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win. This wasn't too bad a result for Heather's first match back on tour since recovering from glandular fever and even though she lost, it does show that she is still playing good tennis and all she needs is more matchplay under belt and once she does then her game will pick up and hopefully she will get some good wins.
So moving onto the men's starting with Novak Djokovic who had a hell of a wait to get out on court on day 3 due to the heavy rain, but he later did and he took on his opponent in the first round which was the plucky and very talented young Belgian player, David Goffin. And right from the start Goffin wooed the crowd with some very aggressive tennis and tremendous shot making as he really took it to Djokovic on serve, and he pushed the first set to a tiebreak, but Djokovic broke to win it. In the 2nd set Nole broke Goffin, but the spirited young Belgian player broke back to make it 4-4, but then Nole broke him again and went on to take a 2 sets to love lead. In the 3rd it was a tight affair and it went by serve until 5-5 when Nole made the break and served out the match with a 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. This really was a highly entertaining match and Goffin once again showed on the big stage how talented and varied a player he is, and Novak rightly gave him respect afterwards, but it was inevitable that Nole would win it being the champ he is.
Stan Wawrinka, now having broken into the top 10 (as he's now ranked 10!) overcame a tough opener as he defeated Thiemo de Bakker in 4 sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. Gael Monfils also continued to show his gutsy form as he fought his way past the talented (and annoyingly cocky!) Ernest Gulbis in a 4 setter, after dropping the first set, and winning in 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2. Milos Raonic also continued his good clay court form as he made it past the Frenchman, Michael Llodra in a tight four setter, winnning in 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the French No.1 also continued his fine form with a tight straight set win over Jarkko Nieminen with a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. Marin Cilic breezed past his opponent the cool named Nick Kygiros with a straight forward 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory. Nicolas Almagro had no trouble in getting Eduardo Roger Vasselin in 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. And David Ferrer continued his strong clay court form by dismissing his fellow compatriot Albert Montanes with a straight set win in 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
And finally Roger Federer showed signs of rustiness as he seriously struggled against his opponent from India, Somdev Devarrman, who put up a terrific battle..... oh hang wait! That was in bullshitville for a second there! No back to the land of reality, Roger had very little trouble against his young Indian opponent and he barely broke a sweat against him and raced to a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 win in under 1 hour and a half. However things will get tougher for Federer from here as he will next face Julienne Benneateau who took him the distance last year at Wimbledon, so we will see how his next match pans out, but Benneateau did have a lenghthy 5 set match in his 2nd round match, so it might go against him, so we will wait and see.
And that is it for now, I will post back with more on day 5 and 6 in a couple of days, which will cover the remainder of the 2nd round matches and maybe one or two of the 3rd round ones, weather permitting no doubt!
Till then bye for now!
So to kick off let's start with day 3 and the ladies matches, starting off with Marion Bartoli who played a cracker of a match against Olga Govortsova, as the two of them battled it out on Philippe Chatrier with play taken to a decisive set. And in the 3rd set Bartoli went a break down with Olga serving for the match, Bartoli showed her battling qualities as she broke back and then went on to break Olga's serve at 5-5 and then finally after four match points went on to serve out the match after a gruelling 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 win. This was a great encounter and once again it shows just why Marion Bartoli is one of the best players on the tour, and she is almost the female equivalent of David Ferrer, in her relentless nature and her ability to chase down a ball, and it was great to see her come through this one. Elena Baltacha however was far from fortunate in comparison as she went up against Marina Erakovic of Australia, who hammered poor Bally in 6-3, 6-0 to mark a poor end to her tournament.
Due to the heavy rain delays a few of the ladies matches were delayed on Day 3, so I will move onto Day 4, which saw Victoria Azarenka make her first round appearance against Elena Vesnina, and she had little trouble in getting past the Russian and dismissed her in 6-1, 6-4. Serena Williams moved effortlessly through in her 2nd round match against Caroline Garcia as she only conceded 3 games enroute to the 3rd round with an easy peasy 6-1, 6-2 win. Petra Kvitova also made it through in a tougher test against Aravane Rezai as she fought past her opponent in 3 sets to secure a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win.
