Tennis Weekly Wrap: Clay Court Recaps of Day 4 and Day 5 of The French Open by Nadya Vlassoff
With the 2009 French Open play resuming for Day
6 clay court battles between Dinara Safina and
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Venus Williams and
Agnes Szayvay (final recap results coming soon),
with eighth seeds Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco
also in action on Friday, May 29, the tennis world
is abuzz as the pressure intensifies at Roland
Garros in paris.
With our Day 6 recap coming soon, here’s a look back at the on-court road through Day 4 and Day 5 of the 2009 French Open.
French Open Day 4: Sharapova
battles through, Murray Wins
The second round
of French Open play saw Maria Sharapova return
to the only Grand Slam tournament that she has
yet to win. But that very thought must have
been in the back of her mind somewhere as Sharapova
beat her 11th seeded compatriot, Nadia Petrova,
in three sets to make it into the third round.
Although Maria Sharapova made it into the fourth
round at the 2008 French Open, eventually falling
to Dinara Safina and losing her #1 ranking,
Sharapova did not come into the 2009 French
Open with high expectations. The fact that Maria
has made it this far with a taped shoulder to
protect her healing injury is a testament to
her endurance and sheer will as a competitor.
So far the tape hasn’t hampered Sharapova’s
on-court game, although it took Maria three
sets, and an 8-6 final set to steal the match
from Petrova who played erratically at times
as she was broken early in the first set.
Along with the Sharapova victory, Dinara Safina continued to dominate her side of the draw, as she easily swept aside Vitalia Diatchenko in straight sets, only giving up two games during the entire match. With a smooth service game and an overpowering ground cache, Diatchenko was unable to put up a fight against the fearsome Russian who sees the French Open as her best chance at Slam victory. Ana Ivanovic also made it through to the third round as she managed to control her ball toss, although her Day 4 match was still a far cry from her winning form only a year ago when she walked away with her first French Open title.
Fabrice Santoro, the little ATP engine that could, played in his 20th and final consecutive French Open. Santoro, who has wowed crowds for three decades, was appreciative to have another the opportunity to play amongst a crowd of over 35,000 and thanked the crowd for their support. Marat Safin also took to the court in his final French Open after 12 years on tour, but lost an exhaustive, nearly 5 hour second round match to French qualifier Josselin Ouanna. Safin was inconsistent and erratic, showing only slight signs of his former brilliance with a few spectacular returns, but the one-time world #1 was eventually humbled by an unknown to bow out of French Open play.
Other notables for the second round included Rafael Nadal who raised his Roland Garros record to 30-0, as Nadal won in straight sets. The 3rd seeded Brit, Andy Murray, hung on to make it into the third round, equalling his best showing, while Marin Cilic, the towering 20 year old, went through, winning in straight sets and only dropping 4 games.
The biggest Day 4
upset on the women’s side came when the 15th
seeded Zheng Jie lost to 16 year old Portuguese
up and comer, Michelle Larcher de Brito. Heading
into the French Open, Zheng was on track to
become the most successful Chinese female clay
court player, but her hopes were crushed this
year as Brito took her out in straight sets.
That upset leaves Na Li, who won in straight
sets, as China’s best hope for a Chinese finalist
at Roland Garros. Li is also the most experienced
Chinese player after making it all the way to
the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
Spain’s Carla Suarrez Navarro also made it through along with Victoria Azarenka, Agnes Svazy, Alize Cornet, David Ferrer, Radek Stepanek, Fernando Gozalez, and Stanislas Wawrinka. The latter half of the second round continued on Thursday, with Venus Williams finishing her match against Lucie Safarova who had a one set advantage over Venus before the match was suspended due to darkness.
French Open Day 5: Dokic
retires, Top Seeds Roll
This year’s French Open is not going the way Australian Jelena Dokic would have hoped. After an incredible run at the Australian Open in January, Dokic was unable to continue in her second round match against the 4th seeded Elena Dementieva after she injured her back on an attempted return. Dokic was leading in the second set after she had broken Dementieva, but was reduced to tears during a changeover and ultimately had to retire while leading. If Dokic had not been injured it would have been the biggest upset of her comeback.
