Djokovic Out, Federer, Monfils And Roddick Through
I got reasonably good seats on my day 5 at Roland Garros at Suzanne Lenglen court, so I stayed almost the whole day at this court.
The favorites on this court all won, but I saw that Djokovic was beaten by Kohlschreiber 3:0 which is a big surprise. Will have to check some stats and interviews to see what happened…
But the first match today on Suzanne Lenglen court was…
Svetlana Kuznetsova : Melinda Czink 6-1, 6-3
Svetlana didn’t have many problems with Melinda. As soon as she got the ball to her forehand, the point was almost over. When she added a few more backhand winners down the line, it was just too much for Czink.
While I was watching those monster forehands from Kuznetsova, I wondered what would happen, if a top ATP player, a clay court specialist, let’s say Tommy Robredo would play only to Kuznetsova forehand, what would the score be?
Would Robredo be able to neutralize Svetlana’s forehand or would she be able to beat him – of course, if Tommy would cover the whole court and Svetlana only her forehand side.
I often practice this drill with players where one practices a neutralizing game and has to cover the whole court and the other practices an attacking game and covers only half of the court.
Do you think Svetlana would win this drill against Robredo if she was the attacker?
Andy Roddick : Marc Gicquel 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
I am very impressed by how Andy Roddick knows how to play tennis. He is able to slice, drive and loop the ball with both groundstrokes, his forehand is very very good and of course his serve is just a bomb.
I believe Andy now really enjoys playing on clay because he can use his tennis intelligence to out-smart his opponents on much slower clay, where he has enough time to plan his attacks.
He also uses an »ace up his sleeve« when he is serving. Those of you who read my Tennis Strategy Encyclopedia will know that I talk about this »ace«.
It’s a shot that you rarely use so that the opponent cannot get used to it and you use it only on big points. Well, Andy has one too and it actually produces an ace.
Andy used a heavy kick serve as his first serve only 5 or 6 times in the whole match and this kick bounced so far away from Gicquel, that he didn’t even attempt to return it.
It was a clean ace at 154 km / h and Gicquel was just standing and watching. 
I hope Andy and Roger both win their next match as their match-up would be a fantastic match to watch.
Gael Monfils : Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Monfils and Melzer had a big battle today and Gael’s patience and scrambling all over the court won him the match today.
Jurgen’s tactics was very obvious; ATTACK every short ball and come to the net. Jurgen was very successful with this tactics for 1 and a half set, but then he started missing the attacking backhands.
His forehand was working great, he served and volleyed well, but his attacking (not rallying!) backhand missed too many short balls.
Monfils on the other hand is very talented, has great feel and can unbelievably accelerate his racquet (and the ball) on his forehand.
It was a very entertaining match but I wonder how far can Monfils go with his non-aggressive play. He basically waits to be attacked and then counter-punches. This cannot work against the top 5 guys on the tour…
Serena Williams : Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Maria Jose knew what to do; hit every ball as hard as possible to prevent Serena from controlling the game. The stats were in Maria’s favor in the first set and she basically hit most of the risky shots she took.
There was almost no rallying, just a few shots and then one of the girls attacked with a flat shot towards the sideline.
The only difference between these two girls is that a fast ball is risky for Maria Jose and not so risky for Serena and this statistics eventually showed up; Serena won in 3 sets.
There was a key point in the first set at 2:2 where Maria Jose played a drop shot and came to the net and Serena played at her. The ball bounced off Maria into Serena’s court but the ball didn’t hit the racquet, it hit Maria’s arm.
At least that’s what I saw and Serena did too. The umpire still awarded the point to Maria Jose and that was the break of Serena’s serve.
If you saw the slow motion on TV, please let us know what really happened; did the ball bounce off Maria’s racquet or her hand?
Tomorrow is my day off since I don’t have a ticket for any major court so I’ll check out Paris a little bit.
I am looking forward to Monday’s matches as I have the ticket for Phillipe Chatrier court and will most likely watch Federer, Haas, Roddick and others…
- Related posts:
May 31st, 2009 at 6:23 am
Yes, the controversial shot has been posted on youtube. With no doubt, it hit Maria Jose’s arm rather forcefully. It has caused a storm on tennis forums and the media criticizing Maria Jose. Serena said in the post match interview that Maria was a “cheater” for not calling it, and Maria Jose responded by furthering denying it and saying that Serena’s comment is “stupid”.
Here’s a link of the shot on youtube.
It’s opened an interesting discussion about the issue of sportsmanship and fairgame for tennis both at the highest level and at the club level. Maybe you can write an article about it. Interested to see what you have to say : )
May 31st, 2009 at 11:27 am
Thanks Jessey,
That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Maria Jose reacted very emotionally since she was basically under attack and was actually physically hurt. She just wanted revenge and if the umpire awarded her the point, she took it – especially if this was a break point.
This was also one of the biggest matches of her life and she would definitely take anything she could get – one way or another. In the end, it’s the umpire’s responsibility to make calls, not hers.
Was she cheating? Well, if you sit in a couch watching TV, then your judgment is of course right – she was cheating.
But if you were in a match of your life and someone physically attacked you, you’d want to hit back – especially if you are a fighter like all top players are. (That’s how they became top players.)
I believe most players would not admit this in this case where the opponent had the chance to pass left or right but chose to attack and play straight to the body. That’s not very sportsmanship either so if that player then accuses you of cheating it’s quite hypocritical…
Both players were in the fight and did everything within the rules; Serena can play the ball anywhere, even to the body, and Maria Jose accepted the umpire’s call, even when she knew it was wrong.
May 31st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
That’s a important topic on sportsmanship.
There are people who blatantly cheat and there are others that just take what they can get even if they know it’s wrong.
I see this especially during tournaments, the blatant one being if the ball is even close to the line the opponent calls it out.
The less blatant one is knowing that you served long and getting the point if your opponent did not call it (happened to me when I couldn’t track the first serve zooming past the box).
Honestly though in a situation like that I probably would have taken the point (I’m usaully honest, but I get quite angry when I’m hit).
Kudos for Serena for not letting it get to her, eventually winning the match.