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!