Stan Wawrinka’s title defense at Roland Garros got off to a rough start against Lukas Rosol, but he appears to have picked up the pace in time for fourth-round action on Monday. Wawrinka will battle Viktor Troicki for a quarterfinal spot. Adam Leigh previews the match.
Stan Wawrinka’s defense of his French Open title is on track through three rounds. His next challenge is a fourth-round matchup on Sunday with Viktor Troicki, to whom he has dropped just a set to in four previous wins.
Wawrinka labored to a five-set victory over Lukas Rosol in the opening round but has since enjoyed routine straight-set defeats of Taro Daniel and Jeremy Chardy. Troicki, it could be argued, has been somewhat more fortunate on his passage to the last 16. He earned a hard-fought, five-set win over Grigor Dimitrov in his opener before benefiting from a third-set retirement by countryman Dusan Lajovic and a clearly fatigued Gilles Simon, whom he accounted for in three uncompetitive sets.
Despite playing plenty of his tennis on clay, Troicki isn’t truly at home on the dirt. The Serb prefers quicker surfaces on which he can set his feet and get full rotation through his big forehand; on slower tracks he doesn’t have that luxury. This spells all sorts or trouble against Wawrinka, who generates terrific power without needing the same time to get through his strokes. The Swiss is also unafraid to consistently tee off on his shots, which severely challenges Troicki’s defensive capabilities. Although the courts at Roland Garros are playing a little quicker this year, it won’t be anywhere near enough to make a difference.
Wawrinka isn’t playing as well as he was when he lifted La Coupe des Mousquetaires a year ago, but he has far too many advantages over Troicki to see his defense falter here.
Pick: Wawrinka in 3
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WWW?
Definitely Stan the man… I think he is getting better and better which is dangerous for anyone on the other side of the net… Stan in three
WaWa has picked up his pace. A lot. Troicki is flaky.
Stan in 3
Could be in for another afternoon of rain delays. Heavy showers and thunderstorms forecast for Paris.
AVR putting up a valiant fight against Raonic. He’s up a set and just broken Milos and will be serving for the 2nd set.
Hope they can get through the match before the rain arrives. A rain delay will favour Raonic.
AVR now in the lead 2:0
wawa down a break in second. get a move on stanimal…
stan breaks back.
stan is such a strange mixture of good and bad sometimes..
gr8 time for a double fault stan..
victor had 3 set points…
what a miss by stan..
another miss..same as before why not play another shot to rally…
set to victor
stan was like this earlier on in the tourney. going for broke on his second shot. i don’t know why he can’t play the percentages sometimes and play rallying shots…he gives away a lot of free points
Agreed , Amy! That was rather stupid from him.
he was doing this so much earlier in the tourney vr. he just gives away control….
it’s rather ironic the way stan points at his head after these matches. his brain has not been his strong point recently.
WaWa thought he was going to control this match relatively easily. Came as a surprise Troicki didn’t fold. Expecting him to get his act together now.
Bet Guy Forget is hoping there will be no more carnage amongst the seeded players!! He needs a decent line up for the SFs and Final to keep the TV channels happy after losing the main attractions.
well if troicki were to win either he or what’s his name would be in the semis after a dud quarter. that would be the pits as j-mac would say…
needless to say this rg is already the pits without rafa…
hahahaha british tv saying let’s go over to hear the ovation for andy when he comes on court. we dutifully tootle over and there is as many boos as cheers!!!
we’ve beaten a swift retreat now…
commies say it must be some americans in the crowd!! haha!
Haha. I’ve heard that excuse before.
The French love Andy lol.
How damn good has stan’s CC forehand become over the last 2-3 years! He finds such a sharp angle on it and then BOOM down-the-line forehand.
he’s missed loads of down the line forehands today though vr…
Yes Amy, he sends them long… needs to find better control if he is to against Murray and Djokovic
A lot of us here laughed at Henman’s pick but Stan may well end up winning the French Open. It is a long way to go but he has got the capability.
The only player whom I believe will convincingly beat Stan no matter how well stan is playing is Nadal. Stan can blow others off the court.
agree vr. rafa is the player most likely to beat stan. also i reckon he could take murray to the cleaners with his forehand.
Yeah that’s happened in the USO 2013 Qtr finals.
Stan’s second serve is also one of the best among the top guys so he doesn’t let nole attack …we know’s Murray has that weakness…
Nole has the advantage of being more consistent but Stan has the firepower and he has shown to be consistent against Nole in slam matches.
Regarding Rafa, he is actually able to impose himself over stan by using his forehand CC..stan is on the backfoot against an aggressive Rafa
do you think stan has improved his ability to deal with rafa’s forehand topspin when it kicks up on his backhand?
Well I don’t think Rafa would convincingly beat (if beat) Stan if he was playing well. Yes if he’s playing badly Rafa wins like in Monte Carlo this year but like last year in Rome Stan beat him and he has played well and lost like 7-6 7-6 to Rafa a few times in 2013 and 2014 so if they had played in the finals and Rafa hadn’t been injured I don’t think a blowout would’ve happened at all considering Stan brings his best to the biggest matches.
wish Stan were in Novak’s half …haha
Murray’s draw is TERRIBLE. Playing Nishi, Wawa and Novak to win the title and this is assuming he wins against John today. He’s also played two 5-setters already.
It would be a pity if Novak gets a knackered Andy in the final…. So, one more reason to root for the Stanimal.
Just noticed Big Johm is not wearing a bandage on his left knee anymore.
The crowd are getting behnd Isner.
andy won’t have a problem with isner. his ros will see him through in straights…also isner has just played 5 sets! no contest!
