We are almost back on schedule in Paris. After having almost the entire day's worth of play pushed back, there are now only two matches which were postponed until tomorrow to see through to completion. Aravane Rezai and Nadia Petrova are battling at 7-all in the third set, while Mikhail Youzhny is up two sets to one and a break in the fourth on Viktor Troicki. I don't know who's going to come through in the women's match, but I except Youzhny to find his way to victory fairly quickly.
Other action that took place today was fairly straightforward - in general, the tournament has been moving along about as one would have suspected. The top players have rolled, the favorites have won more often than not, and the dark horses who have been upset by now have usually been ones who were struggling with form or injury anyway. Take, for example, defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, just wasn't quite strong enough against Russian Maria Kirilenko. Sveta's ranking is plummeting, and she'll be hovering just above twenty after this tournament. The two-time grand slam winner needs to get her head straight.
Fernando Gonzalez also lost, rather tamely, to Ukrainian Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., and a result like that probably doesn't require my pointing out that Gonzo has been seriously struggling with tendinitis in his knees. He was a semifinalist here last year, so this result will hurt him, as well.
The only other seeded players who lost today lost to other seeds, and it'd be tough to call any of them upsets. Baghdatis lost to Murray, Montanes to Soderling, and Isner lost to Berdych. I'm not sure if Isner was tired after his two-day marathon against Chiudinelli or if Berdych just played amazing tennis, but this was a beat-down. I expect it was a little bit of both. Berdych has never made it past the fourth round here - in fact, he's never made it past the fourth round at any grand slam barring one visit to the quarterfinals back in 2007. For his talent, that is an absolute shame.
The other American who lost today lost in the opposite fashion - Mardy Fish lost an amazingly tight affair to Ivan Ljubicic, 10-8 in the fifth set. Unfortunately for Fish, that loss counts just the same as if he had been blown out. Disappointing result for Mardy, but hopefully he'll be able to get some confidence from how well he played, if nothing else.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's action, there are some spectacular matches taking place. The highlight is probably Justine Henin against Maria Sharapova. If you go all the way back to the year-end championships in 2008, these two played the last - and best - match of the year. But that was on a hardcourt, which favored Sharapova. I actually think that Henin has the advantage in this one, but if she's rusty or nervous - and who wouldn't be? - it could go either way.
Lleyton Hewitt plays Rafael Nadal, which might have the makings of a good match, but there's almost no way that Hewitt could pull off the upset. This is Nadal's best Grand Slam and Hewitt's worst. I don't see how Hewitt could even make it close - his game is too much like Nadal's, except less effective in just about every aspect. In order to beat Nadal, you can't out-Nadal him; you have to hit big, like Soderling did last year, or Roddick did earlier this year in Miami.
Andy Roddick is also in action, in his least favorite court - first up on Suzanne Lenglen. Fortunately, he is playing Teimuraz Gabashvili, who is playing his first Grand Slam third round match. He's ranked outside the top hundred, and was 1-6 on the year coming into the French Open. He had a couple pretty good wins against Grega Zemjla and Daniel Koellerer in the first two rounds, after winning three in qualifying, but he's entering an entirely different realm of tennis against Andy Roddick. This match is Roddick's to win or lose, if he can keep his head on straight.
The only other American male left in the draw is Robbie Ginepri, who I thought for sure would lose his second round match after Sam Querrey nearly walked off-court against him. But he made it through to the third round, where he'll face former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero. You have to think that Ginepri's run is over, but he is a former grand slam semifinalist, and he's surprised me before.
There are three other Spaniards in action tomorrow, as well. Nicolas Almagro has the easiest opponent in Frenchman Marc Gicquel, but he's also the weakest on clay. His compatriots, are stronger on the surface but facing sterner opposition. Verdasco is up against German Philipp Kohlschreiber and Ferrer faces Jurgen Melzer. Outside chance of an upset in both of those matches.
The last match that I think looks particularly interesting is Ivan Ljubicic against Tomaz Bellucci. One of the veterans of the game against one of the up-and-comers. I'd favor Belucci in this match, because of his age and the fact that his previous round was probably not as taxing as Ljubicic's. It may have been five sets as well, but it was a much quicker match. It should be interesting, though.
