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.