Venus Williams also survived a scare after continuing her suspended match due to darkness the day before. Lucie Safarova, who took the first set from Venus, looked to regain the form that had catapulted her into the top 20, but after the delay it was Venus who came out the victor as she dominated her smaller opponent. It wasn’t the best match for Venus, whose game favors the faster grass courts, but a win is a win. The majority of the women’s top seeds made it through to the third round of the French Open, as Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Caroline Wozniacki all swept aside their opponents with relative ease.
There were a few surprise seeds that fell on Day 5, one of them being former Wimbledon finalist, Marion Bartoli who lost to Italian Tathiana Garbin in straight sets. Clay has never been kind to the French WTA player and Day 5 was no different. One of the bigger upsets came as the clay court specialist, Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues lost to Virgine Razzano of France. It was Garrigues’ game to lose and lose she did. Garrigues was barely in contention, as Razzano broke early to take the lead in both sets and left Anabel shaking her head, as if to wonder whether there ever was a point that could have made a difference.
Roger Federer made
it through to the third round as well but not
without a few of his own slipups as he gave
up 7 straight games at one point during his
match against Jose Acasuso. The Argentine held
Federer to 4 sets but was unable to continue
the ferocious pace in the fourth set. Along
with Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick,
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Nikolay Davydenko also
made it, capping a successful day for the men’s
Top 10 seeds. Gael Monfils, recovered from a
several dives to win his match in straight sets
as well. Tommy Robredo also kept Spain’s hopes
alive with a win along with Jurgen Melzer and
Igor Andreev. Novak Djokovic was on pace to
take his second round match before play was
suspended, with Djokovic leading after the first
two sets against Sergiy Stakhovsky.
The third round opens on Friday with stars like Rafael Nadal, Dinara Safina, and Ana Ivanovic ready to march forward like on-court Napoleons to battle for the 2009 French Open title. Maria Sharapova will also be back on the court while her fans sit anxiously on their seats, waiting to see if Maria can get back to court form and regain her competitive glory.
The second round
of French Open play saw Maria Sharapova return
to the only Grand Slam tournament that she has
yet to win. But that very thought must have
been in the back of her mind somewhere as Sharapova
beat her 11th seeded compatriot, Nadia Petrova,
in three sets to make it into the third round.
Although Maria Sharapova made it into the fourth
round at the 2008 French Open, eventually falling
to Dinara Safina and losing her #1 ranking,
Sharapova did not come into the 2009 French
Open with high expectations. The fact that Maria
has made it this far with a taped shoulder to
protect her healing injury is a testament to
her endurance and sheer will as a competitor.
So far the tape hasn’t hampered Sharapova’s
on-court game, although it took Maria three
sets, and an 8-6 final set to steal the match
from Petrova who played erratically at times
as she was broken early in the first set.
The biggest Day 4
upset on the women’s side came when the 15th
seeded Zheng Jie lost to 16 year old Portuguese
up and comer, Michelle Larcher de Brito. Heading
into the French Open, Zheng was on track to
become the most successful Chinese female clay
court player, but her hopes were crushed this
year as Brito took her out in straight sets.
That upset leaves Na Li, who won in straight
sets, as China’s best hope for a Chinese finalist
at Roland Garros. Li is also the most experienced
Chinese player after making it all the way to
the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
Roger Federer made
it through to the third round as well but not
without a few of his own slipups as he gave
up 7 straight games at one point during his
match against Jose Acasuso. The Argentine held
Federer to 4 sets but was unable to continue
the ferocious pace in the fourth set. Along
with Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick,
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Nikolay Davydenko also
made it, capping a successful day for the men’s
Top 10 seeds. Gael Monfils, recovered from a
several dives to win his match in straight sets
as well. Tommy Robredo also kept Spain’s hopes
alive with a win along with Jurgen Melzer and
Igor Andreev. Novak Djokovic was on pace to
take his second round match before play was
suspended, with Djokovic leading after the first
two sets against Sergiy Stakhovsky.