The disadvantage of a tournament that chugs along through the first week without a lot of surprises is that it takes some time for the Slam to feel like it's developed an identity. Up to this point, there has been plenty of good tennis, but no real defining matches for any of the players who've taken the court. The advantage of this kind a tournament is that the dearth of excitement in the first week gets made up for in the second week, as the top players who were seeded to meet each other do so, and at that point, we should be due for some epic clashes.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
French Open Day 5
Another rain-soaked day in Paris. There was actually not very much that got done today, so a lot of my excitement from yesterday carries over. But fortunately for the tournament organizers, they did get through all of the 2nd round matches from the top of the draw, so there aren't any of those held over. That would have been a real problem - as it stands, things probably won't get any worse, assuming that the weather starts to cooperate. If it continues to give us trouble, things could get interesting.
As it stands, there are only two 2nd round matches from the bottom half of the draw which were played to completion - Andy Roddick's and his next opponent's. Other than that, players from the bottom half either have to finish their match tomorrow, or they haven't even started yet. But it was a good win for Andy Roddick - except for a stretch of 8 points after the first rain delay where he was broken to lose the second set, the American was in control of the match. He may have been broken 7 times, but he was almost always in the lead. A good win for the American. And things are really getting better for him - his next opponent is also ranked outside the top 100, and they'll get an extra day of rest compared to the other plays in that half of the draw. He could make a little run here.
Since we're also playing all of the third round matches from the top half tomorrow, that makes for some interesting match-ups on an action-packed Friday. Two of the best matches are Andy Murray against Marcos Baghdatis and JW Tsonga against Thiemo De Bakker. When all's said and done, I expect that De Bakker may have the best clay-court career of these four players, but he's also the least accomplished at this point. None of the other three consider it their specialty, but all of them have a lot to gain this year.
Svetlana Kuznetsova will have to play better than she did on Wednesday to win against 30th seed Maria Kirilenko, but the defending champion has a shot. Federer has a much better chance against German surprise Julian Reister. In fact, I would put his chances at just about 100 percent. Expect the defending champions and the rest of the favorites - Serena Williams against Julia Goerges, Justine Henin against Kristen Flipkens, and Rafael Nadal against Horacio Zeballos. Zeballos will be a much better test for Nadal than Gianni Mina was, but Nadal will really have to be off his game for the Argentine to win.
Also, Robin Soderling plays Albert Montanes. Soderling has been playing imperious tennis thus far, and Montanes has not been at his best since beating Federer earlier in the year to defend his title in Estoril. But based on career performance, I'd call Montanes the better clay-court player. Leonardo Mayer is alos the better clay courter than Marin Cilic, and he's been in pretty good form. That could be another tough test for the young Croat. Finally, Mikhail Youzhny takes on Viktor Troicki, which has the potential to be another great match. These are all on court 3 by the way, so if you wanted to camp out there, it would not be a bad idea.
In a rematch of a tight affair from last week's tournament in Dusseldorf, John Isner takes on Tomas Berdych. Their last match was topsy-turvy, but I think that both players will be trying to play more solid, consistent tennis tomorrow. Another match to watch is Stan Wawrinka against Fabio Fognini, who managed to outlast Gael Monfils today 9-7 in the fifth. And Seppi-Kohlschreiber, plus Ferrer-Malisse... Plenty of exciting tennis. But here's hoping that the weather cooperates, or things could get really problematic.
As it stands, there are only two 2nd round matches from the bottom half of the draw which were played to completion - Andy Roddick's and his next opponent's. Other than that, players from the bottom half either have to finish their match tomorrow, or they haven't even started yet. But it was a good win for Andy Roddick - except for a stretch of 8 points after the first rain delay where he was broken to lose the second set, the American was in control of the match. He may have been broken 7 times, but he was almost always in the lead. A good win for the American. And things are really getting better for him - his next opponent is also ranked outside the top 100, and they'll get an extra day of rest compared to the other plays in that half of the draw. He could make a little run here.
Since we're also playing all of the third round matches from the top half tomorrow, that makes for some interesting match-ups on an action-packed Friday. Two of the best matches are Andy Murray against Marcos Baghdatis and JW Tsonga against Thiemo De Bakker. When all's said and done, I expect that De Bakker may have the best clay-court career of these four players, but he's also the least accomplished at this point. None of the other three consider it their specialty, but all of them have a lot to gain this year.
