FRENCH OPEN TENNIS RAINED OUT, IVANOVIC WINS AS DOES TSONGA & FEDERER IS AT A SET EACH WITH MONFILS

Match interrompu – Rain hits Paris By Global Chick

 

We knew it could not possibly last, and finally the rain came, sending the crowd scurrying for the scant dry areas – believe us there is nowhere for punters to shelter when it rains. After the disruptions, the first two women’s matches got finished with Ana Ivanovic and Elina Svitolina setting up their impending quarter-final clash.

 

Ivanovic has looked a little bit of a lost soul these past few weeks, with losses on the clay, parting ways with her coach in Madrid, and generally searching for answers. She had to fight from a set down in her first two rounds to avoid being one of our “seed ousted shocker” headlines of the day, and finally seemed to get her groove back with a much more convincing third round win over Donna Vekic, but she was made to work, twirl and fist-pump her way to victory against ninth seed Ekaterina Makarova.

 

From being broken in the first game, and being rained upon by angry tennis gods, she came back out at the resumption and edged the first set, before the momentum switched to Makarova, who broke her again in the first game of the second set, and the last game to level the match. This time it was Ivanovic’s turn to break at the start of the third set and Makarova was over-pressing while Ivanovic looked steady, even breaking one final time to love to book a place in the quarter-final for the first time since her run to the title in 2008.

 

Now of course we’re not saying this could be her year, but she faces Elina Svitolina, who ended France’s hopes in Alize Cornet in another rain-disrupted battle. Svitolina has never beaten Ivanovic, and lost to her recently in straight sets in Madrid, so this is very winnable for the 2008 champion, especially now she feels she is getting back in her groove.

 

She admitted: “To be honest, coming into the tournament I didn’t really expect that at all. But I really worked hard for each match. I worked hard even before the tournament to reach the quarterfinal again here. It feels amazing.

 

“When I have a plan sort of everything falls in place, and it’s not only serve, it’s also the game. This is the thing I work hard for and obviously I have been working on my serve. But at the end of the day, you have to go back to basic and what feels natural for you. I have been really improving that area, and I feel now it’s getting to where I want it to be.”

 

With two men’s matches to get on for quarter-final berths to be determined and the disruption that a two and a half hour rain delay will cause, sadly Maria Sharapova’s match with Lucie Safarova, and Flavia Pennetta v Garbine Muguruza were postponed to Monday while we settled down to watch Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych. The Czech was struggling with back strapping and for the first two sets Tsonga was in commanding form, until it came to serving out for the match. Jitters does not begin to describe the situation as Tsonga did not just allow Berdych back into the match, but positively gave him a set of comfy slippers to wear and invited him to sit in Jo’s favourite armchair.

 

Berdych edged the tie-break and a nation groaned its despair. Tsonga continued to look out of sorts as Berdych took the initiative at the start of the fourth set, breaking the Frenchman before the first change of ends, but from somewhere Berdych lost his grip on the match as Tsonga gathered his (and everyone else’s) straying wits by breaking Berdych’s will twice in a row before delivering the coup de grace with a service game to love for a 6-3 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3.

 

Teymuraz Gabashvili’s run came to an end at the hands of Kei Nishikori in pretty straight forward fashion 6-3 6-4 6-2, and Stan Wawrinka was equally in a hurry against Gilles Simon whipping the Frenchman 6-1 6-4 6-2.

 

Of course all eyes were on Chatrier as finally Gael Monfils and Roger Federer took to the court.

 

Monfils has the better of Federer in their last two encounters, both on clay, but from the outset, Federer meant business, swiftly breaking Monfils in his first service game and holding onto that advantage to close out a speedy first set in just 29 minutes.

 

In almost a mirror image of the first set, it was Monfils who finally woke up to dish out the same treatment, going up 3-0 in the second set, and holding off Federer’s brief flurry to break him back before putting the Federer serve under pressure once more, breaking for the set.

 

With the tournament supervisor coming on and both players good naturedly agreeing to halt the match there in the Parisian doom and gloom, the scene is set for a challenging schedule with two and a half matches to finish from Sunday’s schedule.

 

Play begins on Monday at 11am CET with the postponed women’s matches first (Sharapova/Safarova on Chatrier and Pennetta/Muguruza on Lenglen) with Monfils and Federer to finish on Chatrier.

Topics: Ana Ivanovic, Atp World Tour, French Open Tennis, Gael Monfils, global chick, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Sports, Tennis, Tomas Berdych, Wta

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