French Open Day 6 - Halys In Wonderland/Alize Through The Looking Glass

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Schedule - http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/schedule/index.html

Sorry to hear Nadal has had to withdraw. Was looking like he was getting back to the top of the game recently. So a big blow. Hopefully he will recover quickly.

Aye vey rubbish.

I say since this probably merits its own thread and guest has kindly provided one, we move it into that thread

To rg , gasquet plays s wonderful match to dump put Kyrgios

Exactly, someone saying above Djokovic's 99% sure to win the title now, that's easy for you to say, you don't have to go in front of the 15,000 viewing public and watching millions all of whom know you either win it now, or blow it. This is serious pressure for Djokovic.

I think he should start in matches playing full out. With Rafa gone, and some comfortable early wins under his belt, he doesn't need to worry about the physical challenge as much perhaps, but just needs to avoid tight matches from a mental perspective. I think he will do it though. Mental/nerves ultimately shouldn't be as much of a problem when you know you are significantly better than your opponent.

I believe I'm right at saying that no-one has ever beaten Rafa at RG either in the final or gone on to win the title. That would be the ultimate clay achivement of the era, but neither Federer, Djokovic, or anyone else could quite manage it and if someone does it in the next few years it won't quite by the same anymore now that Rafa is past peak.

Hmmm Gabashvili levelled up at a set all against Isner, and is now a break to the good in the third.

Gasquet has completed the demolition job against a curiously listless Kyrgios.

Nishikori has woken up, and opened a 5-3 lead in the decider against Verdasco.

He'll be ok hb. What's left in his draw.,. 50 percent of himself will be enough to get through to a final

Funny how draws open up.

Now Murray, Stan, Nishikori & Raonic are all in the other half. Arguably they would be the next four favourites (perhaps Thiem might have something to say about that).

Nerves, injury or freak bad performance aside, I cannot see Djokovic failing to make the final. Give Murray or Stan a very live chance against him though.

Gasquet : impressive. Very impressive

Kyrgios : still to convince on the biggest stages......

Nish through in 5. At the very least the murray nish quarter is still on

The draw opens up for Thiem, Goffin and Tsonga, even A Zverev! Maybe Tsonga has a good chance to reach the SF again?

Told you Gasquet and Verdasco would push it!

Keep an eye on 'wee Goffin'

lydian wrote:Keep an eye on 'wee Goffin'

we've heard that one before

Lol...I was saying it when he was 120 in the world and people were laughing at me. He's one win away from the top 10.

A part of me would like to see Djokovic lose now. It's a funny kind of logic but ideally I want to see Djokovic and Nadal and other top players playing each other but failing that I'd rather have a completely wide open draw than the risk of one sided matches in the latter stages.

It would be nice for Djokovic to get this title, but then it would be equally nice (if not more important for them) for someone else to have a 1-slam rather than zero slam career.

Such a shame
Who the feck is going to challenge Djoko in the top half, if at all now??

Gabashvilli 2-0 in the 5th.
Wouldn't be a huge surprise if Isner loses. Clay is not exactly his preferred surface, and he's never had a great record at slams.

Djokovic may be on course to do a Federer esque Roland Garros style win of just turn up year after year and play consistently well and wait until the year you have a relatively easy draw and then win.

There's always berdych

In seruousness. If all those left. Djokovic is the one who deserves it the most

Yes, if we talk about deserves, I agree.  (Berdych could be more of a factor if he wasn't inn Djoko's quarter.)

However, there is another candidate, Stan Wawrinka, who could yet benefit from the draw opening up with Federer and Nadal's absence. Rafa out could be a small bonus to him, it wasn't his best matchup despite scoring wins in recent years when Rafa was injured or in poor form. A small bonus admittedly, since Rafa was in the other half and might not have got to the final anyway so it will only really count if Djokovic loses before the final.

I didn't rate Stan's chances high at the start of the tournament. And I thought there was a risk of a first week defeat after his poor form this year or due to being tired from playing a tournament the week before. But the Rosol match that was the banana skin and he just got by.