Caroline Wozniacki however after an impressive start against Laura Robson in the first round, regressed to her decline in form as she was outdone by the Serb player, Bojana Bovanovski after losing the first set tiebreak, she went further downhill in the 2nd as she was broken and the Bojana served out the match with a 7-6, 6-3 win. This really is showing some worrying signs over Caroline's form once again and I'm sure this is one clay court season she will want to forget asap having only won one match on that surface! And its hard to believe that this is the same player who only two years ago was at the top of the rankings and was winning most of the tournaments on the tour at that time. So let's hope Caroline regroups her form for the grass court season, or if not then for the hard court season later in the year
Sam Stosur also made her debut on court and she displayed top form as she dismissed the Japanese player and oldest lady in the draw, at 42, Kimiko Date Krumm, with Sam just dropping two games and winning in 6-0, 6-2. Sara Errani last year's finalist, also continued to show her very impressive clay court form as she dispatched Yulia Putintseva of Kazhakstan with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Angelique Kerber also scooshed her way through to the 3rd round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Jana Cepelova. And Ana Ivanovic also showed her impressive form by dimissing Mathilde Johansson of Sweden in a popular scoreline (today anyway!) of 6-2, 6-2.
And finally I will get on to Heather Watson who less than fortunate in her match against the Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland, but she fared alot better than her other two compatriots, as Heather battled against the Swiss player and pushed play into a 3rd set. However in the 3rd set Heather dropped her serve and Vogele consolidated the break and went on to serve out the match with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win. This wasn't too bad a result for Heather's first match back on tour since recovering from glandular fever and even though she lost, it does show that she is still playing good tennis and all she needs is more matchplay under belt and once she does then her game will pick up and hopefully she will get some good wins.
So moving onto the men's starting with Novak Djokovic who had a hell of a wait to get out on court on day 3 due to the heavy rain, but he later did and he took on his opponent in the first round which was the plucky and very talented young Belgian player, David Goffin. And right from the start Goffin wooed the crowd with some very aggressive tennis and tremendous shot making as he really took it to Djokovic on serve, and he pushed the first set to a tiebreak, but Djokovic broke to win it. In the 2nd set Nole broke Goffin, but the spirited young Belgian player broke back to make it 4-4, but then Nole broke him again and went on to take a 2 sets to love lead. In the 3rd it was a tight affair and it went by serve until 5-5 when Nole made the break and served out the match with a 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. This really was a highly entertaining match and Goffin once again showed on the big stage how talented and varied a player he is, and Novak rightly gave him respect afterwards, but it was inevitable that Nole would win it being the champ he is.
Stan Wawrinka, now having broken into the top 10 (as he's now ranked 10!) overcame a tough opener as he defeated Thiemo de Bakker in 4 sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. Gael Monfils also continued to show his gutsy form as he fought his way past the talented (and annoyingly cocky!) Ernest Gulbis in a 4 setter, after dropping the first set, and winning in 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2. Milos Raonic also continued his good clay court form as he made it past the Frenchman, Michael Llodra in a tight four setter, winnning in 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the French No.1 also continued his fine form with a tight straight set win over Jarkko Nieminen with a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. Marin Cilic breezed past his opponent the cool named Nick Kygiros with a straight forward 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory. Nicolas Almagro had no trouble in getting Eduardo Roger Vasselin in 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. And David Ferrer continued his strong clay court form by dismissing his fellow compatriot Albert Montanes with a straight set win in 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
And finally Roger Federer showed signs of rustiness as he seriously struggled against his opponent from India, Somdev Devarrman, who put up a terrific battle..... oh hang wait! That was in bullshitville for a second there! No back to the land of reality, Roger had very little trouble against his young Indian opponent and he barely broke a sweat against him and raced to a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 win in under 1 hour and a half. However things will get tougher for Federer from here as he will next face Julienne Benneateau who took him the distance last year at Wimbledon, so we will see how his next match pans out, but Benneateau did have a lenghthy 5 set match in his 2nd round match, so it might go against him, so we will wait and see.
