The real day one
I didn’t plan things this way, and certainly, neither did the French Open tournament directors.
After two days of deluge, only a paltry seven men’s matches were completed heading into day three of Roland Garros. For me, this meant that during my two days off (which I planned to watch plenty of tennis), I only got to see the first set and a few games of Roger Federer’s match with Michael Russell. Besides that, I saw no other points of men’s action – and as a consolation prize, I got to watch the Serena Williams match three times, and the Justine Henin replay twice. Oh joy.
For the tournament itself, I truly empathized with the fans who attended the first two days of action, especially after having a day of tennis postponed at last year’s U.S. Open. It was really unfortunate for the spectators involved, and is one of the unique elements of the sport that fans have to deal with.
Naturally, the day I had to return to work marked a day where, by my count, 53 men’s matches were played. I got to watch the conclusion of the Federer match live (Roger looked solid both yesterday and today), but there was much that I had to track online while at the office. There were quite a few upsets, based on the seeds (therefore, take these as you wish):
- Igor Andreev def. (3) Andy Roddick 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
- Radek Stepanek def. (5) Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
- Ivo Karlovic def. (8) James Blake 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.
Of these three, the Gonzalez loss is probably the most shocking, especially after reaching the finals of Rome only a short time ago. There’s no question that the Chilean didn’t get a kind first round draw, though – Stepanek is a solid veteran, who was even pegged by a friend of mine to have a nice showing at Roland Garros. While I agreed with that on some terms, I certainly didn’t expect to see this.
The American woes in Paris continued, but it’s even more disappointing to see them fall after each being one set up. Trust me, I would like to root for James and Andy a little more, but results like this remind me why I much rather prefer to watch Federer and Nadal – I like consistency on all surfaces.
More than just upsets that defined the day – a number of players showed convincing performances, advancing to the second round with ease:
- (11) Richard Gasquet def. Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
- (14) Lleyton Hewitt def. Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
- (16) Marcos Baghdatis def. Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
- (19) Guillermo Canas def. Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.
All four of these matches ended in straight sets, and all four winners have had some recent success this year. I’m a big believer that getting off to a strong start at a Grand Slam is critical to overall success – saying that, I would keep an eye out for all of these gentlemen during this fortnight. In fact, Canas/Gasquet looks like a killer fourth rounder.
There were some other fascinating scores as well, which were of interest to me:
- (20) Jarkko Nieminen def. Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-4, 7-6.
- (28) Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Lukas Dlouhy 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 17-15.
- Paul-Henri Mathieu def. (31) Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
- Juan Monaco def. Fabio Fognini 3-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
- Gael Monfils def. Oliver Rochus 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
- Gaston Gaudio def. Marc Gicquel 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
- Gilles Simon def. Vince Spadea 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Why did they catch my eye?
- Nieminen is my seeded player in the office tennis pool. Lopez seems like he has the potential to be a great player with his strokes, but his mental state looks as fragile as can be. Think of this “Adonis” as the anti-Juan Monaco.
- Speaking of Monaco, he pulled out a gutsy five-set win when things looked bleak against Fognini. It would have been a tremendous disappointment for Monaco, especially after winning twice on clay this year. Of course, one of these wins was just last week in Austria, again raising the question of “should you play the week before a Grand Slam?”
- Another competitor in that very Austrian event was Gael Monfils, who like Monaco, needed five sets to win in the round of 128. I get the feeling that it would just take a few wins for the French faithful to really get behind Monfils, who could be more magnetic to them than Gasquet. He’ll have a tough second round opponent though, in Juan Ignacio Chela.
- Paul-Henri Mathieu is an oft-forgotten hometown hero, but he appeared to take out 31st seed Florian Mayer with relative ease. Last year at Roland Garros, he played Rafael Nadal extremely tough before falling in four sets. After Gasquet and Monfils, consider Mathieu as the next best French hope.
- Kohlschreiber/Dlouhy: check out that final set score. Brings back memories of the 2003 Australian Open quarterfinal with Younes El Aynaoui (4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, 21-19). I’d love to see highlights.
- Nice to see Gaston Gaudio, the last French Open champion not named Nadal, to stick around for another round (not a guarantee of late).
- Lastly, the Vince Spadea match – I finally got through Break Point, Spadea’s memoirs of his 2005 ATP season, and it was an entertaining read. Not enough of one for me to get on his bandwagon (if there is one), but enough to keep me interested. Should Spadea have prevailed, his name would have been elevated as the only American to advance past round one so far in Paris. Instead, he’s just another U.S. disaster, and “that guy with the weird emblem on his shirt who wrote an inflammatory book”.
But tennis reads are so rare these days that I have to commend anyone who puts forth the effort to author one. So here goes:
Gilles, you may not have a case of dementia
But remember Spadea still ain’t afraid of ya
(If you understand none of this, read the book.)
After two days of deluge, only a paltry seven men’s matches were completed heading into day three of Roland Garros. For me, this meant that during my two days off (which I planned to watch plenty of tennis), I only got to see the first set and a few games of Roger Federer’s match with Michael Russell. Besides that, I saw no other points of men’s action – and as a consolation prize, I got to watch the Serena Williams match three times, and the Justine Henin replay twice. Oh joy.
