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ROLAND GARROS 2014 - FRIDAY 30 MAY IP: 46.255.183.159 Posted on May 30, 2014 at 09:48:55 PM by David Barnes
ROLAND GARROS 2014
FRIDAY 30 MAY (DAY 6)
It proved tedious watching yet another top seed crash out of the women’s tournament (this morning it was the turn of that serial Grand Slam under-achiever, the lovely Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded 3, as she succumbed, albeit in symmetrical fashion, 6-4, 6-4, to the unseeded Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic), so I hurried across to Court 7, where the talented – and seeded - British/Filipino partnership of Dominic Inglot and [Conrad] Treat Huey were up against another unseeded Croatian, Mate Pavic, and his partner in crime (as events transpired), Brazilian Andre Sa, in the 2nd round of the men’s doubles.
The 7th seeds had difficulty living up to their semi-star billing and it proved an ultimately disappointing test for the by now long-term couple, but there was some fine doubles tennis along the way, and Inglot and Huey did well to come back from 1-3 down in the 2nd set to force the tie-break, before the set and the match were filched from under their noses, 7-6(5), 7-6(6). As when they last met a Croatian and a Brazilian (Dodig and Melo last year in the US Open semi-final), Inglot and Huey squandered break points (three, for example, leading 40-0, 6-5 in the 2nd set) and just came up short again today.
In an interview published last year in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the 28-year old Treat Huey explained that with age he has developed a more mature outlook; “As a kid (learning tennis) I was definitely throwing my racket, getting angry more on the court. But I learned over the years that I need to be smarter. I play much better when I am calm and relaxed, so that’s something I try to do,” he said. A little more fire in his belly, a little less relaxation, on serve especially, might have been in order this morning.
Radwanska said after her poor showing; “She [Tomljanovic] definitely played good tennis today. I had my chances, I didn't take them. I think [sic] that cost me the match. It doesn't mean if the first and second seeds lost, the third one is going to win. It's stupid to say that. It doesn't matter who is in the draw, if you play good then you're going to win. I just didn't play good enough today to win the match." Tomljanovic, who spent the latter part of 2012 getting over glandular fever, but had a stellar 2013, rising from 453 to 78 in the year-end rankings, said; “After seeing the two first seeds go out, you kind of feel like I can do this, too. I grew up with these girls that are beating them. You go out - I went on the stadium for the first time, and she kind of feels like home there, because she's been there a lot more than I did. I went out there, and I really, inside really thought I could win. I think that showed and it is why I won”.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic both dropped a set in beating Dmitry Tursunov and Marin Cilic respectively, but neither was much troubled, although Federer’s master-class was punctuated by the usual lacunae on both forehand and backhand. These, one suspects, will be more severely punished, by either Djokovic in the semifinal, or by Rafa in the final, if the second week of the men’s draw avoids the surprises of the women’s and goes as most people think it will. Or even by Ernests Gulbis in the next round , as Tursunov suggested after his injury-affected defeat at the hands of the Maestro; “I think Gulbis definitely has a very, very good game against Roger. He serves well, and he's a pretty heavy hitter, so I think it's not something that Roger will want to play against. Gulbis definitely is a person that has enough weapons to trouble Roger”.
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David Barnes/Topspin, 2014
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