Stan the Man

So, on the whole, not so much tennis happened yesterday. While the rain was great yesterday, today it bit the big one as it delayed the start to an hour unsensible for Aussies. How dare it rain in France when I don’t want it to?

*

As a result, the Nadal/Belluci match I was looking forward to never eventuated. Alas. You’d think that with three days for a first round instead of two it might all get done, but no. I’m beginning to have flashbacks of Wimbledon where, due to rain and a walkover, Federer basically didn’t have to play for a week. Great for my nerves but not so much for the tournament, I suspect!

*

In lieu of the promised Nadal match, I followed Wawrinka/Kohlschreiber instead. Who knew Stan the man was good enough to break the top ten? I sure didn’t, till wham! There he was, the week after Rome. I was lucky enough to see him play when I was in Australia – I saw the first set of his first round match on Show Court 3, though I can’t for the life of me remember who he played! I knew then that Roger’s #2 was a good player, but I never would have guessed this top 10 thing. But ain’t no one can say he doesn’t deserve it!

*

I suppose it shows just how close the guys in the middle of the pack are. You have Federer, Nadal and (unfortunately) Djokovic at the top, then you have your Davydenko, Ferrer, Roddick and Nalbandian, and then a clump of guys who are really, really close. Wawrinka jumped fourteen places by reaching the final in Rome – from #24 to #10, no less. That’s pretty remarkable. And those guys in the middle aren’t slouches. That’s where your Berdyches and Baghdatises and Youzhnys hang out.

*

So, to sum up: Go Stan! You the man!

*

Philipp Kohlschreiber, on the other hand, is always someone I’m underwhelmed by. I think I might be under the impression that he’s a better player than he actually is. He certainly has great potential and a wonderful backhand – anyone remember him knocking out Roddick in the third round of the Australian Open this year? Kohlschreiber is a good player, and I’m always surprised that he’s unseeded. The 32^nd seed at this tournament is Janko Tipsarevic and the 31^st is Andreas Seppi (both of whom lost in the first round, incidentally.) If you asked me to take a gamble in a Seppi/Kohlschreiber match or a  Tipsarevic/Kohlschreiber match, I’d take Kohlschreiber in either instance. But he is the lower ranked one.

*

So, with my misguided impressions of Kohlschreiber, I was expecting a tight one yesterday. I expected Stan to come out on top, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it go to five. Instead, it had a very similar scoreline to the Federer/Querrey match. I was cheering for Stan, so I was glad he won, but I must say I felt a bit cheated.

*

Like yesterday, there was another upset of an Argentinian seed – Soderling (who played extraordinarily well in World Team Tennis in Dusseldorf last week) took out Juan Monaco. Like Stan, Monaco is another one who has snuck up the rankings with me noticing. He was seeded #13 here. I thought the days when the Argentines were all up in the top 20 was gone with the demise of Coria and Gaudio and the fall of Nalbandian from #3 to #7ish. But no… although they aren’t exactly having the greatest Roland Garros this year.

*

And, on a side note, I tuned into Radio Roland Garros for a bit before the start of play to find them interviewing Roger Rasheed… the genius (ahem) who believes that ‘tennis is about getting into the other guy’s kitchen.’ I’m unsure why he felt the need to elaborate ad nauseam about how he nearly punched out Florent Serra’s coach at Roland Garros ’06, but although I like tennis gossip, I could have lived quite happily without the Rasheed monologue there.

*

Though speaking of gossip… Monfils and Cibulkova! Who knew?

*

And can I just say… you know how everyone was all like, ‘oh my God, they’ve put Federer on Suzanne Lenglen instead of Philippe Chatrier! Mon dieu! Le slap in face!’ the other day? Well, it’s tournament policy that no one can play all seven matches on the same court… so you can bet Rafa will be out there for one of his matches (unless he loses against Belluci, but really, as if!) But where have they put Djokovic for tomorrow, hmmm? Court #1. Not even Lenglen. And to that I say… ahahahahaha!

*

*

Roland Garros Results – Day #3

*

Men’s Draw

*

Nikolay Davydenko def. Thomasa Johansson, 6-3 6-3 6-3

Robin Soderling def. Juan Monaco, 6-2 6-3 6-1

Stanislas Wawrinka def. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3 6-4 6-3

Paul Capdeville def. Mischa Zverev, 6-1 6-4 6-2

Mario Ancic def. Andreas Seppi, 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 6-2

*

*

Women’s Draw

*

Amelie Mauresmo def. Olga Savchuk, 7-5 4-6 6-1

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Aiko Nakamura, 6-2 6-3

Dinara Safina def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-1 6-3

Agnieszka Radwanska def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-4 6-3

Ai Sugiyama def. Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-1 2-6 6-3

Sabine Lisicki def. Elena Vesnina, 3-6 6-4 6-0

Olivia Sanchez def. Jarmila Gajdosova, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8)

Carla Suarez Navarro def. Pauline Parmentier, 6-4 5-7 6-2