French Open Day 11 Dont get Fresh with me!

Schedule
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/schedule/schedule17.html

Note the mens 4th round is second up. If the unthinkable happens they might get delayed even longer

The forecast is promising and there could be a full day's play if the odd showers forecast are not too heavy or localized.

hope you're right Craig but what I see from my window does not look very promising. Wonder if the courts would have dried a bit with so much humidity out there.

Thank goodness

On a side note. I don't want any dramatics today from anybody. No wumming and Childs play thinly veiled as banter. no whining, complaining or bullish behaviour. Been going on for days and I expect people to have a little more respect for one another. It'll be the founders you answer to if not...

And on that note, articles such as SoCals are not to be tolerated on this board and as such a one week ban is in force.
You may not agree with mods on this board, take it up with me or other admin if you have an issue, writing a lengthy public article trying to character assassinate one though is bang out of order and frankly SoCal is lucky it's only a week.

Very impressive performance by Serena in winning in straight sets today. But was placed under little or nor pressure by an opponent without the big weapons to get her moving around or harm her.
Another good scalp (Keys) by giant-killing Kiki Bertens today.

Nole finally gets the opportunity to get to the quarters now.

Batista-Agut and Djokovic resume. Agut needs to hit the ground running.

And Djokovic wraps up the third set swiftly to lead 3-6 6-4 6-1.

The fourth set going to serve but you feel if Novak breaks serve it will end Agut's hopes. Still hanging in there well at the moment.

Novak is giving quite a lot away with his body language though
Looks somewhat peed off

Cracking hold from Agut. The longer he hangs in this set then the tighter Novak will become.

Meanwhile, Tomas Berdych has taken the first set 6-3 against David Ferrer in their 4th Round match whilst Gulbis leads Goffin 5-4 as that set is back on serve.

Agut Breaks !!!!!!!!!!

Well well well. Agut breaks and leads 4-2 in the fourth set. Now needs to consolidate the break.

Damn it

This is what was happening yesterday. Agut breaking serve but unable to consolidate. Djokovic breaks back and we are back on serve in the fourth set.

Gulbis takes the first set against Goffin.

Strategic racquet change

Critical hold that for Agut.

Great defensive play by him there

So there Novak gets the break

And Agut cracks. Djokovic to serve for the match leading 3-6 6-4 6-1 6-5.

Thiem and Granollers back underway with an early break in the third set for Thiem and Goffin in control of the second set leading 4-0.

Djokovic wins 3-6 6-4 6-1 7-5 and is first through to the quarters in his section of the draw.

Hardly the performance of a FO champion however

Phew. Job done though. Got through a horror situation and he can look to try and grow over the last mayches

Goffin wins the second set 6-2 to level things up with Gulbis. Thiem on the brink of winning the third set against Granollers as he leads it 5-0.

Well played Agut. He has just completed the R16 Grand Slam to go with his world ranking of 16. Hopefully this will encourage him to reach the next level. Aged 28 many say he is now at his peak. If he keeps progressing in this way he should reach No 1 by the year 2050.

Ps hopefully the remaining fourth round matches can be finished shortly.

He's over a bump in the road, he has a v. healthy H2H against whichever of Berdych/Ferrer he gets, he has the advantage of perhaps a couple of hours more wind-down time, and he'll know both of their games well - Berdych is probably the more dangerous opponent for him, but it would be a major shock if either of them beats him, as it would be were he to lose the SF (assuming he gets there).

I reckon the Djoko show's back on the road well enough.

Richard Gasquet and Andy Murray match about to get underway.

BBC has just reported this on their tennis live thread:

BBC wrote:Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from Queen's because of the wrist injury which saw him pull out of the French Open last week.

The nine-time Roland Garros winner has been advised to rest his wrist in the short-term, and he said in a statement: "I am very sad that my wrist injury means that I cannot play at The Queen’s Club this year.

“It is a tournament and a club that I love, I enjoy playing in front of the British people, and I was looking forward to trying to win the title for a second time. I wish everyone at the tournament a great week, and I look forward to returning in future years.”

The tournament runs from 13th-19th June.

The way the BBC describe it is that the wrist only requires rest.  I thought it was more serious.  If not then Nadal may be back challenging again soon. [But we really wanted to see Nadal challenging again at the French Open - because it is there where he performs the best]

Conditions look very heavy out there. More rain on the way? Murray starts off with a fairly comfortable hold to 30.

Murray looks sharp as he works 0-30, before Gasquet comes back with some good points to 30-30. Couple of loose ones though, DH UE and a DF and Murray has the early break.

Gasquet playing way too far behind the baseline so far. Has given one BH a decent rip but other than that is pushing. Murray looking very confident, good use of the dropper so far and hitting heavily from the baseline, holds to love to lead 3-0.

