French Open - Women's Third Round
14 Ana Ivanovic d Virginie Razzano - 63 62
The '08 champ is thru to the 4th round for the first time since '09.
Of note: Ana has only been to the Qf's once since her French Open win.
Oh and she agrees with Rafa that his scheduling was a 'joke':
When he has to play day after day, I think he’s right. They should play early.I think it’s fair that they play first so they can get more time to recover.
And that's a true story.
French Open - Men's Third Round
2 Roger Federer d Julian Benneteau - 63 64 75
Rog joined Twitter a week ago and already has almost 300k followers.
Yesterday he tweeted this photo from the iconic Eiffel Tower captioned:
I really enjoyed going on top of the Eiffel Tower
for the first time in my life today.
He's also enjoying a romp thru the draw as he's won 9 straight sets.
This is the GOAT's 46th trip to the 4th round of a Slam: 39-6.
And he's looking to get into his 37th consecutive Slam Qf.
Yea, that's building on a ridiculous streak - and record.
French Open - Men's Second Round
3 Rafael Nadal d Martin Klizan - 46 63 63 63
This is the 2nd straight match Rafa's lost the 1st set and won in 4.
Overcast and damp are famously not the conditions Rafa likes.
And he was too thrilled about the schedule: Yesterday the supervisor
made a big mistake with me because my opponent already played
yesterday... And so it is something in my opinion that is not fair.
Seriously... A 2nd round match played on the 1st Friday?
When this Slam has an extra day on the opening Sunday? Kinda ridiculous.
Rafa will turn-around and face Fabio Fognini tomorrow.
I'm thinking Rafa will get his first straight-setter tomorrow.
Shopping cures the blues perhaps?
French Open - Women's Second Round
2 Maria Sharapova d Eugenia Bouchard - 62 64
It took two days but the defending champ is thru to the 3rd round.
They stopped the match owing to rain at 4-2 in the 2nd set yesterday.
Post match: It was a pretty long day on Thursday. But we all knew the
weather wasn't going to be good. On Thursday at 8.45pm when it was
raining, it was pretty tough to continue. I was happy to play part of
the match and get myself into a good position to finish it.
She'll have a quick turn-around and play Zheng tomorrow.
Hmmmm. Maria fans shouldn't be too worried about that one.
French Open - Women's Second Round
17 Sloane Stephens d Vania King - 61 63
Here a fact that you may not realize - this is her 6th 3rd round in 8 Slams.
That's pretty darned inpressive.
Remember in her last Slam she beat Serena to gain the Sf's at the Aussie.
She can't meet Serena at the French until the final.
And well... she on a path to see Maria in the 4th round.
That Serena/Sloane rematch smackdown will have to wait.
On the rain delays: I haven't done too well with the delays.
During the first wait I played on my phone, in the second I went to sleep.
You literally have nothing to do. Should I eat? Do cartwheels?
You have no idea. Last week in Brussels I had my nails done,
and went and made chocolate. Then I played a match on the same day - a
losing match. Obviously the nails & chocolate weren't a good combination.
French Open - Women's Second Round
Bethanie Mattek-Sands d 6 Li Na - 57 63 62
The tattoo lady is having a lovely stay in Paris.
Remember: Li Na was the 2011 French Open champ.
The French Open is the first tourney she's gotten directly in this year.
She's qualified for 5 and was given wildcards into another 3.
The points she's earned here will certainly change her season.
Post match: I’m confident in my game now and every week
I’ve been improving. That goes back to building momentum which
I haven’t had in a couple of years. In this match I was spanking returns.
She wasn't going to give it to me.
French Open - Men's First Round
8 Janko Tipsarevic d Nicolas Mahut - 62 76(4) 61
Hey lookie here, Janko snapped a 3 match losing streak.
Post match: A straight set victory against any Frenchman is a
big victory in my book, especially at Roland Garros.
That's a true story.
Janko put his season into the positive with a W/L of 12-11.
As a result he fell out of the top 10 last week after a long stay.
And Janko has 4th round points to defend in Paris.
He next plays fellow former top 10er Verdasco - H2H: 4-2/Janko.
He's seeded to face his friend and fellow Serb Nole in the Qf's.
I'm not sure he'll get there but ya never know.
Tommy Haas seems like the better bet.
French Open - Women's First Round
3 Victoria Azarenka d Elena Vesnina - 61 64
Vika handled her former doubles partner in about an hour and 15.
Last year she suffered a tough 4th round loss to Cibulkova.
And prior to that she's been to the Qf's twice.
She's drawn Li Na in the Qf's and is in Maria's half of proceedings.
Yikes: She's got some serious popcorn matches coming up.
French Open - Men's First Round
24 Benoit Paire d Marcos Baghdatis - 36 76(1) 64 64
I'm just gonna say it: I've become a big fan of Benoit's.
And lookie here he's won his 2nd match at RG in 4 visits to Paris.
And he has a very winnable 2nd rounder against Lukasz Kubot.
In fact, he's got a great shot at a Qf with Rafa.
You heard it hear first.
French Open - Men's First Round
26 Grigor Dimitrov d Alejandro Falla - 64 1-0 Ret.
Falla had some tummy trouble.
Grigor seems to be coming into form on the clay.
Remember he took down Djokovic at the Madrid Masters.
And he's on a 3rd round collision course with Nole here at Roland-Garros.
Could be quite interesting.
And Grigor has already matched his best result here - from last year.
He's heading one direction - UP.
French Open - Men's First Round
6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d Aljaz Bedene - 62 62 63
Obvs I follow tennis pretty closely; I've never seen Aljaz's name before.
Jo-W is France's best bet to win the title.
He is also heading to a tasty Federer showdown in the Qf's.
