Roland Garros – Day 4, 5, 6 (2R)

Gael Monfils has taken part in two best matches at this year’s Roland Garros (both on Philippe Chatrier). After surviving a 5-set thriller against Tomas Berdych, the former semifinalist defeated Ernests Gulbis in an entertaining 4-set duel. Monfils came from a break down in sets 2 & 3 to build a 5:2* lead in the 3rd set. The level of tennis from that moment to the end of the set was extremely pleasant to watch because both players raised the level of their game-styles to their best. Gulbis saved five set points on return in the 9th game (including a triple SP) and had four chances to break his opponent in the 11th game – the last break point was saved by Monfils with a very lucky net-cord. The local pupil converted his seventh set point with a stop-volley and Gulbis couldn’t recover after that, losing the 4th set unfortunately not putting too much energy onto the court. Sergiey Stakhovsky used his smart-phone to take a picture of a questionable call during his first round loss, Monfils went a bit further with the technology and asked the chair umpire for permission to record the atmosphere on his phone. “I asked, ‘[Am] I allowed to tape the wave?’ He tell me, ‘Sure, you can.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I will tape it, like quick. No worries.’ (Laughter.),” explained Monfils, the 6-7(5) 6-4 7-6(4) 6-2 winner. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic outplayed their opponents without any troubles, Somdev Devvarman and Guido Pella respectively. “He doesn’t need to change his game. It worked back then, so it’s up to me now to change something and to see what didn’t work during that match and to see how I can change it,” stated Federer about his next match against Julien Benneteau to whom lost twice indoors and barely survived a Wimbledon encounter last year. Benneteau, strongly supported by the partisan crowd, ended in tears his second round match against Tobias Kamke, 7-6(9) 7-5 5-7 0-6 6-4. The Frenchman saved two set points in the tie-break and rallied from a 0:2* (15/30) deficit in the deciding set. Kamke played two five-setters in Paris, and both had a twisted progress – he lost 11 straight games in the first round, but won the match; against Benneteau experienced the reverse – won 10 straight games, but finished as a loser. Victor Hanescu [54] moved into the third round as a grantee of two retirements. I’ve made some research to find only eight earlier cases in the Open era that a player got two wins via retirements within one major (it happened once at Australian Open – Arnaud Clement in 2000, once at Wimbledon – Clark Graebner in 1969, once at Roland Garros – Alberto Berasategui in 1994, and five times at US Open: Raymond Moore, Jiri Novak, Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling and Tommy Robredo). Janko Tipsarevic for the third time in career lost a match point up set to Fernando Verdasco, but second time managed to win under these circumstances, 7-6(3) 6-1 3-6 5-7 8-6 in 4 hours 33 minutes. Rafael Nadal again unexpectedly lost  his opening set, this time to fellow left-hander Martin Klizan (4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3). “I started the match probably with not the right intensity, with more doubts than usual,” admitted Nadal. “The positive thing was that I had a good reaction at the beginning of the second, even if I didn’t play fantastic. I played the way that I had to play, with intensity, with passion, playing more inside.”

Longest match: 4 hours, 33 minutes. Janko Tipsarevic d. Fernando Verdasco 7-6(3), 6-1, 3-6, 5-7, 8-6
Most aces: 24 – Milos Raonic, defeated Michael Llodra in four sets

5-set barometer: 18-8 Janko Tipsarevic, 16-13 Fernando Verdasco, 15-11 Andreas Seppi, 11-4 Tommy Robredo, 11-10 Viktor Troicki, 8-6 Julien Benneteau, 5-11 John Isner, 3-3 Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 2-2 Blaz Kavcic, 2-3 Tobias Kamke, 1-2 Igor Sijsling, 0-3 Ryan Harrison