A LOOK AT THE FRENCH OPEN’S REMAINING FIRST-ROUND MEN’S MATCHES, ROGER FEDERER GLIDES THRU HIS FIRST ROUND BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 25th May 2014

A LOOK AT THE FRENCH OPEN'S REMAINING FIRST-ROUND MEN'S MATCHES, ROGER FEDERER GLIDES THRU HIS FIRST ROUND BY RICKY DIMON

epa04219727 Rafael Nadal of Spain poses for photographs with his 2013 French Open tennis tournament trophy near the Eiffel tower in Paris, France, 22 May 2014. The French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros will run from 25 May to 08 July 2014. EPA/YOAN VALAT |

The French Open got off to its traditional Sunday start, but a plethora of entertainment has been left for Monday and Tuesday as the first round heats up. While Roger Federer is already through to round two, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have not yet made their 2014 Roland Garros debuts. Let’s take a look a quick look ahead.

(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (WC) Robby Ginepri: Nadal in the first round? Seriously? Throw America a bone, please.

(WC) Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Dominic Thiem: This should be an entertaining battle for the right to lose to Nadal in the second round.

Teymuraz Gabashvili vs. (30) Vasek Pospisil: I think Gabashvili still spelled his first name with an “i” instead of a “y” the last time Pospisil won a tennis match.

(21) Nicolas Almagro vs. Jack Sock: Spain vs. USA on clay. No other analysis is necessary.

Steve Johnson vs. (Q) Laurent Lokoli: Lokoli is the underdog, but he has a much better chance of winning this than he did of winning his recent French Open kids’ day dance-off with Gael Monfils.

(11) Grigor Dimitrov vs. Ivo Karlovic: Karlovic in the first round is always a bad draw. Unfortunately for Karlovic, Dimitrov in the first round is an even worse draw.

Stephane Robert vs. (19) Kevin Anderson: Robert once beat Tomas Berdych at the French Open. By the transitive property, does that mean Robert is going to beat Anderson?

(32) Andreas Seppi vs. Santiago Giraldo: Seppi snagged the final seed and Giraldo missed it by one spot. Fitting they face each other round one.

(3) Stan Wawrinka vs. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez: Yes, his name seems to be officially “Stan” now. Regardless of what he’s going by these days, the Swiss should be able to get past GGL. But this is by no means the easiest of first-round draws.

(Q) Damir Dzumhur vs. (26) Feliciano Lopez: We haven’t heard much from Dzumhur since all the noise he made (literally, thanks to those Bosnian fans) at the Australian Open.

(23) Gael Monfils vs. Victor Hanescu: Monfils and Fabio Fognini each need two wins in order to make their possible third-round showdown come to fruition. Please let it happen, tennis gods.

(12) Richard Gasquet vs. Bernard Tomic: Both men are question marks right now. The only guarantee is this one will last more than 28 minutes.

Lleyton Hewitt vs. Carlos Berlocq: This should be the first-round leader in both c’mons and vamoses.

Marinko Matosevic vs. Dustin Brown: Matosevic has never advanced out of the first round of a Grand Slam (0-12 lifetime).

Alejandro Falla vs. Benoit Paire: What are the chances this match ends in retirement? 100 percent?

(17) Tommy Robredo vs. James Ward: Ward has accounted himself well on clay this season, first beating Sam Querrey in Davis Cup and then beating Ryan Harrison in French Open qualifying. Bad news: Robredo ain’t no American.

Nicolas Mahut vs. Mikhail Kukushkin: Whose ready for another Isner-Mahut match? If Mahut wins this one, it’ll happen in the second round.

Lukasz Kubot vs. (18) Ernests Gulbis: Gulbis is becoming somewhat of a 250-point specialist (6-0 in ATP finals, all 250 points). At Grand Slams, though, he’s barely been better than Matosevic.

Lukas Rosol vs. Jiri Vesely: A Czech will win this matchup. Which one is anyone’s guess.

Michael Russell vs. Alejandro Gonzalez: Russell is older than Karlovic. He’s older than Radek Stepanek. He’s even older than Tommy Haas. Advantage: Gonzalez.

Robin Haase vs. Nikolay Davydenko: Davydenko’s winning head-to-head record against Nadal is safe for at least one more tournament, unless he reaches the final. He probably won’t even reach the second round.

Martin Klizan vs. (9) Kei Nishikori: This pits the hottest player on tour outside of Djokovic vs. the recent Munich champion. Of course, Klizan would do well just to make this competitive.

(25) Marin Cilic vs. Pablo Andujar: In there a tougher first-round match to call? Well, probably. But this is a good matchup.

(Q) Miloslav Mecir vs. Tobias Kamke: As for Mecir’s dad, I would pick him to beat Kamke any day of the week. This Mecir, on the other hand….

Joao Sousa vs. (2) Novak Djokovic: These two practiced with each other in Cincinnati (and probably at many other tournaments). This one should not be much more than another practice session for the Djoker.

Topics: Federer, French Open, Novak, Rafa, Ricky Dimon, Roland Garros, Tennis

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10sBalls_com says:

May 25, 2014 at 1:20 pm

A LOOK AT THE FRENCH OPEN’S REMAINING FIRST-ROUND MEN’S MATCHES BY RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) – http://t.co/GIZVcqn6gS #FrenchOpen