And that is it for now, I will post back with more on day 5 and 6 in a couple of days, which will cover the remainder of the 2nd round matches and maybe one or two of the 3rd round ones, weather permitting no doubt!
Till then bye for now!
Monday, 27 May 2013
2013 Roland Garros Part 1: Flying the flag...
OK so its time for my first post on the 2013 French Open from Roland Garros, the second grand slam of the season on the lovely courts in Paris, where the best of the men's and ladies are battling it out for that rather nice silveware. So as there is a bit to cover let's have a look....
Right well to start off with the ladies, the first match up on Philippe Chatrier of the event, which was between Ana Ivanovic, the former French champion and Petra Martic. The match itself was a quite tough and entertaining encounter as after taking the opening set with fair ease, Ivanovic was on the receving end of a fightback in the 2nd set and Martic broke her to take level the match. In the 3rd set it was nip and tuck, with Ivanovic taking a decisive 4-0 lead but Martic broke back, however it was short lived as Ivanovic moved ahead and sealed her 2nd round place with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win. Serena Williams was up next and any fears that she might have been haunted by the scars of her first round defeat last year were quickly dissapated as she thrashed her opponent, Anna Tatishvilli with no mercy in a brusing 6-0, 6-1 victory. Serena also after the match went on to impressive the audience with her linguistic skills as her on court interview was spoken entirely in French (not bad eh??!).
In other ladies matches and what turned out to be the match of the first day, Venus Williams took on the younger sister of Agnieszka, Urusula Radwanska in an epic battle, as the Venus looked the worse for wear at times, as she struggled badly on serve and Radwanska had multiple chances to serve out for the 1st set, and it eventually took a tiebreak to separate them with the young Ursula moving ahead. In the 2nd set more breaks of serve aplenty and play went again to a tiebreak, where Venus claimed the breaker to level the match, and in the 3rd Ursula finally made her move and won it after an exhaustive 3 hours and 20 minutes with a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win. This was quite a win for Ursula Radwanska who so far has remained in the shadow of her older sister, but with wins like this it might just help her emerge more in the future, as she has already shown great promise as a new and upcoming player.
On Day 2 matches on the ladies side we had Maria Sharapova, the defending champion, who wasted little time on court against her Asian opponent Su-Wei Hsieh, as she blasted her off the court in just an hour with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing. Li Na the former champion also put in an impressive performance against the clay court specialist, Annabel Medina Garrigues, as she claimed her first clay court win over her in 6-3, 6-4. Agnieszka Radwanska was also in action and she wasted precious little time against her opponent Shahar Peer with a swift 6-1, 6-1 victory. And Angelique Kerber (saucy!) took on her fellow German opponent, Mona Barthel and after a close first set, Angie went on to win comfortably in the 2nd with the final score reading 7-6, 6-2.
And lastly I will mention Laura Robson who took on the 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki, who came into the French in poor form having sustained four successive defeats on clay already this season, so the chances of another upset looked likely. However Caroline soon dispelled any such thoughts as she breezed her way past an error prone Laura Robson, who once again struggled badly on her serve, making 40 unforced errors and served six doubles in the match, with Caroline finally winning in 6-3, 6-2. This was a big letdown for Laura who had actually taken a couple of impressive scalps during her clay season having beaten Agnieszka Radwanska and Venus Williams in Madrid and Rome respectively. However Laura just couldn't get things going and once her main achilles heel turned out to be her serve, as she continued to make more double faults, and she more crucially played these on break points. And if Laura wants to continue to improve she needs not only a new coach (which she does anyway as she is without one) but she needs to work on that serve, otherwise she will continue to struggle. Anyway let's hope Laura has better luck in the grass court season.