Svetlana Kuznetsova will have to play better than she did on Wednesday to win against 30th seed Maria Kirilenko, but the defending champion has a shot. Federer has a much better chance against German surprise Julian Reister. In fact, I would put his chances at just about 100 percent. Expect the defending champions and the rest of the favorites - Serena Williams against Julia Goerges, Justine Henin against Kristen Flipkens, and Rafael Nadal against Horacio Zeballos. Zeballos will be a much better test for Nadal than Gianni Mina was, but Nadal will really have to be off his game for the Argentine to win.
Also, Robin Soderling plays Albert Montanes. Soderling has been playing imperious tennis thus far, and Montanes has not been at his best since beating Federer earlier in the year to defend his title in Estoril. But based on career performance, I'd call Montanes the better clay-court player. Leonardo Mayer is alos the better clay courter than Marin Cilic, and he's been in pretty good form. That could be another tough test for the young Croat. Finally, Mikhail Youzhny takes on Viktor Troicki, which has the potential to be another great match. These are all on court 3 by the way, so if you wanted to camp out there, it would not be a bad idea.
In a rematch of a tight affair from last week's tournament in Dusseldorf, John Isner takes on Tomas Berdych. Their last match was topsy-turvy, but I think that both players will be trying to play more solid, consistent tennis tomorrow. Another match to watch is Stan Wawrinka against Fabio Fognini, who managed to outlast Gael Monfils today 9-7 in the fifth. And Seppi-Kohlschreiber, plus Ferrer-Malisse... Plenty of exciting tennis. But here's hoping that the weather cooperates, or things could get really problematic.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
French Open Day 4
What a weird day of tennis. It was interrupted by rain for some time, and it really separated two different days of tennis. The start of the day was full of blowouts. Federer and Venus Williams breezed through their second round matches, while Robin Soderling and JW Tsonga dropped a combined today of seven games. Flavia Pennetta, Nadia Petrova, and Caroline Wozniacki also made it through with relatively little difficulty.
But after the rain delay, things changed. The matches that remained ended up being very tight, even though they didn't have time to finish most of them. John Isner is down a set to Marco Chiudinelli, and Andy Murray is up a set over Juan Ignacio Chela, but the second set looked tighter. Baghdatis is up two sets after dropping the first to Marcel Granollers. The final match that is left to finish is probably the most ridiculous - Gael Monfils ended up at 5-all against Fabio Fognini, but it was quite a road to get there.
Monfils won the first two sets and looked to be cruising, but then things took a turn. The Frenchman lost the plot, and Fognini won the next two sets, then went up a break in the fifth. At around the time that all the other matches were being called on account of darkness, Monfils broke back to even the score at four-all. At this point, there was a grievous error in judgment. The local boy had the momentum, and the tournament director apparently didn't want to make the call to suspend the match. It's not entirely clear to me what happened, but he appeared to give them a choice about whether or not they wanted to continue playing.
Fognini wanted to stop, and he argued for six minutes and was eventually penalized a point for delaying the game, in what I think was a pretty classless move. Fognini was nearly broken, and Monfils would have been able to serve out the match. But after he held, things got really interesting. Monfils started to cramp - he couldn't get up to serve, he could barely move, and he was four points from defeat. Under normal circumstances, Fognini could have put him away, but it was so dark that he could barely see the ball. It was close, and Monfils saved two match points, but he eventually held. The match was suspended at 5-5, but it should have happened at 4-4. It's a good thing the match wasn't won or lost based on the tournament director's decision.
It was a similar situation in defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova's match. She was down 40-0 while her opponent, Andrea Petkovic, was serving for the match in the second set. Petkovic had been smacking winners for two whole sets, but at that point she tightened up and hit a couple errors in a row. Kuznetsova broke, took the second set 7-5, and then won the third 6-4. A good win, in the end. But it doesn't get much closer than that. Here's hoping that was a turning point and not a sign of things to come.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the most exciting matches might be the ones from yesterday that are left to finish. But there are some others that should be exciting. Rafael Nadal plays Horacio Zeballos - Nadal should still win, but Zeballos will prove more of a challenge than Gianni Mina did. Ana Ivanovic plays Alisa Kleybanova, which is a great test for the former champion. And Kei Nishikori plays Novak Djokovic - this match is a big question mark. Djokovic has not been playing at his best, and Nishikori has been off the court for so long. It could be an interesting match, if Djokovic isn't playing his best and Nishikori is back to top form.
