10SBALLS’ FAVORITE CORRESPONDENT GLOBAL CHICK GIVES US HER PICKS FROM PARIS / THE 2015 FRENCH OPEN

Written by: Global Chick on 30th May 2015

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

10SBALLS' FAVORITE CORRESPONDENT GLOBAL CHICK GIVES US HER PICKS FROM PARIS / THE 2015 FRENCH OPEN

epa04774463 Maria Sharapova of Russia in action against Samantha Stosur of Australia during their third round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 29 May 2015. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT |

Back to THAT quarter and things are hotting up in Paris

After the sublime ease of Roger Federer’s advance, Maria Sharapova’s grit and determination and the adulation for the most dramatic of the French players (yes, we’re looking lovingly at you Gael Monfils and Alize Cornet), it was time to watch the pendulum swing ever closer to THAT looking quarter-final.

This is shaping up to be a great contest, almost like chess with the lower half of the draw ever watchful of the stratagems and machinations from the top half.

Although we had Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray AND Rafael Nadal on the menu, the real excitement came right at the end of a cool day with a rematch on clay between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Ever since Azarenka’s foot injury caused her to miss huge swathes of the tour last year, she has been the nightmare in the draw – just ask Caroline Wozniacki, who has lost three times to her just this year, or ask Venus Williams who was clobbered by Azarenka in her opening round in Madrid.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts as she plays against Serena Williams of the USA during their third round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 30 May 2015. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT

There is no doubt that Azarenka is back to winning ways, but that finishing instinct was sorely lacking when she faced Serena in Madrid squandering three match points and throwing in double-faults by the fistful to eventually lose the game at 6-5 from 40/0 to losing the tie-break. But she was serving notice that she was on her way back.

Having taken full advantage of a slow start by Williams only to be pegged back immediately, it would be the pressing Azarenka who was rewarded with a later break to take the first set. Not content with that, the former World No. 1 was 4-2 up before Williams clawed her way back, but a terribly late call crucially at the end of the second set handed the slimmest of reprieves for Williams and it was enough for her to take the second set on a run of four games in a row.

Azarenka broke straight away at the start of the third set, but Williams lifted her game, as she often does to rattle off six games in a row, and despite the level of spice in the match, their exchange at the net was fine, and Williams will no doubt believe she had another escape.

Azarenka was gloriously frank in press (edited for common decency and so as not to scare small children and fluffy animals):

She said: “I think, my honest opinion, that call was bull, and everybody knows it. But it’s part of the game. Sometimes it happens this way. But I think it wasn’t a fair call,” before suggesting it was time for a more formal review mechanism.

She continued: “I think my level speaks for itself, the way I have been playing, and I don’t have a doubt that I will get there in just a matter of time. But I just have to keep working. I don’t want to be satisfied that it was close, because that’s not good enough for me.”

Now about those men. First up for our assessment was Andy Murray who potentially faced a tricky encounter against Australia’s showman (well one of them, anyway) in Nick Kyrgios. The first set was breathless. When Kyrgios unleashed his forehand, it left the usually nimble Murray static many a time. But with great forehands come wild erratic shots, so the superhero voiceovers tell us (in a somewhat paraphrased way) and it was Murray’s steadiness that carried him through to the first set.

From there the showman’s power diminished sadly, as a recurring elbow injury started to flare up with the pace of his usually lethal serving slowing down dramatically, leaving him frustrated after the match at a missed chance.

“Today I wasn’t near 100%. Not to take anything from him. He played unbelievable. I don’t think he served well, but he made a lot of returns and he just does what he does best: that’s make a lot of balls and mix up the game.

“I have done so much and it’s pretty heart-breaking going out there and something like that holding you back.”

Murray had sensed that all was not well from the Man from Down Under, as he explained after the match.

“It was really after the first set or his last service game of the first set where he started to slow the serve down. The rest of the game he was still hitting huge shots. But on the overhead clearly he was struggling there, and that was obviously to my benefit.”

Novak Djokovic of Serbia in action against Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia during their third round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 30 May 2015. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT

Staying with yesterday’s penchant for national anthems, there was no case of Advance Australia Fair for Thanasi Kokkinakis either as he went up against the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. While Djokovic is still progressing full steam ahead for his mission to attain the one Slam that eludes him, he also got a good look at the talent coming up behind, speaking highly of the Australian.

Djokovic said: “We didn’t have that many young successful players under 20 years old in the last six or seven years. It’s quite refreshing for tennis. I thought he served well. He played pretty well. I made the three breaks each set and that was enough.”

Djokovic faces Richard Gasquet in the fourth round, while Rafael Nadal had a largely incident free encounter with Andrey Kuznetsov.

So now we take a breath, and head for Sunday, with that mouth-watering clash between Gael Monfils and Roger Federer as our pick of the day.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, French Open, global chick, Paris, Roland Garros, Tennis News, Wta

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May 30, 2015 at 5:47 pm

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