French Open Highlights day 12

The men

1) Djokovic beat Berdych in the usual way.  At one point Novak threw his racquet and nearly hit a linesperson, which would have resulted in an automatic disqualification.  That was the tensest moment of this match.  Djokovic has had some issues with his temper in the last couple of tournaments.  More on what Berdych and everyone else must do to beat Djokovic in a later post. 

2) Thiem defeated Goffin in a spectacular match.  The second set tiebreaker was an enthralling display of shot making, court coverage and tactical ingenuity on the part of both players.  Eventually Thiem overpowered Goffin to win an easy fourth set.  That Thiem was able to prevail in this way bodes well for him.  It will be a tough ask for him to defeat Djokovic and then either Murray or Wawrinka to take the title, but if he starts showing up regularly at the end of tournaments, it’s only a matter of time. 

The women.

1) Kiki Bertens, who’s had a great tournament, continued her amazing run by beating Timea Bacsinszky.  This tournament will be remembered for the Cinderella stories, with Bertens, Shelby Rogers, Tsvetana Pironkova Yulia Putintseva being the featured players.

2) Speaking of Yulia Putintseva, she went down as expected to Serena Williams, but not before taking the first set, giving Williams all she could ask for in the second set, and playing very intensely even when down two breaks in the third set.  She really acquitted herself well!!  If Dimitrov is the “baby Fed” on the men’s side, Putintseva is the “baby Kuzy” on the women’s side.  This Russian-born gal looks like Svetlana Kuznetsova and is built like her too, with immensely strong quads.  She is an imposing physical specimen for one so young.  We’ll have to see how she does on other surfaces, but on slow clay this week she was impressive, and her attitude was really outstanding.