Thursday 26 May 2011

My first chance to see Roland Garros Live - not disappointed

After dumping luggage at the hotel, on to the number 9 line train towards the tennis before a long walk from the station complete with a growing sense of anticipation. 25 degrees today and perfect conditions for me to experience my first day of a French Open and the tournament's 4th day.

Because of all the connections from Bordeaux I missed some of the first set of the Wozniacki v Wozniak women's 2nd round match. Only two letters separated these girls, but Caroline Wozniacki is world number one and Aleksandra Wozniak is not. However they each have won no grand slam titles so this match should have been even. The rankings projected correctly early and so it played out with the Danish delight triumphing 6-3 before undergoing a somewhat unnerving case of second set jitters. The Canadian player, once ranked near the top 20, powered her groundstrokes, especially the forehand, to great effect, and a tie break eventuated. Leading 6-3 in the breaker, a controversial call went the way of the Dane and it rattled Aleksandra sufficiently to allow the big match experience of Wozniacki to win through 6-3 7-6.

Next, 9th seed Frenchman Gael Monfils, who possesses every shot in tennis but lacks the killer instinct to be ranked higher, had an appointment with local colleague Guillaume Rufin. As much as Monfils would want to be kind to a fellow Frenchman, this was after all his home country Grand Slam tournament, so he should be merciless. The initial stages of the match were an opportunity for Monfils to marvel the crowd with his grace and acrobatics and downright trickery with his tennis racquet. His opponent was no slouch, and had it not been for a few double faults at untimely moments, and unforced errors just when Monfils was at his most vulnerable, the opening set may not have been awarded to Gael 6-3. However it was. Then as if to ignore the script completely Monfils went walkabout - nowhere to be seen for all but one game of set two. Credit to Rufin whose all court consistency tested the other Frenchman's patience no end. So 6-1 and one set apiece. Normality returned in set 3 and Monfils controlled proceedings to take a two sets to one lead, which he converted into a second round 4 set win in a pretty entertaining match which Rufin can take heart from if not as much cash as his countryman.

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