Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

There's something about five set tennis that is just so much... better. Maybe that's why I find men's tennis so much more compelling than the women's tennis - though I suppose this holds true for me all year round and not just during the Slams. I heard Federer say once that he prefers five set tennis because the better player nearly always wins - make a couple of mistakes in a three set match and suddenly you can be a set and a break down. Over five, the struggle is more prolonged, titanic.

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I always find it interesting to look at matches that would have been different if they'd been three sets. The Federer/Tipsarevic match at the Australian Open that had me weeding my garden in fury, for example. If that had been a three set match, Tipsarevic would have won, two sets to one. There was a match I remember matching years ago between Hewitt and Moya that would have been the same story. (Actually, I can't even tell you what tournament that match was in. I think I might have been twelve. But I remember it ridiculously clearly.) And several of the matches today would have been totally different stories if they'd been played over three sets.

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Let's start with Wawrinka/Gonzalez. This was an awesome match, and Wawrinka totally owned Gonzalez in the first two sets. We're not talking mild ownage here. Wawrinka laid the two-hoof beatdown on Gonzalez. And come the third? Gonzalez wakes up, we see some more shotmaking, and boom! five sets! And who wins? Gonzalez. But if this had been your standard three set match, Wawrinka would have won in straight sets.

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There wasn't too much separating these guys. I would venture to say that Wawrinka is the more talented player, though Gonzalez is maybe better on the clay. That were pretty evenly matched. But over the gladiatorial five set match, Gonzalez came out the winner. This is not the Gonzalez we saw at the Australian Open in 2007, who destroyed Tommy Haas and pummelled Rafael Nadal. Gonzalez is not out of form, but he is not in that blistering form he was then either. This was one of those long, grinding matches that are all about endurance and willpower. If nothing else, Gonzalez proved that he's got fight - though I was sad he had to prove it at the expense of Stan the Man.

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Let's look at another two-sets-down comeback. Wasn't it a great effort for Ivan Ljubicic to take down Nikolay Davydenko? If I were to generalise between this match and the Wawrinka/Gonzalez match, I'd say that the Gonzalez match was more about shotmaking, whereas this one was really about the grind. Ivan and Kolya are two long-time veterans of the tour. They have very different styles - Ivan is a big guy, with that huge serve of his, and Kolya is little and quick, with that bizarre two handed volley that makes him look like he's charging at the other player with an axe. They're pretty close over their careers, not a lot splitting them - Kolya has been more successful overall, I would say, but Ivan leads their head to head 4-3 now... and who can forget how he basically won the Davis Cup singlehandedly for Croatia a few years back?

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...so I got a bit distracted from the actual match there. Back to it. I don't think there is anything so gutsy as coming back from two sets to love down. Ljubicic has been sliding down the rankings of late - he's at about #30 now, I think, when he used to be #3 - and there's been talk that he's coming up to retirement and that he'll maybe focus on coaching and captaining Davis Cup and stuff like that. But, in my humble opinion, a man that can come back from two sets to love down to Nikolay Davydenko, who is #4 in the world with good reason, is nowhere near retirement. I would love to see Ivan make a run to the quarters or the semis.

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Moving on to another titanic five set struggle, what a great match between David Ferrer and Lleyton Hewitt! That's another match that would have had a different result had it been best of three - Hewitt would have won in three. I thought Ferrer was going to destroy Hewitt, given that he demolished Fabrice Santoro and that Hewitt hasn't played on clay at all this year until Roland Garros. But it was a great match. I'm not a Lleyton fan... which you might have realised, if you've read this blog... but I admire the attitude he takes. He never gives up, never surrenders. Novak Djokovic, he of the continual retirements, could learn a lot from the way Hewitt approaches tennis. Sometimes I think Hewitt takes it too far, as he deliberately tries to make an enemy of the person at the other side of the net, but I admire the way that he never tanks, that 'it ain't over till it's over' attitude.

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One thing about this match that puzzled me: the commentators on Radio Roland Garros were talking like Ferrer is a claycourter. Ferrer grew up on clay, sure, and he's had some great results on it, particularly this year, reaching the final of Barcelona and winning Valencia, but I don't know if that necessarily makes him a claycourter. Looking at his career, I'd contest that Ferrer has better results on hard courts than on clay. I think there's a tendency for people - even well educated tennis folks like the Radio Roland Garros team, who certainly know much more about tennis than me! - to put people under the claycourt label just because they're Spanish or Argentinian or whatever. David Nalbandian is another example of this. I've heard him referred to as a claycourter a few times this weeks, and although he has had good results on clay (he reached the semis here a few years ago) I don't think there's any doubt that the place Nalbandian really excels is on indoor synthetic courts.

