Thursday, May 29, 2014

French Open day 5

It was a normal outing in Paris on day 5 as there were no major upset, except Garcia-Lopez, Leonardo Mayer (who plays Nadal in third round) and Fernando Verdasco that went to 4/5 sets.

Young Donald Young who never had won a game in French Open defeated Italian Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. Young Dominic Thiem played some incredible shots but that wasn’t enough to breach Nadal’s defense. Thiem did break Nadal and has occasional success against Rafa but it was too much to ask from the young man to trouble the clay court champion. Nadal eased to third round beating Theim 6-2 6-2 6-3 registering his 61st victory on red clay. Nadal was high on praise on Thiem and said “He is future star, 100 percent”.

Last year finalist David Ferrer didn’t have much trouble beating Simon Bolelli, and British no1 Andy Murray got past Marinko Matosevic losing just 7 games. News is that Murray has found his new coach in Amélie Mauresmo though it hasn’t been officially declared yet. He has been playing without a coach after he parted ways with his former coach Ivan Llendl. Isn’t it interesting that a woman will be coaching a man? Though Mauresmo has coached Frenchman Michael Llodra before, who retired from singles event after he lost to Fernando Verdasco in first round.

In ladies side, Jelena Jankovic, Sara Errani, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and Ana Ivanovic all advanced to third round. British no2 Heather Watson couldn’t get past Simona Halep. British no1 young Laura Robson did not participate in French Open and will miss Wimbledon as well due to wrist injury.

Indo Pak express Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Ul Haq Quershi could get past Erlich/Melo and lost in straight sets. There was some good news as Sania Mirza with her German partner Cara Black advanced to pre quarter final beating Hantuchova and peers.


There are some interesting matches tomorrow: Milos Raonic vs Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga vs Jerzy Janowicz, Radek Stepanek vs Ernest Gulbis, Tommy Robredo vs John Isner (should be a good 5 setter), Taylor Townsend vs Suarez Navvaro. 

1 comment:

Pradeep Nair said...

Quite a few upsets in Women's section, right? But Men are holding out. :-)

But they aren't having it easy either. Djoko couldn't make it in straight sets.

Hope we will have interesting semis and final.