Which brings me onto the men's starting with Roger Federer on day 1 who played against a Spanish qualifier, Pablo Carreno-Busta, who has had great success on the Satelitte level tour, having won 7 titles already. However in the big bad world at grand slam tennis, it doesn't count for much as Roger proceded to school the young Spaniard and dismissed him with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, to show just how good his form currently is. It really was an impressive start from Roger in Paris, and although he arguably has a much easier path enroute to the final without either Rafa or Djokovic in his side of the draw, but we will see how it pans out for him. David Ferrer, the 4th seed also had an easy time of it against the Australian, Marinko Matosevic, who he eased past in 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, despite the odd wobble here and there.
Next up we had in the match of day 1, Gilles Simon, the Frenchman take on Lleyton Hewitt, who came out the blocks firing, and raced to a two sets to love lead. With alot of work ahead, Simon dug deep in the 3rd set and he broke and went on to win the 3rd and he levelled by taking the 4th. In the 5th set, Hewitt went off the boil, with Simon breaking twice and in a position to serve for the match at 5-1. But Hewitt was not done yet as he battled back into the set and reeled off the next four games to level the scores at 5-5, but Simon after holding to go 6-5, finally managed to seal the deal and close out a dramatic match in 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. This was a terrific encounter between the two men and the last set in particular had some great moments, especially Hewitt's fightback, which shows that you never can him out, as he is one of the great competitors in the game. But this was a great win for Simon and it marked the first time he had ever come back from two sets to love down in a grand slam match.
On day 2 in the men's we had Rafa take to the Philippe Chatrier and he faced the tall German, Daniel Brands, and on paper this sounded like a routine match. However it turned out to be quite opposite as Rafa really faced a stern test against Brands, who came out with a gameplan and played very aggressive tennis, and he did what no one expected in taking the opening set. In the second set Brands continued his aggressive play and it went to a tiebreak, where Brands took a 3-0 lead, but in the end Rafa fought back and went on to win the breaker and level the match. And from here Rafa took control of the match as Brands eventually faded as Rafa grinded out a tough opening win in just under 3 hours with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. This was a surprisingly tough opener for Rafa, and already it shows that Rafa isn't quite at his best yet, although its safe to say that nerves probably a part in that. Although Brands for two sets did play terrific tennis and he deserves credit for his part in the match, but in the end the great champs always know how to come through and Rafa did just that.
In other matches Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got his campaign off to a confident start as the French No.1, dismissing his opponent Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia in just 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. This hopefully will see Tsonga do well this year at the French as he did last year when he came agonisingly close to beating Novak Djokovic but just missed out, although Tsonga may face Roger in the quarter finals this year so we'll see how they get on enroute. Richard Gasquet, the French No.2, also wasted little time in his match against Sergei Stakhovsky and he swept past the Ukranian in 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
But the match of the day came from a much anticipated clash between Tomas Berdych, the 5th seed and the former top 10 French player, Gael Monfils, which promised to be quite a cracker. And it turned out to be just that and for just over four hours both men put on a terrific display of tennis for the near full capacity Philippe Chatrier crowd. Monfils got off the better start as he took a two sets to love lead against Berdych with a surprising display of aggression and terrific serving. Berdych however was not to be outdone and fought back well as he took the 3rd and 4th sets to level the match and push it to a decider. And the 5th set went by serve until 5-5 when Monfils made the crucial break, and from there went on to serve out a gruelling battle, with an enthusiastic roar from the Parisian crowd, the final score reading 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5.