There are other great matches. Ivan Ljubicic plays Mardy Fish and David Ferrer plays Xavier Malisse. Justine Henin is in action, and so is Serena Williams. Andy Roddick plays Blaz Kavcic in a match that I'm really looking forward to. Kavcic is less accomplished than Nieminen, so if Roddick plays a bit better than he did in that match, he should come through this one. There's a fairly good chance that an American (other than a Williams sister) will make it to the third round. I find it likely that tomorrow's matches will be a bit less exciting than the drama that we went through today. Could it really match up?
But after the rain delay, things changed. The matches that remained ended up being very tight, even though they didn't have time to finish most of them. John Isner is down a set to Marco Chiudinelli, and Andy Murray is up a set over Juan Ignacio Chela, but the second set looked tighter. Baghdatis is up two sets after dropping the first to Marcel Granollers. The final match that is left to finish is probably the most ridiculous - Gael Monfils ended up at 5-all against Fabio Fognini, but it was quite a road to get there.
Monfils won the first two sets and looked to be cruising, but then things took a turn. The Frenchman lost the plot, and Fognini won the next two sets, then went up a break in the fifth. At around the time that all the other matches were being called on account of darkness, Monfils broke back to even the score at four-all. At this point, there was a grievous error in judgment. The local boy had the momentum, and the tournament director apparently didn't want to make the call to suspend the match. It's not entirely clear to me what happened, but he appeared to give them a choice about whether or not they wanted to continue playing.
Fognini wanted to stop, and he argued for six minutes and was eventually penalized a point for delaying the game, in what I think was a pretty classless move. Fognini was nearly broken, and Monfils would have been able to serve out the match. But after he held, things got really interesting. Monfils started to cramp - he couldn't get up to serve, he could barely move, and he was four points from defeat. Under normal circumstances, Fognini could have put him away, but it was so dark that he could barely see the ball. It was close, and Monfils saved two match points, but he eventually held. The match was suspended at 5-5, but it should have happened at 4-4. It's a good thing the match wasn't won or lost based on the tournament director's decision.
It was a similar situation in defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova's match. She was down 40-0 while her opponent, Andrea Petkovic, was serving for the match in the second set. Petkovic had been smacking winners for two whole sets, but at that point she tightened up and hit a couple errors in a row. Kuznetsova broke, took the second set 7-5, and then won the third 6-4. A good win, in the end. But it doesn't get much closer than that. Here's hoping that was a turning point and not a sign of things to come.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the most exciting matches might be the ones from yesterday that are left to finish. But there are some others that should be exciting. Rafael Nadal plays Horacio Zeballos - Nadal should still win, but Zeballos will prove more of a challenge than Gianni Mina did. Ana Ivanovic plays Alisa Kleybanova, which is a great test for the former champion. And Kei Nishikori plays Novak Djokovic - this match is a big question mark. Djokovic has not been playing at his best, and Nishikori has been off the court for so long. It could be an interesting match, if Djokovic isn't playing his best and Nishikori is back to top form.
There are other great matches. Ivan Ljubicic plays Mardy Fish and David Ferrer plays Xavier Malisse. Justine Henin is in action, and so is Serena Williams. Andy Roddick plays Blaz Kavcic in a match that I'm really looking forward to. Kavcic is less accomplished than Nieminen, so if Roddick plays a bit better than he did in that match, he should come through this one. There's a fairly good chance that an American (other than a Williams sister) will make it to the third round. I find it likely that tomorrow's matches will be a bit less exciting than the drama that we went through today. Could it really match up?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
French Open Day 3
Now that we're through round one of the French Open, everyone who's going to have played a match has done so. Half the field is cleared out - well, almost. There's one match left to play - Xavier Malisse is up two sets to love against Simon Greul. Other than that, everything is set. There were a few relatively minor upsets today, but there's yet to be a big player to fall. One of the players who really wasn't a factor this year despite being the losing finalist last yeast was Dinara Safina, who collapsed against 39-year old Kimiko Date Krumm. It probably wasn't a back injury that cost her this match. She needs to get her head on straight.
