French Open day 2 and 3.

French Open has started and so has Rafael Nadal started his bid for 9^th Rolland Garros title.  He had no troubles in beating his first round opponent Robby Ginepri of USA. Nadal bageled Ginepri twice in his 6-0 6-3 6-0 win over Ginepri hitting 27 winners in just 21 games. I would have loved to see more winners but was happy seeing him racing around the court.

While Wawrinka, Nishikori and Almagro are ousted in first round, we can not say it is going to be easy ride for Nadal for his 5^th consecutive title in Paris. If he does so, he will be the first man to win 5 consecutive titles in the same grand slam event and will also be the first player to win at least one Grand Slam each year for 10 consecutive years starting from 2005. By doing so he will also equal Pete Sampras record and the gap will reduce to 3 with Roger Federer.

It was just 3^rd day and we have already seen few upsets. Australian Open champions Stan Wawrinka, Chinese sensation and former French Open winner Li Na are already shown the exit doors. There are few potential young stars that could not make a mark this time. Grigor lost to Ivo Karlovic in straight sets while Bernard Tomic lost to Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

I am also disappointed that this time there is no significant representation from India. While Rohan Bopanna is playing with Asiam Ul Haq Quereshi and Sania Mirza is playing with Cara Black, there is no Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi this time. Somdev Devvarman could not win the qualifier with Purav Raja and lost to Aleksandr Nedovyesov in first round in the main draw.

So, Rafael Nadal plays young Dominic Thiem in round 2 who defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets. Both haven’t played each other so far so it will be interesting to see how Rafa tackles this young lad from Austria.

Hope to see Grand Slam title no 14 in 2014!