Its great to see the last match of the day be a cracker and this certainly was a great match between the two men, and I have to say it was quite a surprise to see Monfils come out on top in this one, but he deserves all the credit as he played a great match with the French crowd clearly fuelling him. As for Tomas Berdych well its a shame in a way he has gone out so early here, as he had quite an impressive clay court season up until now and to go out so early I'm sure will be a real letdown for him. But the big Czeck I guess will just have to refocus and move onto the grass courts as he will return to the action at Queens in London, where he will play there for the first time. But in the meantime well done again to Monfils and let's hope he continues to do well in Paris.
So that's it for now, more to follow on the French Open soon.
Till the next time bye for nooow.
Right well to start off with the ladies, the first match up on Philippe Chatrier of the event, which was between Ana Ivanovic, the former French champion and Petra Martic. The match itself was a quite tough and entertaining encounter as after taking the opening set with fair ease, Ivanovic was on the receving end of a fightback in the 2nd set and Martic broke her to take level the match. In the 3rd set it was nip and tuck, with Ivanovic taking a decisive 4-0 lead but Martic broke back, however it was short lived as Ivanovic moved ahead and sealed her 2nd round place with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win. Serena Williams was up next and any fears that she might have been haunted by the scars of her first round defeat last year were quickly dissapated as she thrashed her opponent, Anna Tatishvilli with no mercy in a brusing 6-0, 6-1 victory. Serena also after the match went on to impressive the audience with her linguistic skills as her on court interview was spoken entirely in French (not bad eh??!).
In other ladies matches and what turned out to be the match of the first day, Venus Williams took on the younger sister of Agnieszka, Urusula Radwanska in an epic battle, as the Venus looked the worse for wear at times, as she struggled badly on serve and Radwanska had multiple chances to serve out for the 1st set, and it eventually took a tiebreak to separate them with the young Ursula moving ahead. In the 2nd set more breaks of serve aplenty and play went again to a tiebreak, where Venus claimed the breaker to level the match, and in the 3rd Ursula finally made her move and won it after an exhaustive 3 hours and 20 minutes with a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win. This was quite a win for Ursula Radwanska who so far has remained in the shadow of her older sister, but with wins like this it might just help her emerge more in the future, as she has already shown great promise as a new and upcoming player.
On Day 2 matches on the ladies side we had Maria Sharapova, the defending champion, who wasted little time on court against her Asian opponent Su-Wei Hsieh, as she blasted her off the court in just an hour with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing. Li Na the former champion also put in an impressive performance against the clay court specialist, Annabel Medina Garrigues, as she claimed her first clay court win over her in 6-3, 6-4. Agnieszka Radwanska was also in action and she wasted precious little time against her opponent Shahar Peer with a swift 6-1, 6-1 victory. And Angelique Kerber (saucy!) took on her fellow German opponent, Mona Barthel and after a close first set, Angie went on to win comfortably in the 2nd with the final score reading 7-6, 6-2.
And lastly I will mention Laura Robson who took on the 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki, who came into the French in poor form having sustained four successive defeats on clay already this season, so the chances of another upset looked likely. However Caroline soon dispelled any such thoughts as she breezed her way past an error prone Laura Robson, who once again struggled badly on her serve, making 40 unforced errors and served six doubles in the match, with Caroline finally winning in 6-3, 6-2. This was a big letdown for Laura who had actually taken a couple of impressive scalps during her clay season having beaten Agnieszka Radwanska and Venus Williams in Madrid and Rome respectively. However Laura just couldn't get things going and once her main achilles heel turned out to be her serve, as she continued to make more double faults, and she more crucially played these on break points. And if Laura wants to continue to improve she needs not only a new coach (which she does anyway as she is without one) but she needs to work on that serve, otherwise she will continue to struggle. Anyway let's hope Laura has better luck in the grass court season.
