Day 1-4 of the French Open

I wish I would of started this sooner because so much has happened in Paris this past week. Here's just some of the headlines at RG.


Day 1
No. 19 Marian Cilic is out.  He is the first seeded player to be elminated, losing to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4.  David Ferrer No. 7 seed from Spain had no problems, defeating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.  Wawrinka No.14, Tsonga No.17, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez No. 30 and Sergiy Stakhovsky No.31 all advanced. Just two hourse before the tournament began Lleyton Hewitt, two-time Grand Slam champion withdrew.

Day 2

Novak Djokovic, my pick to win the tournament, kept his perfect streak alive defeating Thiemo de Bakker 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.  Roger Federer won in straight sets against the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.  Lopez did not have a single break point, losing to Fed 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3). The upset of the day was Tomas Berdych, a semifinalist last year, falling to a french qualifier in 5 sets.  Still though those stories did not receive as much attention as Novak's amazing streak which is at 38 this year and 40 if you count back into last year.  In other matches Gael Monfils No.9 of France, No. 10 Mardy Fish of U.S., Mikhail Youzhny No. 12 of Russia, Richard Gasquet No. 13 of France, Viktor Roicki No. 15 of Serbia, No.23 Thomaz Belluci of Brazil, No, 28 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and No. 29 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia all reached round two.  Two seeded men, No. 22 Michael Llodra of France and No. 26 Milos Raonic of Canada lost.

Day 3

Nadal opened his 20ll French open campaign against John Isner just barely coming through and winning 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-4.  It was the first time Rafa played 5 sets at Roland Garros.  Isner played tough and is seen as one of the players you do not want to play.  He has arguably the best serve on tour.  Despite this Rafa came through and kept his championship hopes alive.  The man for Great Britain, Andy Murray reached round #2 with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 win over French qualifier Eric Prodon.  Despite what the score might suggest  it was a tough match for Murray.  Soderling advanced with a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 win over Ryan Harrison from the U.S. who was offered the spot after Benjamin Becker withdrew.  Sam Querrey also of the U.S. reached round two for the first time defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6,6-1,6-2,6-4. No. 8 Jurgen Melzer of Austria, No. 16 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 18 Gilles Simon of France, No. 20 Florian Mayer of Germany, No.21 Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine and No. 32 Kevin Anderson of South Africa advanced.  No. 11 Nicolas Almagro of Spain lost in an upset to L. Kubot.

Day 4

Novak Djokovic continued his streak and is on to the third round after Victor Hanescu retired in the third set due to injury while trailing 6-4, 6-1, 2-3.  Roger Federer is into the thrid round as well.  He won in straight sets against Maxime Teixeira, a French wild card, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.  David Ferrer No. 7 of Spain, No. 9 Gael Monfils of France, No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, No, 13 Richard Gasquet of France, No. 14 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, No. 17 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, No. 23 Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, No. 30 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and No. 31 Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine and Juan Martin Del Potro, former U.S. Open Champion made it through.  Friday Djokovic will play Del Potro in a huge match that I can't wait to see.