FRENCH OPEN TENNIS NEWS AND UPDATE, ROGER FEDERER, RAFAEL NADAL & ANDY MURRAY ALL POST WINS & MARIA SHARAPOVA LOSES

The schedule does not get any more loaded than this – Manic Monday with Global Chick

 

It is not often that we ever have to be thankful for the rain, but the second week of the French Open started with a superb line-up as the organisers grappled with the schedule.

 

The biggest upset came as defending champion Maria Sharapova was ousted by Lucie Safarova in straight sets.

 

It was a confident start by the Czech to break Sharapova early, but she was broken back as the first set continued very competitively. She went on to make a quick start in the tie-break, breaking Sharapova’s serve twice, and needing three set points to take the initial advantage.

 

Safarova started quickly again in the second set, once more taking the early break, with Sharapova coming back at her. Crucially it was Safarova who knuckled down to put pressure for the last time on the Sharapova serve, making the quarter-finals for the first time. It might have been easy for her to cave after Sharapova saved the first match point, but she made no mistake on the second, knocking out the defending champion, whose clay court season has been hit and miss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Maria is an amazing player. I needed to play aggressive and to come forward for the points,” said a delighted Safarova, after the match.

 

Sharapova has been struggling all week with a cold, but refused to let that define the result.

 

She said: “I don’t like to talk about it, and I don’t think it really makes a difference. I’m still a competitor no matter what. You know, I’m going to do everything in order to go out and give it my best, and I think I did the best I could. Today it wasn’t enough, because my opponent had a different gear than I did. But I was still there and I still competed, but it wasn’t enough.”

 

Sharapova is not scheduled for any of the warm up events in the extremely tight turnaround between the clay and the grass court season, and admitted she had some decisions to make.

 

She continued: “I want to prepare myself and train and not think about where I will be in four weeks. I think as an athlete, we want to try to be at the highest level, but to get there you know what your formula is.

 

“That’s the most important thing, just to get healthy, to give myself a chance to prepare, and page 1 of 2 whether that means a warmup tournament or just getting extra days on the grass or getting extra time to just train physically, then that’s what it will be. But by the time Wimbledon comes around, I know that I will be ready.”

 

Meanwhile Serena Williams had a scare as well, surrendering the first set to Sloane Stephens, who rocketed through it 6-1, before Williams battled back, making it her third three set comeback in a row.

 

She said after the match: “I feel like I’m living on the edge, but you know, I’ve got to get off the edge. I don’t like to take chances, but at the same time this is also helping me, I guess, in terms of knowing that, ‘Oh, I know can I play a two-hour match, I can do that.'”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile on the men’s side it was a real treat as all of the Big Four were in action. First up was Roger Federer, in absolutely no mood to hang about at the resumption of his fourth round match with Gael Monfils, carried over from a miserably cold evening the night before. While the weather was at least drier that before, Federer was scorching hot as he swiftly won what was essentially a normal best of three match.

 

“Today I was just really focused on my concentration to really not miss them, and everything worked out very well. I was able to mix up my game, serve big when I had to.”

 

Andy Murray had to contend with the French crowds as well, taking on an in-form Jeremy Chardy who was a touch peeved after losing to Murray in Rome, and then the Brit withdrawing before the next match. Perhaps he made his feelings more known as he put the Brit under pressure throughout the match, taking the second set, and giving Murray another test on his quest to better his two semi-final places here. He now faces David Ferrer who he has never beaten on clay, despite having 9-6 lead over him in their head to head.

 

Murray said: “David is a fantastic player on all of the surfaces, but on this surface he’s for sure of one of the top four or five players in the world. The higher ranked players you play, the less opportunities they give you, the less mistakes they give you, especially in important moments. Maybe someone who is more inexperienced may rush at certain moments or make bad decisions. That’s not something David does. So I’m going to have to work extremely hard in that match and be very patient and try to dictate the play as much as I can.”

 

Even Rafael Nadal had to concede his first set of the tournament as Jack Sock rebelled against the schooling he had been given in the first two sets before mounting a fight back. Give the guy his credit, he fought to the very last point, and you can’t help wondering that if he had another chance present itself in a year’s time, folks would not be so swift to write off his chances.

 

French hopes disappeared, like forlorn little pops of champagne bubbles, as Novak Djokovic completely outclassed Richard Gasquet, which of course means, the tennis universe is set for one of the toughest quarter-final line-ups, between Djokovic and Nadal.

 

It has been quite the day in Paris, and Monsieur Federer will once more be in action as we swap our camembert for emmental cheese in our baguette for an all Swiss quarter-final, and we can all start a little later as play commences on the show courts at 2pm CET.

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Federer, French Open, Maria Sharapova, Paris, Rafa Nadal, Roland Garros, Sports, Tennis News

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