Before Ernests Gulbis took to court Suzanne Lenglen for quarterfinal action at the French Open on Tuesday, the last eight players who had knocked out Roger Federer in a Grand Slam had lost in the very next round. Not since Novak Djokovic at the 2011 U.S. Open had a player taken out Federer before winning his next match.
Eugenie Bouchard (Westmount, QC) and Milos Raonic (Thornhill, ON) tried to continue writing history on Tuesday at Roland-Garros as two Canadians were playing in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
For someone who swears she felt like a cow on ice each time she was competing on red clay only a few years ago, Maria Sharapova has made herself right at home on the surface, having won six of her last eight titles on terre battue. It has become her friend and a good friend indeed.
Perhaps it's just as well this country took a sabbatical at the French Open this year. With American men not surviving the second round, Venus and Serena losing in the quarters and Jennifer Capriati embarrassed in her semifinal, the stars and stripes hung at half-staff in a city where ambivalence to our flag would be considered progress.
Francis Tiafoe of the United States, the No. 1 seed in the junior boys singles event at the French Open, crashed out in the second round on Monday with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 loss to Jan Choinski of Germany. Tiafoe comes in at No. 4 in the ITF junior rankings, while Choinski is 31st.
Six of the top eight seeds are through to the French Open quarterfinals on the men's side. And the only two that are not--Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer--have worthy replacements in the form of Gael Monfils and Ernests Gulbis. The result is a blockbuster lineup in the last eight.
The final Monday of Roland Garros arrived and all of the Americans were gone. There are no US players in the mix at Roland Garros anywhere; not in the singles and not in any of the vast combinations of doubles. The three who remained Monday morning have bombed out.
The ITF has announced that legendary Australian doubles pair Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde will receive the ITF’s highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award, at the 2014 ITF World Champions Dinner on Tuesday 3 June in Paris at the Pavillon d’Armenonville.
The Draw for the 2015 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas will be held at Tenniseum at Roland Garros in Paris on Wednesday 4 June at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT). The Draw will be streamed live on the official Fed Cup website: www.fedcup.com
Roger Federer did it. So, did Caroline Wozniacki. They were the applauded and appreciated Australian Open singles winners. Much less well received was the brutal heat that turned the fortnight into the Dehydration Open.
Tennis players and coaches around the world will receive this prototype racket as part of, what we believe is, the largest and broadest playtest in racket history.
David Goffin, finalist of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in 2017, will come to Rotterdam for the sixth time in February. The 28-year-old Belgian is the ninth player who has been announced for the 46th edition.