Now from R2 to QF I'd say he's benefiting from a good draw. Chardy is not troubling him, and neither should Troicki or Simon in the next round, what do they have that he hasn't?

Raonic or Ramos-Vinolas for a quarter final. That's peach of a quarter final draw, you'd take that. Raonic doesn't have Stan's calibre at all, especially not on clay.

Perhaps a tough semi (Murray or Nishikori) but winnable. I think Stan is going to make semi or even final now. This section of the draw, with Gasquet in as well, could be the one to keep an eye on.

He's starting to play quite nicely. I caught a bit just now and it was very solid indeed all court game and could have something to spare still as well. If he can hold his next couple of service games then he has won 8 sets in a row.

Wow, Isner went from 0-2 to 6-2 to win!

Devastating display from Troicki to destroy Simon. H2H was 0-6 with no sets won before today. Could take out Stan in that form.

Very impressive win from Gasquet. Krygios seemed to have some sort of shoulder issue but still I think a few issues about his big match mentality. Looked very flat.

Gasquet v Kei tough to call taking into account Kei's 5 setter. Have to favour Kei given his two recent wins but Gasquet has a fighting chance, particularly in Paris.

Krygios did have a break point at 5-5 in the second set, and the tiebreak was close , 9-7 if I recall. Kyrgios could easily have won the second set, and could have come into the third with a different attitude, and inn close matches he may have the mental edge on Gasquet. So, it could have been a different story on another day.

still, Gasquet has done great in the head to head with Kyrgios since that bad defeat at W with all those match points

Crazy shot from the Radwanska match today:

Henman Bill wrote:However, there is another candidate, Stan Wawrinka, who could yet benefit from the draw opening up with Federer and Nadal's absence.

Stan had a very good draw even with Rafa in - in some sense this could be worse for him because he could have hoped that Rafa would tire Nole in the SF.

But yes, agree that Stan has a reasonable chance.

YvonneT wrote:Crazy shot from the Radwanska match today:

And all done in silence (no grunting). This type of tennis will draw me back into women's tennis. Am impressed.

The cross court and the down the line attempted pass are very good shots, but after that it gets a bit farcical.

It seems like Zverev and Thiem are playing each other every week these days.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

bogbrush wrote:In the old days this is where Ivo would suddenly hit a couple of smoking groundshots on return and serve it out, leaving the opponent flummoxed as to how he ever lost that thing to a guy who didn't appear to be able to play the sport.

For someone with such a massive serve, Ivo's TB record is pretty awful TBH. Add, because as you say you'd expect him to smoke a couple of FHs and the serve to do the rest, but seems incapable of doing so (notwithstanding that today he was clearly not anywhere near his best).

Despite that loss, it was so refreshing watching Karlovic's style of play...coming to the net after ever serve, treating us to some nostalgic serve-and-volley tennis. That's what I miss in men's tennis these days...no variety. Just baseline-bashing all day. Back in the good old days, baseline tennis lovers had their players to watch (Borg, Lendl, Wilander, Agassi, etc), while S&V lovers had theirs (McEnroe, Becker, Edberg, Sampras, etc). Now, sadly, it's just baseline bashing all day....

Still, this isn't his best surface. Hopefully, we'll see him have a better run at Wimbledon.

I did see a few volleys yesterday but that was during Jack Sock pre game warm up... (To be fair Chardy did try as well).

I thought that Stan form is coming good. Very solid game, never threatened and always in control. Gasquet in the other hand played intelligent percentage tennis but this game was really handed to him by Kyrgios UEs and bad shot choices. Nick was really the dominant player in the 2nd set. Still not sure how he managed to lose that one.

shivfan wrote:Back in the good old days, baseline tennis lovers had their players to watch (Borg, Lendl, Wilander, Agassi, etc), while S&V lovers had theirs (McEnroe, Becker, Edberg, Sampras, etc).

This sounds like something I would write so yes, I fully agree.

...and since I was one of the S&V lovers, I feel particularly shortchanged.