He'll need to clean up that 50% first serve percentage.
Post match: It's positive, because winning without seeing a high percentage
of first serves, that's good. That means everything else is in place and
that when I iron the service out, then I will be even better.
Sure. But Bedene is one thing- the GOAT is quite another.
French Open - Men's First Round
3 Rafael Nadal d Daniel Brands - 46 76(5) 64 63
So for the better part of 2 sets that was too close for comfort.
I mean, commentators even started using the word 'upset.'
For shame!
Post match: He was playing unbelievable. I just tried to find my game and
tried to resist his fantastic shots. He played a fantastic match and
put me in a very difficult situation. I'm very happy to be through.
Rafa is now 53-1 at Roland Garros.
Rafa has a potential 3rd rounder with Rosol who upset him at Wimby '12.
That would be an interesting match - if Rosol can get past Fognini.
And if Rafa can get past Klizan. LOL.
French Open - Men's 1st Round
2 Roger Federer d Pablo Carreno-Busta - 62 62 63
Rog took the first bite of his cupcake draw.
Post match: I think I started all three sets well, was able to get in the lead.
Then playing from the lead against a player like him, it's always easier,
and so I put a lot of emphasis on that.
***
The next big cupcake bite will be Devvarman in the next round.
Seriously, Sprinkles has nothing on this draw.
French Open - Men's 1st Round
15 Gilles Simon d Lleyton Hewett - 36 16 64 61 75
Someone dug deep. Way deep.
Post match: I simply got back into the match by playing better.
Unfortunately, at the end he played one more time great tennis.
It's never easy to finish when you see the guy coming back 5-1, 5-2, 5-3
after a few match points. So I'm just happy that I managed to win this one.
Dusseldorf ATP 250 - Men's Final
3/WC Juan Monaco d 6 Jarkko Nieminen - 64 63
Now that's how you turn around a dismal season - you win a title.
His 8th - 7 of them on clay. And 1st of 2013.
Hopefully this will give him a jolt of confidence for Roland-Garros.
Juan has a very tricky draw right from the start.
He's got Gemino-Traver first up and is headed toward Cliic and Tsonga.
And if he can get past all of them he's likely to face Federer in the Qf's.
I'm exhausted just typing that!
Post match: It's the best preparation. I've had a great week here,
playing a couple of good matches. Especially today I played really well.
So I will look forward to keep playing this way in Paris.
Defending champions Rafa & Maria helped make the draw.
Maria kind of spoiled the party as she put Rafa in Nole's half.
So what should be a final can only happen in a semifinal.
Boo.
You can check the men's draw HERE.
The men's quarterfinals are seeded to look like this:
Nole/Tipsy; Rafa/Gasquet; Ferrer/Berdy; Roger/Jo-W.
The top 3 really got decent draws. I'm thinking they'll all be Sf-ists.
Hell, I'll go as far as to say all 4 top seeds will all make it.
You can check the women's draw HERE.
Really? Ain't nobody beating Serena this year. Nobody.
But for shits and giggles this is the quarterfinal projections:
Serena/Kerber; Aga/Sara; Vika/Na; Maria/Petra.
***
I don't like predictions much but here goes.
Serena will storm to the title.
And to wuss out I'll just say the winner of Rafa/Nole takes it.
But I think I'll hedge toward Rafa.
Brussels WTA - Second Round
Jie Zheng d 1/WC Caroline Wozniacki - 62 64
Caro has yet to win a match on European clay this season.
And 3 of those 4 matches have been in straight sets.
Ouch.
So's who has her winning in Paris in a couple weeks?
And... Who's thinking Rory is to blame?
This is the 1st time since 2000 that Roger heads to Paris without a title.
Interestingly he's only been in one final - yesterday at Rome.
And Rafa handed him his butt.
He will head to Roland Garros as the 2nd seed in the draw.
Tho I doubt many people are picking him to win over Rafa & Nole.
Roger before the final: I am playing well and I am healthy, so I have
everything to play for next week [ahead ofRoland Garros].
This week was good to get an idea about what is working.
News flash to Roger: That forehand is NOT working.
Post match: I was missing too many easy forehands...
Oh. He knows already.
Even so, I'd still put him thru to the Sf's at the French.
Rafa & Serena share a presser laugh in Madrid ahead of play next week.
So all the talk and rumors of Rafa's seeding at Roland Garros can stop.
They announce today that he will not get a protected seeding.
French Open tournament director Gilbert Ysern told L'Equipe today:
Considering what Nadal represents in Paris,
i.e. the best player in the tournament's history,
it seemed incongruous that he arrives in Paris with the number 4 or 5 bib.
But it was said to be fiddling. What was supposed to be a strong symbol,
a tribute, was seen as messy business.
Whatever. Here's how I see it:
I believe Novak, Andy and Roger should remain the top 3 seeds.
I think Rafa should swap places with Ferrer and be seeded #4.
And I doubt you'd get much of an argument from Ferrer about it either.
It solves the problem of Rafa meeting the top 3 in the quarters.
Nobody wants to see this happen so hopefully he'll land in Ferrer's section.
Here's what I do know: Wimbledon will not make this mistake.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Thru to 4th Round at French Open
French Open - Men's Third Round
6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d Jeremy Chardy - 61 62 75
Interesting to note that this is only his 6th time playing at Roland-Garros.
His W/L on the red dirt of Paris is 15-5.
If he can get past Federer in a possible Qf he may just give France a champ.
Post match: A few years back nobody believed in me and now people
believe in me much more. So I hope I will do them justice.
Posted at 10:24 AM in Commentary, French Open, Grand Slam Tennis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Mens Tennis, Preview, Roland Garros, Scores, So Sexy Man | Permalink | Comments (0)
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