The other player who lost because of mental problems was Sam Querrey, who lost to American Robbie Ginepri. After losing the second set in a tiebreak and getting broken to open the third set, Querrey just checked out. He said afterward that he didn't want to be on court, and he played like it. He seemed to be willing to admit his behavior was unprofessional, but the fact is that he's now 0-4 at Roland Garros, and there's no reason for him to have that kind of record.
On the other hand, American Andy Roddick got his clay court season off to a belated but successful start after beating Jarkko Nieminen in five sets. And the other players in Roddick's section of the draw that could have posed the greatest threat also lost today, so rather than a pair of Argentines waiting for him in the next two rounds, he's got a couple of Slovaks instead. He'll have Blaz Kavcic in the next round, and possibly Grega Zemjla instead of Juan Monaco after that.
Beyond that, the players who were expected to win managed to win today. French teen Gianni Mina put up a surprisingly good fight against Rafael Nadal, acquitting himself admirably, despite losing to the tune of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. We'll see him here again. Other than Roddick, the only other five-set match today was Horacio Zeballos's win over Martin Fischer, 10-8 in the fifth.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, we're back to the top half of the draw. There are actually some pretty good matches tomorrow. Gael Monfils takes on Fabio Fognini, Robin Soderling takes on Taylor Dent, Tsonga takes on Ouanna, and Murray faces Chela. There's an outside chance of an upset in any of those matches - as well as 32nd seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez against Thiemo De Bakker. Leonardo Mayer and Julien Benneteau, Carsten Ball against Viktor Troicki, and John Isner faces Marco Chiudinelli!
This is really a pretty great lineup for a second round of a grand slam. Lots of great matches on outside courts, between players with great stylistic match-ups. Normally, grand slams take more than a round to get going, but I'm pretty excited about quite a few of these. With any luck, the tournament could really kick into high gear tomorrow.
The other player who lost because of mental problems was Sam Querrey, who lost to American Robbie Ginepri. After losing the second set in a tiebreak and getting broken to open the third set, Querrey just checked out. He said afterward that he didn't want to be on court, and he played like it. He seemed to be willing to admit his behavior was unprofessional, but the fact is that he's now 0-4 at Roland Garros, and there's no reason for him to have that kind of record.
On the other hand, American Andy Roddick got his clay court season off to a belated but successful start after beating Jarkko Nieminen in five sets. And the other players in Roddick's section of the draw that could have posed the greatest threat also lost today, so rather than a pair of Argentines waiting for him in the next two rounds, he's got a couple of Slovaks instead. He'll have Blaz Kavcic in the next round, and possibly Grega Zemjla instead of Juan Monaco after that.
Beyond that, the players who were expected to win managed to win today. French teen Gianni Mina put up a surprisingly good fight against Rafael Nadal, acquitting himself admirably, despite losing to the tune of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. We'll see him here again. Other than Roddick, the only other five-set match today was Horacio Zeballos's win over Martin Fischer, 10-8 in the fifth.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, we're back to the top half of the draw. There are actually some pretty good matches tomorrow. Gael Monfils takes on Fabio Fognini, Robin Soderling takes on Taylor Dent, Tsonga takes on Ouanna, and Murray faces Chela. There's an outside chance of an upset in any of those matches - as well as 32nd seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez against Thiemo De Bakker. Leonardo Mayer and Julien Benneteau, Carsten Ball against Viktor Troicki, and John Isner faces Marco Chiudinelli!
This is really a pretty great lineup for a second round of a grand slam. Lots of great matches on outside courts, between players with great stylistic match-ups. Normally, grand slams take more than a round to get going, but I'm pretty excited about quite a few of these. With any luck, the tournament could really kick into high gear tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
French Open Day 2
The second day of action at the French Open was actually less exciting than the first - there were no real upsets to speak of today at all. There were some very close matches, but all of the seeded players made it through, with just a couple of exception. Tommy Robredo lost, which is something of a surprise, but he had a very tough first round match against Viktor Troicki, and he also has been having some trouble with injury. On the other hand, Feliciano Lopez's lost to Julian Reister of Germany was something of a surprise - or at least, it would have been, if Lopez had won more than one match in his last six appearances at Roland Garros.
There was nearly a massive upset - Richard Gasquet was up two sets and a break on Andy Murray, but the recent exertion of winning his first title in a couple years eventually caught up with him. He wilted, and after that he was never in the match again. This is the second time that Murray has come back from two sets to love down against Gasquet! Unbelievable. Shame for Gasquet, who has drawn Murray, Youzhny, and Nadal in his last three Grand Slam first rounds. Give him a qualifier at Wimbledon, come on! Cut the guy a break.
