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ROLAND GARROS 2015 - DAY 5 IP: 46.255.183.159 Posted on May 28, 2015 at 10:57:28 PM by David Barnes
ROLAND GARROS 2015
THURSDAY 28 MAY - DAY 5
Intriguing tennis matches, like London buses, sometimes come along in batches, and today's Roland Garros schedule offered just such a plethora of delights. Julia Goerges met Caroline Wozniacki in the opening hors d'oeuvre on Philippe Chatrier, before the plat principal arrived in the shape of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, taking on Nicolas Almalgro and Joao Sousa respectively; the other courts, with Serena Williams v Anna-Lena Friedsam, Francesca Schiavone v Svetlana Kuznetsova, Thanasi Kokkinakis v Bernard Tomic, and not least Novak Djokovic v Gilles Muller, witnessed scenes of drama and passion.
An upset was perhaps anticipated in the first match, since Wozniacki, despite a better year in 2014 than in 2012 or 2013, has, historically, not done well here - never progressing past the quarterfinals - or on clay generally, considering grass to be her best surface. She gave a rather melancholic press conference after her defeat, saying of her opponent, who won in straight sets 6-4, 7-6, "She has a way to make me feel like I'm not really playing very well. She has given me trouble in the past and she gave me trouble again today". Shades therefore of her ill-fated relationship with Rory McIlroy, which ended in such acrimony last year with "a ten-minute phone call" from the Irish golfer to say 'goodbye and thanks for the memories'. The good news for the Dane is that her tennis and results have both improved since Rory dumped her, so the same thing may apply following her latest [r]ejection at the Porte d'Auteuil.
Rafa met no real resistance from Nicolas Almagro in the second match, after the latter's initial flurry of shot-making, beating his fellow Spaniard 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. "Oui, je suis content, j'ai eu un bon match", he said in French afterwards, to the delight of the crowd, whom he sometimes struggles to win over, here at Roland Garros, despite - or perhaps because of - his nine titles. He is having more trouble with the press corps this year than usual, and got annoyed (again) with a journalist afterwards for banging on about umpires, and the fairness or otherwise of having certain ones excluded from your matches ("The thing is easy. I asked to don't be umpired for some umpires in my career few times"). This was around the same time as, on court, Andy Murray was getting furious with himself for letting his opponent back into a match that he looked to be in complete control of after one set. It was that sort of an afternoon - tetchy, a tad stormy and unpredictable - at Roland Garros today.
Despite being born within a year of the Spaniard, Andy Murray has significantly fewer Grand Slam titles anywhere than Rafa has here, which is sobering. Sousa's opening service game ran to over ten minutes, with seven deuces, giving the Portuguese player a taste of the resistance he would meet if he tried to avenge himself for yesterday's doubles defeat at the hands (in part) of Andy's brother Jamie. The Scot was in determined mood, but lost his way in the second set, regaining his sense of focus just in time in the third, and ran out an easy winner in four; 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in exactly two and a half hours. "I had to tell myself to weather the storm . . . he was playing very well. I came up with some good serves and turned it around", he said afterwards when questioned by Fabrice Santoro, who was wearing a kilt especially for the occasion. You felt rather sorry for Andy - never particularly at ease in interview - since he was totally nonplussed by the Frenchman's fashion statement, commenting awkwardly; "I really don't know what to say". The least said the better, it would seem, in such circumstances.
Across from Philippe Chatrier a sense of intrigue also permeated Court 7, where the teenage Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis took on his older compatriot Bernard Tomic. Despite falling heavily when 5-4 up in the fourth set, the younger man recovered, with the help of the trainer and some sticking plaster, to take the set 6-4 and level the score after two and a half hours. He broke Tomic's serve, crucially, to take a 7-6 lead in the fifth set, having saved three match points along the way, then recovered from 0-30 down on his own serve, falling to the ground (again, this time in joyous celebration) as Tomic netted a forehand from behind the baseline to hand him the match. He had whacked down nineteen aces compared to Tomic's six, made 71 winners compared to 37 from the other side of the net, and scored a remarkable 80% first serve percentage in almost three and a half hours of mesmerising tennis; 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 8-6. Following Lleyton Hewitt's imminent retirement (planned to be after next year's Australian Open), Bernard Tomic may well become both the 'Grand Old Man' and 'Sad Old Has-been' of Aussie tennis, which would be quite an achievement at the age of only twenty-three.
And all this while Serena Williams was being taken to three tough sets on Suzanne Lenglen, where she eventually triumphed, with some difficulty, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, after very nearly two hours of often error-strewn play, against an opponent ranked over a hundred points below her. Based on the American's performance today, Sharapova need have few worries, but then Williams often improves as a tournament progresses, and may yet be coming out all guns blazing a week on Saturday. Another former Roland Garros champion, Francesca Schiavone, found the going equally challenging against today's opponent Svetlana Kuznetsova, and had to come from a set down, taking nearly four hours to come through 6-7 (11-13 in the tie-break), 7-5, 10-8. John Isner, who has known some long matches in his time, followed her on court, but surrendered, prematurely by his usual standards, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to Jeremy Chardy, in a little under two and a half hours.
Madison Keys beat Belinda Bencic from Switzerland, 6-0, 6-3, in exactly one hour, leaving Court 7 free for Heather Watson to challenge another rising star in the American tennis firmament, Sloane Stephens, who had put out 15th seed Venus Williams in the 1st round. It was not a happy afternoon for the Guernsey teenager, playing with a heavily strapped right arm, and she lost 6-2, 6-4 in little more than an hour, although she claimed afterwards that the arm was not the problem; "I was just very inconsistent today". Novak Djokovic suffered a right groin strain midway through his match against Gilles Muller, necessitating on-court treatment, but came through 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 in less than two hours.
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David Barnes/Topspin, 2015
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