French Open Highlights day 8

The men

1) Nishikori loses – to a very hat Richard Gasquet.  Murray will now not have to beat Nishikori and Djokovic to win, but he will likely have to tanglw with Wawrinka, who won today over an injured Troicki. :

2) Murray wins.  He beat Isner who, all things considered, had a good tournament.  Isner had a set point on his own serve in the first set tiebreak but failed to convert.

3) Raonic loses.  Albert Ramos-Vinolas, a clay courter ranked 55 beat him.  This is unusual for Raonic, who generally does not lose matches he’s “supposed” to win.

So, it’s Murray-Gasquet and Wawrinka-Ramos Vinolas in the next round of the bottom half.

Top half tomorrow.  Keep an eye on Dominic Thiem.  If he reaches the semis, he might make Djokovic’ life interesting.

The women

1) Shelby Rogers wins again!  The 23 year-old, ranked 108, beat the 25^th seeded 25^th and ranked 28.  That’s three seeded players in one week.  She will have to face another seed, Garbine Muguruza in the next round, who looked awesome in defeating Svetlana Kuznetzova in straight sets.

In unfinished matches, Halep and Aggie Radwanska are both winning.  If all goes as expected, Radwanska will play Halep, and the winner will face Muguruza in the semis. 

In the other half, tomorrow’s match between Venus Williams and Timea Bacsinszky might be interesting.  I pick Timea in that one.  Madison Keys will play Kiki Bertens, who beat the rising star Kasatkina in the previous round.  Because Keys has all of the tools needed to win a slam, she is worth keeping 

French Open Highlights day 7

The men

1) Thiem Defeats Zverev.  In an outstanding match, Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in four sets.  At 5-5 in the first set, with Zverev serving at deuce, Thiem hit a ball that was called out.  The umpire confirmed the call by checking the mark.  HOWEVER, the TV network Hawkeye showed that Thiem’s shot was actually in and that he should have won the point.  Zverev lost the next point, so if the correct call had been made Thiem would have won that game and gone up 6-5 with a chance to serve out the set.  Instead, Zverev won the game.  Thiem then held serve at 5-6 but lost the subsequent tiebreaker.  If the line call at 5-5 had been correct and nothing else had changed, Thiem would have won the first set instead of losing it.  Thiem won the match anyway, but once again, the deficiency of “eyeball” line calling was exposed.  In other matches:

Ernests Gulbis remained in the tournament as Tsonga retired with an injury.

David Goffin, the diminutive tennis genius, defeated Almagro in 5 sets.

Berdych beat Pablo Cuevas, a good win for Thomas.

Djokovic cruised over Bedene.

The women

2) Serena Williams beat 23-year-old Kristina Mladenovic by 6-4, 7-6.  This match was remarkable for Mladenovic’ high quality of play.  She served well, hit a big forehand, showed plenty of touch with numerous drop shots, and really hunkered down when she got in trouble.  She is currently ranked 30 in the world.  In my opinion she is France’s best hope for having a woman reach the top 10 in the near future.  In other matches:

Ivanovic went out to Svitolina.

Madison Keys moved on.

Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, a big, strong woman, won again.  She’s had a good

year and is backing it up in this tournament.

Venus Williams is still in it.  She knocked off Cornet.

Daria Kasatkina lost but we certainly haven’t heard the last of her.

French Open Highlights day 6

The men

1) Nadal bows out.  Citing a wrist injury, Nadal withdrew from the tournament.  Somewhat surprising considering how well he was hitting the ball.   Novak will now only need to beat one of the other “big 4” to win it all.

2) Gasquet beats Kyrgios in straights.  An easy win for Gasquet.  Kyrgios received treatment for a left shoulder problem in the first set, and missed many backhands in that set.  After that, his problem was simply a Richard Gasquet who was playing his best tennis.  No shame or drama here – sometimes your opponent is just too good.

3) Nishikori goes 5.  Surprising that Nishikori took 5 sets to beat Fernando Verdasco, though we know that Verdasco can produce absolutely first rate tennis from time to time.

4) Isner wins again.  Isner hasn’t had a great year in 2016, so I didn’t flag him as a significant player in this tournament.  He won again today though, so he must be watched now.

The women

1) Kvitova loses.  Petra lost two 6-0 sets to Shelby Rogers (ranked 108).  It’s so disappointing to see Kvitova fall short of her potential yet again.

2) Sloane Stephens loses.  She got destroyed by Tsvetana Pironkova, an attractive woman ranked 102.  Stephens has several wins in smaller tournaments this year, so it seems as if she can’t maintain her concentration well enough to win 7 matches in a row, as must be done to win a slam.

3) Cornet fireworks.  Alize Cornet, the feisty Frenchwoman, Beat Tatjana Maria of Germany in three sets.  Cornet took several injury timeouts in the match, with complaints from Maria that in doing so, Cornet violated the rules.  My take on this is that the rules were not violated, but that such behavior can disrupt an opponent’s concentration and rhythm.  I have a proposed solution to the problem, to be posted later!!