Kei Nishikori also came back from two sets to love down, and so did Carsten Ball! Quite a day, despite the lack of any really noteworthy upsets. Everybody who was supposed to show up today did so.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, we'll have the last third of the first round in action. Nadal is back on court, as is Justine Henin. So two of the favorites are back on the site of their biggest victories - or at least close by. Rafael Nadal is shockingly out on Suzanne Langlen, while Andy Roddick and Jarkko Nieminen are second on Philippe Chartrier. It may be Roddick's only clay-court match this year, so I guess the organizers wanted to draw attention to it. Or maybe they didn't want everyone to see Nadal demolish French teenager Gianni Mina.
Also, keep an eye on the performances of Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer, Maria Sharapova, and Dinara Safina. And there are guaranteed to be two US winners, because Sam Querrey is playing Robbie Ginepri and Bethanie Mattek-Sands is playing Vania King. So we're going to go at least 2-2 tomorrow!
Other matches to watch include Lleyton Hewitt and Jeremy Chardy, Jurgen Melzer and Dudi Sela, and Marion Bartoli against Maria Elena Camerin. With Amelie Mauresmo out of the picture, Bartoli is the best hope for the French Open. So best of luck, and we'll see how tomorrow goes!
There was nearly a massive upset - Richard Gasquet was up two sets and a break on Andy Murray, but the recent exertion of winning his first title in a couple years eventually caught up with him. He wilted, and after that he was never in the match again. This is the second time that Murray has come back from two sets to love down against Gasquet! Unbelievable. Shame for Gasquet, who has drawn Murray, Youzhny, and Nadal in his last three Grand Slam first rounds. Give him a qualifier at Wimbledon, come on! Cut the guy a break.
Kei Nishikori also came back from two sets to love down, and so did Carsten Ball! Quite a day, despite the lack of any really noteworthy upsets. Everybody who was supposed to show up today did so.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, we'll have the last third of the first round in action. Nadal is back on court, as is Justine Henin. So two of the favorites are back on the site of their biggest victories - or at least close by. Rafael Nadal is shockingly out on Suzanne Langlen, while Andy Roddick and Jarkko Nieminen are second on Philippe Chartrier. It may be Roddick's only clay-court match this year, so I guess the organizers wanted to draw attention to it. Or maybe they didn't want everyone to see Nadal demolish French teenager Gianni Mina.
Also, keep an eye on the performances of Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer, Maria Sharapova, and Dinara Safina. And there are guaranteed to be two US winners, because Sam Querrey is playing Robbie Ginepri and Bethanie Mattek-Sands is playing Vania King. So we're going to go at least 2-2 tomorrow!
Other matches to watch include Lleyton Hewitt and Jeremy Chardy, Jurgen Melzer and Dudi Sela, and Marion Bartoli against Maria Elena Camerin. With Amelie Mauresmo out of the picture, Bartoli is the best hope for the French Open. So best of luck, and we'll see how tomorrow goes!
Monday, May 24, 2010
French Open Day 1
With the French Open at last underway, there are already a handful of upsets and exciting matches. JW Tsonga nearly proved to be the first big upset by a top-ten player, as he almost lost to German Daniel Brands, but barely managed to pull out the win 7-5 in the fifth set. Kudos to Tsonga for pulling through a tough first round, and also to Brands, who nearly came through with the best win of his career. Hopefully, Tsonga can take confidence from that tough win on center court.
Also, big win for Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who lost the first two sets to Kevin Anderson of South Africa, only to come back and win the match in five. Normally, the hometown boys have trouble performing on their biggest stage, so this is an encouraging result. The other five-set matches of the day were Fabio Fognini over Nicolas Massu and Marco Chiudinelli over Somdev Devvarman. Good wins for both guys.
On the subject of good wins, defending champ Kuznetsova came through her first match with relatively little difficulty, which is encouraging, consider how poor her year has been so far. Venus Williams also made it through to the second round.
On the subject of upsets, though, Victoria Azarenka could barely keep the ball in play in her lopsided defeat to Gisela Dulko, and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez somehow managed to lose to somebody I'd never heard of before - Akgul Amanmuradova, a player from Uzbekistan. Good for her, but it's a shame for Martinez Sanchez, who had just won her biggest title ever in Rome.
