French Open: First Post on Roland Garros…. U.S. Players Fade As Usual; Murray, Federer Battle Through

Ahhh, yes it’s time to write a bit about the second grand slam of the season, the French Open. Already Roger Federer had a close rush with tennis death Jaime Acasuso was playing Fed even for the first two sets. Federer fought off four set points in the first set to win 7-6. After going up quickly 2-0 with a beak of serve in hand, Federer played a loose service game and was broken by Acasuso. The next 15 games Federer struggeld mightily. He lost the second set 7-5 and found himself down 5-1 in the third set and fighting just to hold to get to 5-2. 

Acasuso got just tight enough to give Roger air. Federer breathed in the fresh oxygen deeply, freed up his game enough to get to a tie breaker in set number three. Federer rolled Acasuso 7-2 in the breaker and dusted off the talented but underachieving Argentinian 6-2 in the fourth set.

Meantime, most of the Americans crapped out early. On day one of Roland Garros Sam Querry lost badly to the mercurial Latvian, Ernest Gulbis 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. The day was hot and the courts were dry and quick. Querry was no match for Gulbis who blasted 26 aces by Querry. Numer 85-ranked robert Kendrick defeated little-known German, Daniel Brand, in four sets.

Day two was about 20 degrees colder and damp. The balls were heavy and slow, which is the bane of the American’s existence. Number 69-ranked Robbie Ginepri lost to the Spaniard Pablo Andujar who was ranked #101 in the world.  Ginepri looked miserable from the beginning of the match and played as if he was looking forward to moving onto England for the grass court portion of the tennis season. The lone bright spot for American players was #6-seed Andy Roddick, who dispatched Frenchman Romain Jouan, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

Day three was as cold as the day before and proved to be catastrophic for U.S. players. Bobbie Reynolds started things off by getting crushed by Gael Monfils, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Next  #15-seed James Blake lost his first round match qualifier Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 6-2 of Argentina. Then #22-seed Mardy Fish met another Argentinian player, Maximo Gonzalez, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Blake appeared stunned that Mayer was quick enough not to be blasted away by his vaunted forehand.  Fish fought hard but was just too inconsistent from the baseline against Gonzalez. Even on hard courts when Fish’s serve is off his groundstrokes, particularly his forehand, can go awry at any moment. Gonzalez did not play that well, but kept enough balls in play to wait for fish to miss. The American obliged more often than not and is probably already in England getting his serve ready for the slick, but now slow grass of Wimbledon.

Kendrick fell on day four in the second round to #7-seeded Gilles Simon of France 7-5, 6-0, 6-1. Roddick, the lone american remaining in the draw, won his second round match the following day against Ivo Minar, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

Top seed Rafael Nadal has breezed so far as has #4 seed Novak Djokovic. However #3 Andy Murray dispatched Juan Ignacio Chela in the first round, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. In Murray’s second round match against Potito Starace of Italy, the Brit won set number one fairly easily 6-3. As he often does Murray got a bit cute with his game and Starace broke him twice to  take set two 6-2. In set number three Murray, like Federer, found himself down 5-1. Unlike Federer, though, Murray had to face down a set point. Once he did, Murray won the next six games to take the third, 7-5. Starace continued to fight but Murray took him down 6-4 in the fourth.

Next up for Federer is #32-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France. Mathieu is extremely talented and will have the French crowd behind him. Paul-Henri has the distinction of losing some very tough matches in both grand slams and Davis Cup, so Federer will feel that if he can stay with the Frenchman Mathieu will fold. Should he get by Marhieu Federer has a dangerous match against the winner of the Tommy Haas-Jeremy Chardy match. Haas, once the #2 player in the world is a very good all-court player. Chardy, another Franch player, is only 22 and is ranked #39. Last year Chardy advanced to the 4th round of the French Open and is looking to defend his points from his 2008 roland Garros performance.

Should Roger escape those two matches he will probably face another French player in#9-seed Gael Monfils. “Le Monf” as he is called in France, might be the most talented player in the men’s draw. He is now being coached by infamous taskmaster, Roger Rasheed, Lleyton Hewitt’s former coach. Monfils has had knee problems this year and might need surgery at the end of the season. However, he has taken some time off in order to get ready for the French, as he would definitely like to defend the points he earned last year when he got to the semifinals and lost to Federer. This time the two could meet in the quarterfinals.

If Monfils, who appears to be much more offensive with his game this year, plays as he has so far, he can not only defeat Federer, but beat anyone in the French Open  draw.

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I wanted to begin to catch up with the French, so I’ll end things right here for now. I’ll get to Nadal, write more on Roddick (who looks good right now) and a few other players in the men’s draw in my next post. And after that, it will be the women’s turn.