Which brings me onto the men's starting with Roger Federer on day 1 who played against a Spanish qualifier, Pablo Carreno-Busta, who has had great success on the Satelitte level tour, having won 7 titles already. However in the big bad world at grand slam tennis, it doesn't count for much as Roger proceded to school the young Spaniard and dismissed him with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, to show just how good his form currently is. It really was an impressive start from Roger in Paris, and although he arguably has a much easier path enroute to the final without either Rafa or Djokovic in his side of the draw, but we will see how it pans out for him. David Ferrer, the 4th seed also had an easy time of it against the Australian, Marinko Matosevic, who he eased past in 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, despite the odd wobble here and there.
Next up we had in the match of day 1, Gilles Simon, the Frenchman take on Lleyton Hewitt, who came out the blocks firing, and raced to a two sets to love lead. With alot of work ahead, Simon dug deep in the 3rd set and he broke and went on to win the 3rd and he levelled by taking the 4th. In the 5th set, Hewitt went off the boil, with Simon breaking twice and in a position to serve for the match at 5-1. But Hewitt was not done yet as he battled back into the set and reeled off the next four games to level the scores at 5-5, but Simon after holding to go 6-5, finally managed to seal the deal and close out a dramatic match in 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. This was a terrific encounter between the two men and the last set in particular had some great moments, especially Hewitt's fightback, which shows that you never can him out, as he is one of the great competitors in the game. But this was a great win for Simon and it marked the first time he had ever come back from two sets to love down in a grand slam match.
On day 2 in the men's we had Rafa take to the Philippe Chatrier and he faced the tall German, Daniel Brands, and on paper this sounded like a routine match. However it turned out to be quite opposite as Rafa really faced a stern test against Brands, who came out with a gameplan and played very aggressive tennis, and he did what no one expected in taking the opening set. In the second set Brands continued his aggressive play and it went to a tiebreak, where Brands took a 3-0 lead, but in the end Rafa fought back and went on to win the breaker and level the match. And from here Rafa took control of the match as Brands eventually faded as Rafa grinded out a tough opening win in just under 3 hours with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. This was a surprisingly tough opener for Rafa, and already it shows that Rafa isn't quite at his best yet, although its safe to say that nerves probably a part in that. Although Brands for two sets did play terrific tennis and he deserves credit for his part in the match, but in the end the great champs always know how to come through and Rafa did just that.
In other matches Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got his campaign off to a confident start as the French No.1, dismissing his opponent Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia in just 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. This hopefully will see Tsonga do well this year at the French as he did last year when he came agonisingly close to beating Novak Djokovic but just missed out, although Tsonga may face Roger in the quarter finals this year so we'll see how they get on enroute. Richard Gasquet, the French No.2, also wasted little time in his match against Sergei Stakhovsky and he swept past the Ukranian in 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
But the match of the day came from a much anticipated clash between Tomas Berdych, the 5th seed and the former top 10 French player, Gael Monfils, which promised to be quite a cracker. And it turned out to be just that and for just over four hours both men put on a terrific display of tennis for the near full capacity Philippe Chatrier crowd. Monfils got off the better start as he took a two sets to love lead against Berdych with a surprising display of aggression and terrific serving. Berdych however was not to be outdone and fought back well as he took the 3rd and 4th sets to level the match and push it to a decider. And the 5th set went by serve until 5-5 when Monfils made the crucial break, and from there went on to serve out a gruelling battle, with an enthusiastic roar from the Parisian crowd, the final score reading 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5.
Its great to see the last match of the day be a cracker and this certainly was a great match between the two men, and I have to say it was quite a surprise to see Monfils come out on top in this one, but he deserves all the credit as he played a great match with the French crowd clearly fuelling him. As for Tomas Berdych well its a shame in a way he has gone out so early here, as he had quite an impressive clay court season up until now and to go out so early I'm sure will be a real letdown for him. But the big Czeck I guess will just have to refocus and move onto the grass courts as he will return to the action at Queens in London, where he will play there for the first time. But in the meantime well done again to Monfils and let's hope he continues to do well in Paris.
So that's it for now, more to follow on the French Open soon.
Till the next time bye for nooow.
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