It's almost unheard of. Nadal is almost always good to the quarterfinals of every event he plays. Hot off the heels of his win in Tokyo, Nadal faced veteran Jurgen Melzer, a lefty that Nadal last beat at Roland Garros. One could argue that Nadal's toughest match came against Melzer who pushed him to a
For a while, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was taking a page out of the book to beat Andy Murray. Play aggressive off the forehand and pressure Nadal. The two stayed on serve throughout the first set. In the first set tiebreak, Murray made a few errors, and Tsonga was able to 7 points to 5. Murray seemed
Perhaps the warning signs were there. Robin Soderling was on his way to a pretty easy win over David Ferrer when a bad call upset Soderling and he spent the rest of the match trying to regain control of a situation that went out of control. Soderling needed five sets to beat Ferrer. The day
On this, the most match-laden day of any Slam, all fourth round matches are played. Federer was up early and won his match quickly over Jurgen Melzer. There were eight men's matches scheduled for today. Two more are completed not including Federer's win. Tsonga played countryman Benneteau and got off to a quick start winning
Federer usually has a few easy matches en route to a Slam. Sometimes it's one or two, as in the French, when he had one easy match against Gael Monfils, and technically, the final was pretty easy too. Already, Federer has beaten Arnaud Clement, someone that he hasn't lost to in years. Today, Roger faced
Due to some previous commitments, I couldn't see any of the day's matches. Although I thought maybe Petzschner might give Nadal trouble because he gave Federer trouble in Queen's, I didn't think he'd take two sets off Nadal. The last two sets resemble the Haase match, i.e., it seems Nadal figured out what to do
With all the rain that affected play on Wednesday and Thursday, matches were backlogged. Matches that were supposed to be played Thursday were pushed into today. In an effort to catch up, matches that were originally planned for today, i.e. 3rd round matches, were played today. All top 5 seeds play Friday which include Federer,
With two days of play complete, let's look at how the top seeds are faring. Roger Federer Roger Federer had a bit of a tight first set, but then relaxed, and had a very easy first round match. He's playing like he did in Madrid, and that was just too much for Luczak. I think
Most players on the tour aren't the glamor players, the players who contend for a title, the names you see in draws every day. They aren't Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. They aren't even Juan Monaco or Thomas Bellucci who routinely make the main draws of ATP events. Instead, they are like Daniel Brands of
I don't plan on doing too many previews, but here's the first. The French Open unlike other tournaments opens play on a Sunday. This allows them to schedule their rounds better and to have 3 Sundays, presumably to make more money. Let's look at a few key matches. I'll follow the convention that Wikipedia sets.