4) Halep defeated Naomi Osaka, a youngster from Japan, in three.  Osaka may bear watching in the future.  She’s a very hard hitter. 

French Open Highlights, Day 5

First, the “big guns” – Djokovic, Nadal, Serena Williams, all won easily.  Turning now to some of the more interesting events of the day:

The Men:

1) JW Tsonga prevailed in 5 sets against Marcos Baghdatis.  I had not flagged Tsonga as a player to watch this year because of up-and-down play, but now that he has survived a tough one, we should probably watch him a bit more closely.

2) Borna Coric defeated Tomic in 4 sets.  Tomic is the much higher ranked player (24 vs. 41), but Coric is a motivated young player with a stable psyche.  Let’s see if he can make some noise in this tournament.

3) Alexander Zverev also won.  He and Coric were picked as players to keep an eye on, and they are fulfilling that prediction.  The same is true for Pablo Cuevas, who also prevailed. 

4) David Ferrer knocked out Juan Monaco in 4 sets, a good win for Ferrer against a tough clay courter.

The women

1) Bacsinszky defeats Bouchard.  As predicted, 8th- seeded Timea Bacsinszky defeated Eugenie Bouchard by 6-4, 6-4.  Some extra attention will be given to Bouchard’s performance for the following reason: any very young player who can make the semifinals of the French Open, then cross the channel and make the finals of Wimbledon a few days later, and who can also reach the rank of #5 in the world, must have a ton of talent.  Bouchard accomplished all of these things in 2014, yet she plummeted in the rankings in 2015 (now ranked #47).  So the question, of course, is: Why has she not maintained her success? 

            Bouchard has said she had a number of emotional and physical problems in 2015, and was not eating enough. When a young woman with enormous pressures on her stops eating, concern must arise that she is developing an eating disorder.  So what was the story today? 

            Bouchard looked healthy and fit today, so concerns over a possible serious health issue do not appear warranted.  In her interviews with the press she was candid and, typical of her, mature beyond her years.  She got up a break in the first set of this match, but eventually lost the first set and fell behind by 5-0 in the second.  She then rallied to 5-4 but fell short.  My take on this match is that Bouchard competed very well.  Her second serve also had quite a bit of kick on it and gave Bacsinszky some trouble.  It’s always good to have good second serve, of course.  In my opinion there are two main reasons why Bouchard lost today.  First, Bacsinszky is a terrific player who played well.  Second, Bouchard showed once again that she is a bit of a victim of her own talent.  When she broke onto the tour, her amazing ability to take balls early and hit winners catapulted her to such a level of success that other aspects of her game, such as tactical skills, were left undeveloped.  Once players got more used to her style and were able to extend rallies with her, Bouchard found herself a bit at sea.  In the match today this problem was again evident, but not as obviously as in 2015. 

            Overall, Bouchard fans should feel encouraged.  She looked fit and healthy, which is most important, she competed well, and she did manage to win some of the longer engagements with a truly expert baseliner.  These factors, along with her wins over Jankovic and Kerber this year, and the fact that she has few ranking points to defend, make me believe she will be in the top 20 by the end of the year.

2) Venus Williams thrashed Louisa Chirico in a match I flagged for some special attention.  Chirico should not get down over this loss.  Rather, she should do what Milos Raonic does when he loses – analyze the match in order to identify areas in need of improvement.  One place to look might be her return of serve, as Venus was very successful even on her second serves. 

3) Ivanovic wins.  I treated Anna the way I did JW Tsonga at the start – a great player with an up-and-down recent history.  Now that she’s won a couple of rounds, though, she should be watched.  The French has been a good tournament for her over the years.  Remember that she once won the whole thing.

4) Kasatkina wins.  Daria Kasatkina, a 19-year-old seeded 29 was not marked for special attention because she and her game are both so very young.  She’s now in the 3d round though, and is a future star in my opinion.  Highly motivated!

5) Madison Keys won today and has a good draw.  I bet nobody wants to play her!

French Open Day 4

There were no major upsets today.  Here are some highlights:

1) Andy Murray again had to go 5 sets to win, this time against wild card Mathias Bourgue of France (rank 164).  Bourgue played some inspired tennis, but there’s no way Murray should have found himself in such a struggle.  That’s 10 sets in 2 matches for Murray, who played a lot of tennis leading up the French.  Let’s see if he can recoup, regroup, and last until the end.

2) I pointed out how tough Gilles Simon can be in my preview, and Guido Pella of Argentina found it out for himself today, losing to Simon in 5 sets.  Pella has had a fair year, with a win over a slightly fatigued Dominic Thiem as a highlight.  Get down in the dirt with Simon, though, and you’re asking for it. 

3) Nick Kyrgios crushed Igor Sijsling (rank 168).  Kyrgios is looking very dangerous.

4) Garbine Muguruza also destroyed Myrtille Georges of France and looked awesome.

 In the next two rounds many outstanding players will be eliminated, and the real intrigue will begin.