Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are making a relative mess of their respective treks through the bottom half of the French Open draw. What counts, of course, is that they remain alive. But to say it has not been easy would be a gross understatement.
Murray has won two straight five-setters over qualifier Radek Stepanek and wild card Mathias Bourgue. After scraping past Stepanek 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 in a darkness-delayed match on Tuesday, the second-ranked Scot overcame the little-known Bourgue 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday.
“Today certainly wasn’t easy,” Murray commented after getting past the world No. 164. “I lost my way on the court today for quite a while. So (it was good) to turn it around and find a way to win after a period where I was struggling to win points at one stage–I was losing a lot of games at love. It felt like…every time the ball was in the middle of the court he was hitting winners. I couldn’t see where his shots were going. Yeah, it was a big struggle.”
Wawrinka at least reduced his number of required sets from five to three, but he also ran into some difficulty on Tuesday. Having previously outlasted Lukas Rosol 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, the defending Roland Garros champion defeated Taro Daniel 7-6(7), 6-3, 6-4. But Wawrinka trailed 6-4 in the first-set tiebreaker and by 4-2 in the third before bouncing back in each of those sets.
“(It) was a good match,” the world No. 4 assessed. “I’m happy to get through in three sets. For sure it was some up and down, could have been better, but winning three sets [is] always good…. In general I think it’s been a good day.”
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will hope to have an easier time of things on Thursday, just as they did in their opening-round matches. Djokovic coasted past Yen-Hsun Lu 6-4, 6-1, 6-1, while Nadal triple-breadsticked Sam Groth 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.
Next up for the world No. 1 is Steve Darcis, whom he leads 2-0 in the head-to-head series. Djokovic rolled 6-4, 6-0 eight years ago on the clay courts of the Rome Masters and 6-0, 7-5 last year in Miami. Darcis is coming off a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 blowout of Marsel Ilhan, which gave the 161st-ranked Belgian his first ATP-level victory of the season and his fourth career win in the French Open main draw. Since losing the opening set of his qualifying campaign last week, Darcis has reeled off nine consecutive sets.
“I love sharks,” Djokovic quipped when told Darcis’ nickname is ‘The Shark.’ “He’s been around the tour for many years. He had a couple of big wins–I think (against) Nadal in Wimbledon a couple of years ago. Generally, I think he prefers playing on quicker surfaces. So I haven’t seen him play much on clay; gonna have to do a little bit of homework there.”
Nadal is also set for a first-time encounter, as he has faced Facundo Bagnis. The all-lefty battle was booked when Bagnis downed Kenny De Schepper 6-0, 6-2, 7-6(2) on Tuesday. The 99th-ranked Argentine is perhaps best known for beating Julien Benneteau 18-16 in the fifth set in round one of this event two years ago. That had been the only Grand Slam win of Bagnis’ career until he victimized De Schepper.
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Tsonga wins the fourth set and takes it to a fifth set.
I just noticed that Tsonga is wearing a zebra design shirt! What is up with that? Is this a new fashion trend? Yikes!
Rafa’s own words from his post-match press confrence:
“I won two matches with comfortable results. I played the way that I had to play to be in the third round.”
“After a difficult first three games today, I played a solid match with not many mistakes and having control of the situation most of the time. I need to keep playing better if I want to have chances in the next rounds.”
“I just need to play my matches each day. I know there are still things I can improve, so I’m still practising and working on them.”
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/roland-garros-rafael-nadal-reaction-thursday
Rafa’s own words in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdb5V1WUr7Y
that’s right, Rafa…as I said, he did not push hard…he did not need to…it’s gonna get tougher and he will be ready for it!
Vamos Champ!
Murray is on SL tomorrow. Not much room to return Dr Ivo’s serve.
Tsonga up a break by the time the tennis channel switches back.
Zverev/Thiem should be a good one on Saturday!
At 5-3 in the first Tennis Channel showed that first two games 40% of Rafa’s shots were short landing within the service line but in the six games that followed he’d reduced that to 23%.
Like I said, he was broken because he was hitting short. And usually when he hits short it is nerves.
In Rafa’s last service game when he was broken serving for the match, 12 of 22 shots or 55% landed at or short of the service line.