Patty Schnyder Tribute at WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul
Patty Schnyder retired from tennis after the French Open 2011, and her amazing 17 year career has received a great tribute for her at the WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul.
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French Open Day 4 Round Up
Day 4 saw the start of the doubles events on the outside courts, thus you will notice more quick round ups.
Mens Singles:
In the mens draw it seemed like today was a bit of a non-event. All of the seeds in action today won through their matches and with relative ease. Great performances by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, but thats not really new. On the outside courts there was a match that caught my eye, Fabio Fognini vs Stephane Robert. Robert had played a very solid match in the first round, but he came up against Fognini who was on fire! Fognini killed it and progressed 6-2 6-1 6-0. Is Fognini a player in watch in the draw?
Womens Singles:
In the womens draw all of the main players progressed through their matches. There was another great perfomance by Samantha Stosur and she is shaping up to be a real contender for the title! The only seed to lose today was Tsvetana Pironkova (32) who lost to Gisela Dulko 6-4 6-2. Dulko looked to be playing some very solid tennis on the outside courts. Last years champion Schiavone also played some great tennis today, sweeping aside Vesna Dolonts 6-1 6-2.
Mens Doubles:
First round of the mens doubles was today and it saw a very close opening match for the Bryan brothers (1) who only just progressed in three sets to Santiago Giraldo and Pere Ribe. For me there are three unseeded teams who have a great chance in the mens doubles: Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut (been playing doubles together since juniors and have won Grand Slam titles together as juniors), Ivo Karlovic and Ivan Dodig, Xavier Malisse and Alexandr Dolgopolov. Watch out for one of these teams to make it a long way in the tournament.
Womens Doubles:
I really enjoyed two doubles matches today and the two teams to look out for in the womens doubles is: Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder, and Andrea Hlavachova and Lucie Hradecka. Both of these teams played great matches today and beat favoured opponents.
Mixed Doubles:
For me there is only one mixed doubles pair and thats Leander Paes and Iveta Benesova. They played an amazing match today and looked a class above the rest, and thats on the day where a few top seeds fell.
French Open Day 3 Round Up
Mens Singles:
Day 3 was an amazing day. Day 3 saw Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in action amoung other great players.
Nadal came up against John Isner, who has an amazingly big serve. It was expected that Nadal would dominate the match and just simply be too strong on the clay. However, Isner was playing his A-game and Nadal was quick lucky to win in five very tough sets. 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-4.
In the rest of the matches most of the seeds got through without any trouble at all. However, Nicolas Almagro (11) was not so lucky as he fell to Lukasz Kubot in five sets. 3-6 2-6 7-6 7-6 6-4.
For me the pick of the matches was between two of the older guys on tour, Dmitry Tursunov and Xavier Malisse. These guys were roughing it on court 17 and they gave the crowd something to talk about. The match lasted three hours and saw Xavier Malisse progress 6-1 in the fifth set.
Womens Singles:
In day 3 on the womens side everything seemed to go very well for all the seed. The only seed that didnt make it through was Ana Ivanovic (whats news). Ana seemed to be playing strong tennis as she lost the first set 7-6 and then won the second set 6-0. However, as Ana isnt really predictable, she then went on to lose the third set 6-2.
For me the match of the day was Patty Schnyder and Sorana Cirstea. This was expected to be a very close match between two good players who both were not seeded. However, it seemed like Patty didnt really turn up for the match and Cirstea steam rolled her 6-1 6-3.
Overall:
Rafael Nadal has a tough match and progressed, this could set him up nicely for a good campaign here! In the other matches Andy Murray played very well, but he tends to run out of steam in the second week of Grand Slams. Outsiders are Robin Soderling and Gilles Simon, both played very well today.
Kim Clijsters has to be the favourite for this title and she didn’t disappoint today. Surprisingly Maria Sharapova is playing some great tennis at the moment and I could see he going quite deep in this tournament.
