Roland Garros – Day 4 + 5 (2R)

On Court No. 17, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez [33] and Marsel Ilhan [123] played one of the longest Parisian 5-setters in terms of games in the decider #. The Spaniard, who seeks his first fourth round in majors (26 appearances), saved a triple mini-match point at 5:5 and won 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 13-11 in 3 hours 58 minutes, obtaining the only break of the 5th set in the final game.
All Top 5 players moved safely through into the third round, however in different styles. Roger Federer [3] had a training session against Maxime Teixeira [181], for whom the second round at the Roland Garros was the best result in career. During his 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 win, Federer notched a 13-game winning streak. The match lasted 84 minutes, 8 minutes less than a third set of Rafael Nadal’s [1] encounter against Pablo Andujar [48]. The defending champion saved a personal record of eight set points in a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory in 3:18 hrs on the Suzanne Lenglen court. Andujar led *5:1 (40-0) in the 3rd set, had an adv-SP and another 4 set points in the following game. He led also 30-0 at 5:4! After a similar scoreline (7-6, 6-4, 7-5) to the third round advanced Andy Murray [4], he rallied from a 3:5 deficit in two sets. “It was so difficult because the wind wasn’t consistent; it was swirling the whole time,” explained Murray his troubles against Simone Bolelli [126]. “There was no real rhythm and your legs get kind of tired too because you’re doing so many small adjustment steps. It was really tricky today“.
Novak Djokovic [2] wasn’t even forced to play full three sets because his opponent Victor Hanescu [60] retired (left thigh strain) in the middle of the 3rd set; it’s interesting that he did it against Djokovic for the third time in six meetings! I’m looking forward to D’Joke’s next match against Del Potro. The Serb has won 41 straight matches, the Argentinian 9 (21 out of last 23). “It’s going to be a great match, a battle, and he has always had a quality to be at the top of the men’s game“, Djokovic said. “He is playing equally well on any surface. Big serve, great groundstrokes. For his height he’s moving really well. He’s just overall a top player for me. It’s going to be a big challenge for both of us, obviously a great match for people to see.”
Six qualifiers are still in the tournament after first two rounds. Lukas Rosol [111] becomes the biggest revelation among them. Tall (196 cm) and skinny Czech has won two consecutive 5-setters. Today against last year’s semifinalist Jurgen Melzer [8], came back from the brink – *1:4 (15-30) in the 4th set (Melzer missed an easy overhead), then saved two match points at 5:6 – the first one with an ace, the second one with risky backhand cross-court immediately after Melzer’s return. In the 5th set Melzer leveled from 1:4 to “4 all”, but Rosol prevailed with his offensive, uncompromising ground-strokes. Rosol won just two ATP matches before the Roland Garros ’11. Melzer will drop out of the Top 10 and probably will never come back…
The organizers can’t complain so far, their four best players (Simon, Tsonga, Monfils and Gasquet) didn’t waste too much energy, each of them won his match in a more than 2-hour battle. Gilles Simon [18] managed to do this just before the darkness. His match (4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4) with fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy [61] was finished at 9:37 p.m. – the latest finished men’s match in the Roland Garros history. Chardy had a break point in the last game – if had converted it, the match most likely would have been suspended to Friday.

In the first round in doubles, Daniel Nestor claimed his 800th doubles match win as the first man in history ##, partnering Max Mirnyi to a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Josselin Ouanna. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it,” said Nestor. “I was reminded back in the locker room but it’s not something I was thinking about during the match.”

Longest match:
3 hours, 59 minutes: Lukas Rosol d. Jurgen Melzer 6-7(4), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4

Most aces:
24 – Marsel Ilhan, five sets, lost to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

5-set barometer:

13-11 Jurgen Melzer
12-8 Nikolay Davydenko
6-8 Juan Ignacio Chela
3-3 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
2-4 Kevin Anderson
2-1 Marsel Ilhan
2-0 Antonio Veic
2-0 Lukas Rosol

# The six longest Roland Garros matches in terms of games in the 5th set (the Open era):

2007: 1R – Philipp Kohlschreiber d. Lukas Dlouhy 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 4-6, 17-15
2004: 1R – Fabrice Santoro d. Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14
1985: 1R – Darren Cahill d. Mark Dickson 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 2-6, 14-12
1994: 2R – Ronald Agenor d. David Prinosil 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 14-12
1992: 2R – Emilio Sanchez d. Wally Masur 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 13-11
2011: 2R – Guillermo Garcia-Lopez d. Marsel Ilhan 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 13-11

## Five players with the most wins in doubles (the Open era):

1). 800 – Daniel Nestor
2). 782 – Todd Woobdridge
3). 729 – Mark Knowles
4). 723 – Sherwood Stewart
5). 709 – Jonas Bjorkman