The only noteworthy upset on the men's side was Julien Benneteau over Ernests Gulbis, who unfortunately injured himself midway through the second set. It's a real shame for Gulbis, who was experiencing a career resurgence, to get sidelined at this point with an injury. Here's hoping it isn't serious.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's action, the biggest match of the day is Murray-Gasquet. I maintain that the winner of that match has a good chance of making it all the way to the semifinals. There are a lot of other players in action tomorrow whose form will establish how far people will expect them to make it in this tournament. Djokovic and Wozniacki are question marks, and will remain so until they get out on court tomorrow. Ana Ivanovic is another player who isn't getting much attention, which is a shame considering the fact that she's a former champion here. And Gael Monfils has been injured for much of the year, but he loves the atmosphere here and could make some noise. And Elena Dementieva! All these players could do very well, but they sure haven't shown their best form lately.
I'm also excited about Kei Nishikori in action, and Jesse Witten against Marcos Baghdatis. Melanie Oudin is out there as well, and though no one will expect her to win, it would be nice to have some Americans take a few matches. We're 2-2 so far, but that's because Venus won and a women's first-round match was between two U.S. players. John Isner plays Golubev way out on court 14, and Michael Yani and Lukas Lacko need to finish their match from today. It's tied at 8-8 in the fifth.
Of course, Federer and Serena are also in action, and they should blow through their matches in not much time. If they even look troubled against the opponents they're facing, I think that will not bode well for their chances in the next two weeks. I don't expect that they'll have any problems, as Peter Luczak and Stefanie Voegele are probably going to be outclassed on court and overcome by the occasion. Still, should be fun to watch the best players in the world at work!
Also, big win for Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who lost the first two sets to Kevin Anderson of South Africa, only to come back and win the match in five. Normally, the hometown boys have trouble performing on their biggest stage, so this is an encouraging result. The other five-set matches of the day were Fabio Fognini over Nicolas Massu and Marco Chiudinelli over Somdev Devvarman. Good wins for both guys.
On the subject of good wins, defending champ Kuznetsova came through her first match with relatively little difficulty, which is encouraging, consider how poor her year has been so far. Venus Williams also made it through to the second round.
On the subject of upsets, though, Victoria Azarenka could barely keep the ball in play in her lopsided defeat to Gisela Dulko, and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez somehow managed to lose to somebody I'd never heard of before - Akgul Amanmuradova, a player from Uzbekistan. Good for her, but it's a shame for Martinez Sanchez, who had just won her biggest title ever in Rome.
The only noteworthy upset on the men's side was Julien Benneteau over Ernests Gulbis, who unfortunately injured himself midway through the second set. It's a real shame for Gulbis, who was experiencing a career resurgence, to get sidelined at this point with an injury. Here's hoping it isn't serious.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's action, the biggest match of the day is Murray-Gasquet. I maintain that the winner of that match has a good chance of making it all the way to the semifinals. There are a lot of other players in action tomorrow whose form will establish how far people will expect them to make it in this tournament. Djokovic and Wozniacki are question marks, and will remain so until they get out on court tomorrow. Ana Ivanovic is another player who isn't getting much attention, which is a shame considering the fact that she's a former champion here. And Gael Monfils has been injured for much of the year, but he loves the atmosphere here and could make some noise. And Elena Dementieva! All these players could do very well, but they sure haven't shown their best form lately.
I'm also excited about Kei Nishikori in action, and Jesse Witten against Marcos Baghdatis. Melanie Oudin is out there as well, and though no one will expect her to win, it would be nice to have some Americans take a few matches. We're 2-2 so far, but that's because Venus won and a women's first-round match was between two U.S. players. John Isner plays Golubev way out on court 14, and Michael Yani and Lukas Lacko need to finish their match from today. It's tied at 8-8 in the fifth.
Of course, Federer and Serena are also in action, and they should blow through their matches in not much time. If they even look troubled against the opponents they're facing, I think that will not bode well for their chances in the next two weeks. I don't expect that they'll have any problems, as Peter Luczak and Stefanie Voegele are probably going to be outclassed on court and overcome by the occasion. Still, should be fun to watch the best players in the world at work!
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