The first week of the French open has come and gone and it
has definitely lived up to its billing, as some excellent tennis has been on
display for our viewing. We have witnessed intense battles, incredible
comebacks, close-calls and shocking upsets in the first, second and third rounds
of the tournament. By the end of the third round, which started on Friday and
will end today, the competition will have been narrowed down from 128 players
to 16 players in both the ATP and WTA tournaments. Here is a round-up of some
of the tournament’s major talking points:
Nadal Pulls Out Of French
open
The French open was hit with major news on Friday as
nine-time Roland Garros champion pulled out of the tournament as a result of an
injury to his left wrist. The Spaniard cruised through his first and second
round matches with ease against Australian Sam Groth and Argentine Facundo
Bagnis respectively, winning both games in straight sets, however it was
reported that he needed an injection to numb the pain in his wrist to be able
to participate in the second round. Nadal, who has won a total of 14 Grand Slam
singles titles, said he would not even have tried to compete at any other
tournament with the injury, "but it's the most important event of the year
for me." Nadal isn’t the only high profile player to pull out during the
tournament through injury, as WTA 5th ranked Victoria Azarenka
retired from her first round match against Karin Knapp due to a knee injury.
Tournament Upsets
The WTA tournament wasted no time in providing upsets as one
of the pre-tournament favourites and Australian open champion 3rd seeded
Angelique Kerber was axed in the first round by Kiki Bertens 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, Kerber struggled a great deal during
the match with a shoulder injury and even managed to win the second set but it
was not to be as the hard-hitting Dutchwoman took the final set to progress to
the second round. Elsewhere 7th seeded Roberta Vinci lost to
Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1,6-3 in the first round making it a tournament
to forget for the Italian. American Shelby Rogers, who is ranked 108th
in the WTA defeated Petra Kvitova who is ranked 12th 6-0, 6-7, 6-0,
Shelby will face Irina Begu in the fourth round. The ATP tournament on the other
hand has experienced very few upsets, one of them being Frenchman Benoit Paire
loss to Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, another match saw Jack
Sock, the No. 23 seed lose 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to 55th ranked
Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in a match that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.
Comebacks and near
upsets
We have witnessed some truly spectacular matches in this
year’s edition of Roland Garros and most of them have come in the shape of
dramatic comebacks and near upsets. Defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka had
an early scare and had to comeback from a set down twice to win a 5-set
thriller against Lukas Rosol 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round,
Wawrinka and Rosol were facing each other for the second time in five days
after they played In the Geneva ATP Masters semi-finals, a match which Wawrinka
emerged victorious. The British world No. 2 Andy Murray found himself in an
even worse predicament against Radek Stepanek, having to come back after
losing the first two sets to win the game in an incredible fashion 3-6, 3-6,
6-0, 6-3, 7-5 in the first round, the match took two days to be completed as play
was suspended because of bad light. The pick of the bunch will have to be world
No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s thrilling 6-7, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 comeback against a
defiant Marcos Baghdatis in the second round, Baghdatis shocked Tsonga and the
crowd by going two sets ahead, but as fatigue crept in and the crowds support
of Tsonga intensified, Baghdatis crumbled and surrendered his comfortable lead.
Sublime Favourites
The ease at which tournament favourites Serena Williams and
Novak Djokovic are progressing in the tournament has made us wonder if they are
actually beatable, both of are yet to drop a set from their first and second
round victories. Serena Williams defeated Russian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-0
in the first round and Brazilian Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-1 to keep her aspiration
of adding to her Grand Slam singles title haul and edge closer to Margaret
Court’s record for the highest amount of Grand Slam singles title wins (24),
her opponent in the third round is world No. 30 Kristina Mladenovic. Novak Djokovic
has also been cruising so far, as he made short work of Chinese Yen-Hsun Lu
6-4, 6-1,6-1 in the first round and Belgian Steve Darcis 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in the
second round. Djokovic keeps looking more likely to end his French open hoodoo with each passing game; he will face British
Aljaz Bedene in the third round.
Crampgate Controversy
Controversy erupted in the WTA second round
match between French Alize Cornet and German Tatjana Maria on Thursday. Alize
Cornet was at the centre of the cheating storm after she was accused of faking
injury by an opponent. Cornet requested for a medical timeout and required
treatment during changeovers in the final set of the match. At one point, Cornet, wailing in pain, was helped off court to her chair by a trainer and tournament
supervisor. But Maria is convinced that Cornet was deliberately stalling for
time in order to allow her cramping to ease. At the end of the match, Maria
angrily admonished Cornet, furiously pointing her finger at the French player
who won the match 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.
The action doesn’t stop, as the remainder of the
third round matches will be played today, with the likes of Novak Djokovic,
Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga returning to
action, it will definitely be a great weekend for tennis fans worldwide.
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