Here is the hot shot of the tournament so far. Sorana Cirstea finishes a lengthy rally with a quallity forehand at full stretch.
Its strange because it seems like her forehand technique isnt great… very whippy!
Here is yet another great video from the WTA Tour’s “Strong is Beautiful” campaign. Sorana Cirstea and Bethanie Mattek-Sands do a bit of paintballing in London.
Mens Singles:
A lot happened today in the mens singles. First of all in the key matches with the top players both Nadal, Soderling and Murray advanced quite easily. However, there were a few upsets! Marcos Baghdatis (27) was defeated by Leonardo Mayer in straight sets, Florian Mayer was defeated by Alejandro Falla in four sets, Nikolay Davydenko (28) was defeated by Antonio Veic in a tuogh five set match, and Sam Querrey (24) was defeated by Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets.
The dark horse seems to be Lukasz Kubot who progressed again with a straight sets win over Carlos Berlocq. Kubot has come through some tough matches in qualifying and has already taken out Nicolas Almagro (11) and Carlos Berlocq in the main draw, with both of these players being clay court specialists.
Womens Singles:
Match of the day for me was Maria Sharapova (7) against young French lady Caroline Garcia. Garia was playing some amazing tennis and was making Sharapova look like your average hacker. Garcia was up 6-3 4-1, but then she seemed to remember that she was playing on center court at the French Open against Maria Sharapova. After that she didnt win another game and Sharapova won 3-6 6-4 6-0.
Apart from that all seeds that played today pushed into the next round, apart from Alexandra Dulgheru (27) who lost to Sorana Cirstea 6-2 7-5.
Mens Doubles:
Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimoniic (4) played some great tennis today and defeated Igor Kunitsyn and Ivan Ljubicic. Watch out for these guys in the tournament!
Womens Doubles:
Casey Dellacqua and Rennae Stubbs are an unseeded team to watch in the womens doubles. They just defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm and Shuai Zhang 6-1 7-6.
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.
Sorana Cirstea has signed with IMG Worldwide. IMG already has contracts with stars such as Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, and others.
The 20-year-old Cirstea has won one WTA title, Tashkent Open in 2008, and four ITF titles. In her second Tour main draw appearance, Cirstea reached the finals at Budapest and became the first Romanian to reach a Tour singles final since Dragomir Ilie in June 2000.
I think IMG signed Cirstea not eactly for her tennis skills. Im sure she will soon be endorsing a lot of products!
Robin Soderling (23) vs Nikolay Davydenko (10) = This is going to be a great match. Robin Soderling beat four time reigning champion Rafael Nadal in four sets in the previous round and Davydenko defeated Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. I think Robin will be still on a high from his last victory, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep it going. This could be a five set match with Soderling taking the first few sets then Davydenko coming back.
Andy Murray (3) vs Fernando Gonzalez (12) = Andy and Fernando have been in great for in this tournament so far and they both didnt lose a set in their fourth round matches. Murray has had quite an easy draw so far and I think Gonzalez might actually cause a big upset in this match.
Juan Martin Del Potro (5) vs Tommy Robredo (16) = Juan Martin Del Potro has been playing some great tennis and beating good opponents so far in the tournament. However, in this match he will coming up against Tommy Robredo who has a huge amount of experience on the clay courts of Roland Garros. I can see Robredo winning this match in a long five set match.
Gael Monfils (11) vs Roger Federer (2) = This is another exciting match with Roger on the back of coming from two sets to love down to win in five, while Monfils played one of his greatest matches at the French Open defeating Andy Roddick in straight sets. I think this will be Rogers match to lose.
Dinara Safina (1) vs Victoria Azarenka (9) = Azarenka had a great previous match disposing of the defending champion Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. While Safina hasn’t put a foot wrong and has been demolishing her opponents. I think the first set is going to be very tight and Azarenka really needs to win it, cause I cant see her coming back in three sets.
Dominika Cibulkova (20) vs Maria Sharapova = This is going to be a very interesting match, Maria hasnt been in the greatest of form but she has been grinding out wins. Cibulkova has been playing some good tennis, but hasnt really played a major name at this years French Open. I can see Maria winning in another three set match.
Sorana Cirstea vs Samantha Stosur (30) = Cirstea has had a great tournament so far, especially with her win in the last match at 9-7 in the third set over Jelena Jankovic. Stosur has been going through the draw very quietly. Clay is not Stosurs best surface but she has a great kick serve for a female player and I can see her demolishing Cirstea in straight sets.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (7) vs Serena Williams (2) = The girls have a great rivalry and have played some great matches over the years. I think Serena is in great form and the quick clay surface this year is suiting her game and I cant really see Kuznetsova getting into the match from the beginning.