For the tournament itself, I truly empathized with the fans who attended the first two days of action, especially after having a day of tennis postponed at last year’s U.S. Open. It was really unfortunate for the spectators involved, and is one of the unique elements of the sport that fans have to deal with.
Naturally, the day I had to return to work marked a day where, by my count, 53 men’s matches were played. I got to watch the conclusion of the Federer match live (Roger looked solid both yesterday and today), but there was much that I had to track online while at the office. There were quite a few upsets, based on the seeds (therefore, take these as you wish):
- Igor Andreev def. (3) Andy Roddick 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
- Radek Stepanek def. (5) Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
- Ivo Karlovic def. (8) James Blake 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.
Of these three, the Gonzalez loss is probably the most shocking, especially after reaching the finals of Rome only a short time ago. There’s no question that the Chilean didn’t get a kind first round draw, though – Stepanek is a solid veteran, who was even pegged by a friend of mine to have a nice showing at Roland Garros. While I agreed with that on some terms, I certainly didn’t expect to see this.
The American woes in Paris continued, but it’s even more disappointing to see them fall after each being one set up. Trust me, I would like to root for James and Andy a little more, but results like this remind me why I much rather prefer to watch Federer and Nadal – I like consistency on all surfaces.
More than just upsets that defined the day – a number of players showed convincing performances, advancing to the second round with ease:
- (11) Richard Gasquet def. Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
- (14) Lleyton Hewitt def. Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
- (16) Marcos Baghdatis def. Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
- (19) Guillermo Canas def. Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.
All four of these matches ended in straight sets, and all four winners have had some recent success this year. I’m a big believer that getting off to a strong start at a Grand Slam is critical to overall success – saying that, I would keep an eye out for all of these gentlemen during this fortnight. In fact, Canas/Gasquet looks like a killer fourth rounder.
There were some other fascinating scores as well, which were of interest to me:
- (20) Jarkko Nieminen def. Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-4, 7-6.
- (28) Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Lukas Dlouhy 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 17-15.
- Paul-Henri Mathieu def. (31) Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
- Juan Monaco def. Fabio Fognini 3-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
- Gael Monfils def. Oliver Rochus 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
- Gaston Gaudio def. Marc Gicquel 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
- Gilles Simon def. Vince Spadea 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Why did they catch my eye?
- Nieminen is my seeded player in the office tennis pool. Lopez seems like he has the potential to be a great player with his strokes, but his mental state looks as fragile as can be. Think of this “Adonis” as the anti-Juan Monaco.
- Speaking of Monaco, he pulled out a gutsy five-set win when things looked bleak against Fognini. It would have been a tremendous disappointment for Monaco, especially after winning twice on clay this year. Of course, one of these wins was just last week in Austria, again raising the question of “should you play the week before a Grand Slam?”
- Another competitor in that very Austrian event was Gael Monfils, who like Monaco, needed five sets to win in the round of 128. I get the feeling that it would just take a few wins for the French faithful to really get behind Monfils, who could be more magnetic to them than Gasquet. He’ll have a tough second round opponent though, in Juan Ignacio Chela.
- Paul-Henri Mathieu is an oft-forgotten hometown hero, but he appeared to take out 31st seed Florian Mayer with relative ease. Last year at Roland Garros, he played Rafael Nadal extremely tough before falling in four sets. After Gasquet and Monfils, consider Mathieu as the next best French hope.
- Kohlschreiber/Dlouhy: check out that final set score. Brings back memories of the 2003 Australian Open quarterfinal with Younes El Aynaoui (4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, 21-19). I’d love to see highlights.
- Nice to see Gaston Gaudio, the last French Open champion not named Nadal, to stick around for another round (not a guarantee of late).
- Lastly, the Vince Spadea match – I finally got through Break Point, Spadea’s memoirs of his 2005 ATP season, and it was an entertaining read. Not enough of one for me to get on his bandwagon (if there is one), but enough to keep me interested. Should Spadea have prevailed, his name would have been elevated as the only American to advance past round one so far in Paris. Instead, he’s just another U.S. disaster, and “that guy with the weird emblem on his shirt who wrote an inflammatory book”.
But tennis reads are so rare these days that I have to commend anyone who puts forth the effort to author one. So here goes:
Gilles, you may not have a case of dementia
But remember Spadea still ain’t afraid of ya
(If you understand none of this, read the book.)
posted by Ed McGrogan @ 11:04 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Another good post and I must agree with you about the whole Roddick situation. I think it speaks of a lack of failure to dedicate himself to the surface. And regardless of whether or not it's his favourite surface, thee clay season is still a substantial period in the calendar and a necessary one at that, if you want your French Open chances to be favourable.
Did you see Gasquet's desultory effort in his loss? It was so disappointing to just see the confidence unravel after the second set. At least Monfils came through for the French, although I doubt he'll go even two more rounds. His flamboyantness and tumbling falls leave him constantly open for injuries and I wish he'd cut it out.
Darren Cahill raised the interesting point that he's much too complacent in rallies and after observing his match, I do agree. he can't just get the ball back into play and wait for his opponents to make the error; sooner or later he has to force the issue.
But seriously, WITHGOW Gasquet?
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