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The other huge five set struggle that went on yesterday was the Monfils/Melzer match. To tell the truth, I was very annoyed that this match went to five sets, as it meant that the Federer match - which was, as always, the one I was hanging out for - started after two am in Australia, and I fell asleep during it. Like the previous matches I've discussed, Melzer would have won this match had it been best of three, but Monfils came out on top. Monfils is one of those perpetually underwhelming players, in my mind. He has so much talent and promise - anyone remember when he won three of the four junior Slams a few years back? - but he's just injured ALL THE TIME. Given his tendency to do the splits Kim Clijsters style all the time, it's not really surprising.

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I don't have a lot to say about this match, as I was half asleep through most of it, but it'll be interesting to see what Monfils can do. He's never been really deep into the second week of a Slam - could it be this time for Gael? Heaven knows the French need something - though they've actually done pretty well on the men's side, considering Gasquet and Tsonga and Grosjean are all out. Benneteau, Monfils, Chardy, Llodra and Mathieu are all through to the round of sixteen, and that's not half bad at all. The Spanish have four, and then there's a mishmash of other European countries represented, with Gonzalez and Ginepri the only representatives from outside the continent. Doesn't that say a lot about the profile of claycourt tennis outside of Europe? (Though I am being very unfair to South America there.)

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So, I love five set tennis. Big love. I enjoyed every minute of those big matches, especially the Hewitt/Ferrer encounter. But my favourite match of the day was the Federer match by far... even though I was asleep through a lot of it. Federer played sweetly, and even though Ancic is a tough opponent, there was never any doubt that my man Roger was going to win. The thing that has been letting him down since his bout of glandular fever has been his serve, and he served beautifully today - 63% first serves in, winning 80% of the time when they went in. He won ninety points to Ancic's fifty-six. I think that counts as a destruction. And there isn't anything I like better than a straight sets Roger match when he goes all destructo. The semi final of the Australian Open in 2007 when he demolished Andy Roddick might be my favourite match of all time.

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...I have stopped gushing about Federer now.

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I promised yesterday that I'd deliver quarter final picks, and I do not lie. Yesterday, I picked Nadal/Almagro and Djokovic/Gulbis for the bottom half of the draw. I'm going to follow that up with Federer/Gonzalez and Ferrer/Monfils. Federer will crush Benneteau if he keeps playing the way he's playing (though Benneteau did beat Soderling, who is no slouch by any means... still, Roger will win easily, methinks.) I'm not quite sure how Robby Ginepri got to the round of sixteen, but I think his time is up - I don't think he'll make it past Gonzo. Stepanek is a dangerous player, but I think Ferrer is better over five. And much as I would like to see Ljubicic win - and he is seeded, while Gael is not - my gut is going Monfils on this one.

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For the women (previously unmentioned today - what a shock) I picked Ivanovic/Schnyder and Jankovic/Pennetta from the bottom half of the draw. Pretty uncontroversial there - but I am going to be much more controversial for the top half. I'm saying Safina/Dementieva and Azarenka/Kvitova. Dinara Safina, as discussed yesterday, is in form, and Sharapova has been unconvincing so far. Dementieva/Zvonareva will be interesting, but I think Elena will win... maybe in a tight match, though. Svetlana Kuznetsova has been playing awesomely, but so has Victoria Azarenka... and I just have a feeling on that one. I don't much about Kvitova and Kanepi, but I'm saying Kvitova purely on the basis that she took out Szavay, who I think is going to do big stuff in the future.

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How many can Jodi get right? I guess we'll soon see!

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One last thing in this absurdly long ramble - I'm going to keep a bit of an eye on the juniors draws as well. Previous winners of the the Junior Roland Garros include Gael Monfils, Stan Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet and Marin Cilic, so it'll be interesting to see what the kids are doing in a few years. I've especially got my eye on top boys seed Bernard Tomic, who won the junior Australian Open this year despite the fact he's only fifteen - if he hasn't peaked too early, Tomic could be the next big thing Down Under!

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Roland Garros Results - Day #7

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Mario Ancic, 6-3 6-4 6-2

Gael Monfils def. Jurgen Melzer, 4-6 7-5 4-6 6-0 6-2

Julien Benneteau def. Robin Soderling, 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-0 6-1

David Ferrer def. Lleyton Hewitt, 6-2 3-6 3-6 6-3 6-4

Robby Ginepri def. Florent Serra, 6-4 6-4 6-4

Ivan Ljubicic def. Nikolay Davydenko, 4-6 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-4

Fernando Gonzalez def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 5-7 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-4

Radek Stepanek def. Tommy Robredo, 6-3 6-2 6-1

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Women's Draw

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Maria Sharapova def. Karin Knapp, 7-6 (7-4) 6-0

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Nadia Petrova, 6-2 6-1

Elena Dementieva def. Olga Govortsova, 6-0 6-4

Victoria Azarenka def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-1 6-1

Dinara Safina def. Jie Zheng, 6-2 7-5

Petra Kvitova def. Agnes Szavay, 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-2

Jelena Jankovic def. Dominika Cibulkova, 7-5 6-3

Vera Zvonareva def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-2 6-2

Kaia Kanepi def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 7-5