Isner is a pox on the sport of tennis.
(But then again so is the insufferable boorish French crowd.)
correction. He has just hitched his shorts up and is leg still bandaged but slightly higher above the knee than before..
Stan hit with a ball boy while Troicki was taking an MTO! That’s really nice!
Murray is is not having it easy here
isner botched a set point in tb!!
reall?!
yep vr. had an easy forehand and choked. otherwise he would be up a set.
I tune in to see play suspended due to rain! Again!
They showed the score for Murray/Isner and he’s up a set. Murray does have a tough draw, but he’s fit. Sometimes if a player struggles in the early rounds it can toughen them up. He has a tough road.
I hope that Stan can find his best form.
i am meaning to write to you later if i can nny!! email wasn’t working earlier today!
Amy,
Okay! I missed out on the live action. Now we will have to see if the rain stops soon. They have a lot of tennis still to play.
I am trying to get caught up on the scores.
Our Andy is in a very grumpy mood and they are both exchanging malevolent glares at each other.
Nonetheless, he manages to break Big John’s serve to take the 2nd set and will serve first in the 3rd set.
Gasquet a set up and a break up against Nishikori. Quelle surprise!!
Wow! I thought Nishi had that match! That is surprising!
It looks like Andy is going to dispense with Isner in straight sets.
Nishi was up 4-2 before the rain delay !!
Now Gasquet is up a break in the second set
What happened to Nishi in the rain delay?
what’s up with nishi? he shouldn’t be losing to crash in straights. easy qf for murray.
this rg sucks so far…
Guy Forget took over as director in February. His first RG is turning into a nightmare for him. It’s not his fault rain has disrupted so many matches but questions are bound to be asked and I bet he is a worried man.
didn’t forget diss rafa?? if so, i say hahaha…without fedal this tournament seems like a serious wash out anyway.
Wow! Gasquet now up two sets!
How many drop shots has poor Isner messed up on in this match.
Yeah he’s getting to Murray’s drop shots with plenty of time and missing badly and he’s also hitting really bad drop shots. Earlier he hit one on his own side lol.
I thought Stan would win in straights but it looks like those first two sets were tough ones. Those last two are the sets I want from Stan though. Now I hope he continues the momentum from those 3rd and 4th set beatdowns by disposing of ARV easily. ARV didn’t sound too confident in the interview. He mentioned how Stan beat him 1 and 1 in Geneva last week and how it will be very difficult and that he’s just going to enjoy the moment. Never a good sign when they say they’re just going to enjoy the moment and laugh about how they recently got crushed by the guy they’re playing next lol. I’m thinking Stan has a great mental edge heading into that one. Should be a comfortable straight sets win for the Stanimal. That should have him really confident and on a roll heading into the final. Allez Stan!!
do you think stan can beat murray benny?
Benny is getting ahead of himself. Stan is not there yet!
Murray has a very good chance if he meets Stan in the semis.
Nishi has a chance here. Coming back from two sets down is not an easy task.
Gasquet may be getting a bit tight.
stan-rv murray- crashquet are deeply uninspiring quarter finals. can’t think of a single quarter final in the offing that i want to watch…thiem – goffin, nole to destroy whomever…
It’s true unfortunately. I am hoping that Nishi can pull out his match. I would rather see him get through than Crashguet!
me too nny. at least that will have some interest value. these are horrible matches for the qf of a slam..
i suppose the thiem match could be good but even so…
bring back fedal!!!
Yes! Bring back Fedal!
I just feel so deflated since Rafa had to withdraw. Then Tsonga got knocked out with an injury. Monfils couldn’t even play.
So many of the players I like aren’t in it.
we’ve seen the future without fedal and it sucks big time nny!!! charisma bypass everywhere…
Thiem vs Goffin is the one.
snap benny! but hardly the same as having rafa or fed there…
Nishi gets the break and the third set!
Playing his first RG QF with the home crowd firmly behind him, I think Gasquet can do some serious damage against Murray in their match if it happens. Murray hasn’t looked all that impressive here with those two five setters early on and both Karlovic and Isner played awful and could barely make groundies. Gasquet is more consistent off the ground so that could be interesting. I actually have a feeling that may go five and Gasquet could maybe even win at that point. Would be epic if that happened.
seriously benny!? he’ll cave as murray will turn it into a streetfight if he gets behind
Nishi is done now. Down two breaks. But Gasquet has been the better player.
The French crowd sounds like they are at a soccer match.
Gasquet will not beat Murray. He doesn’t have enough against the top players. With the crowd behind him, he might make it interesting, but I don’t see him being able to take down Murray in a best of five set match.
He needs to get his skates on then. He’s down 1-4 already. And Gasquet shows no signs of cracking.
Although there’s still time for him to choke i guess.
LOL!
Yes with Gasquet one never knows. The crowd is certainly doing their part!
Now it’s 5-1 Gasquet.
Nishi is done.
Gachassin can hardly contain himself 🙂
Who is that?
President of the French Tennis Federation. He is always sitting in the front row whenever a Frenchie is playing.
ed,
Oh! I always see that guy sitting in the front row when there is a French player. But I did not know his name.
Thanks! 🙂
Stone the crows: Is there no end to the upsets?
This is insane! I didn’t even know that raonic lost! What?
Ramo-Vinolas is in the quarterfinals? I don’t believe it!
This has been one crazy RG!
They just showed highlights is Stan and Troicki. Troicki had an injury and didn’t seem to be the same after that. Stan should have an easy time of I with ARV in the quarterfinals.
I wonder if it’s the heavy, damp conditions out there.