Nore Staat wrote:BBC has just reported this on their tennis live thread:

BBC wrote:Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from Queen's because of the wrist injury which saw him pull out of the French Open last week.

The nine-time Roland Garros winner has been advised to rest his wrist in the short-term, and he said in a statement: "I am very sad that my wrist injury means that I cannot play at The Queen’s Club this year.

“It is a tournament and a club that I love, I enjoy playing in front of the British people, and I was looking forward to trying to win the title for a second time. I wish everyone at the tournament a great week, and I look forward to returning in future years.”

The tournament runs from 13th-19th June.

The way the BBC describe it is that the wrist only requires rest.  I thought it was more serious.  If not then Nadal may be back challenging again soon.  [But we really wanted to see Nadal challenging again at the French Open - because it is there where he performs the best]

No surprise to me at all. The press conference when Rafa withdrew stated docs had said if he had played one more match he'd risk breaking it. That sounds serious enough to need around six weeks to two months of rest I'd say.

Nore Staat wrote:BBC has just reported this on their tennis live thread:

BBC wrote:Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from Queen's because of the wrist injury which saw him pull out of the French Open last week.

The nine-time Roland Garros winner has been advised to rest his wrist in the short-term, and he said in a statement: "I am very sad that my wrist injury means that I cannot play at The Queen’s Club this year.

“It is a tournament and a club that I love, I enjoy playing in front of the British people, and I was looking forward to trying to win the title for a second time. I wish everyone at the tournament a great week, and I look forward to returning in future years.”

The tournament runs from 13th-19th June.

The way the BBC describe it is that the wrist only requires rest.  I thought it was more serious.  If not then Nadal may be back challenging again soon.

Maybe - but I can't help wondering if Nadal is having to push himself too hard to extract anything like the level of performance that he is used to, or which he needs to attain to challenge Djoko;  if it isn't the back or the wrist or the knee, next time it maybe somewhere else.  Each time these things happen to older players it's incredibly difficult to stop the mind compensating minutely for the problem resulting in other difficulties flaring up.

It was rotten luck that at the climax to the best part of the season for him, when his form was better than it had been pretty much for two years, he had to pull out.

Let's hope that both he and Federer are able to join the draw at Wimbledon and give a decent account of themselves - the sense that the guard is changing is stronger than ever.

I think it is generally agreed that Murray is stronger than Gasquet.  These heavy conditions therefore should favour Murray over Gasquet.  Murray must aim to finish this off as quickly as possible without injuring himself.  These heavy balls must be punishing for the wrists.  I also notice commentary suggesting that the court is cold and players have to be careful that their muscles don't tighten up.

ps: to Barrystar: there is nothing for me to disagree with in your comment.  That means I agree. But I would be very surprised Nadal would make it for Wimbledon and his performance there over the past four season suggests he might as well skip the grass season altogether. I think the Olympics will be on hard courts?

Elsewhere Thiem has finished off Granollers in four sets, Goffin has moved two sets to one up against Gulbis, and Berdych is two sets and a break up against Ferrer.

Berdych leading Ferrer 2 sets to love in the final fourth round match.  Surely that must be partly because the conditions favour the heavy serving Berd man from the Czech Republic?   Game Czech and Match?

So Berdych and Ferrer ... & Goffin & Gulbis are the last two fourth round matches.

we could well see Andy through in 3 sets today with Stan still playing tomorrow (or Friday as tomorrow looks quite dodgy weather wise).
Some improvement from Gasquet there.
Meanwhile Thiem is through while Berdich and Goffin are almost there.

break back after a really horrendous FH from Andy.

The rule seems to be when there's a difficult way, Andy will seek it out........

Sloppy service game from Murray when serving for the set, and Gasquet breaks back. Murray not amused by someone's phone going off just as he was about to serve at deuce.

Murray's gone completely walkabout...

yup, shades of Murray's second round match as the errors come thick and fast, and Gasquet will serve for the set without having to do anything but keep the ball in court and wait for Murray to miss... Rather awful.

Murray didn't want to get the crowd up.  Now the crowd will be able to help Gasquet.  

Anyway Murray trying to get the break back.

Commentator is saying Gasquet improved a lot and Murray changed his tactics (more flat hitting) that favours Gasquet.  So not Murray going walkabout - but fair play from Gasquet. (Commentator Mary Pierce)

It would be quite an achievement to lose the set vs. that well-known mental giant Gasquet from a break up, but Andy's speciality is shifting quickly from the sublime to the ridiculous via the anonymous.

Murray's got a bad case of dropshotitis at the mo, seems to be hitting one at least every other point...