Day 3 Roland Garros Update

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

It rained all day here in London, not just in Paris. In amongst the bad weather -which improved as the day wore on- there were some matches played. In the doubles, seeds #14 lost as the Italian pairing of Bracciali and Seppi were defeated by Erlich and Ram of Israel. Not a huge upset, but noteworthy none-the-less. Also in the doubles, the top-seeded Bryans moved through against an all-French pairing, and so did seeds #7 and #16. Bhupati and Bopanna, however, were not so lucky and lost out in straight sets to Janowicz/Bednarek. They were the fourth seeds and it means second-seeded Granollers/Lopez will face a surprise in the semifinals.

Which big seeds fell in the men’s singles? Talented German Mayer retired down two sets to Istomin and Tursunov beat Dolgopolov in straight sets to progress. So the twenty-second and eighth seeds have both departed in the opening round. This leaves us with 27 seeds including 9 of the top ten.


MARQUEE MATCH: Djokovic d. Goffin
...This was always going to be the marquee match of day three. Luckily the standard was high throughout this tight three setter. Sumptuous backhands, lengthy rallies and delicate dropshots were there in plenty. Goffin managed to hang with the top seed for a while before eventually succumbing, Had Goffin managed to hold on and take that opening breaker it might have been different. But the Djoker held on and then took the next two to close it out with few problems afterwards. There were a few particular rallies which really made me gasp afterwards. Anyway, Goffin looks set to plummet down the rankings while Djokovic glides serenely through to the next round.
=============================
ROSOL MOMENT: Jack Sock, USA
...The American number 11 -ranked 118 in the world- took on the Spanish number thirteen -ranked 79- and caused an upset. Granted GGL isn't a seed but he has been as high as 23 in the world and he has a couple of titles, too. This is his best surface and Sock beat him 6-2,6-2,7-5. That is a huge result and Sock can take a huge amount of confidence from that result. He has Haas next and that will be a stern test indeed, but it will also be a great match.
=============================
ISNER-MAHUT WANNABE'S: Pella/Dodig, ARG/CRO
...This award will go to the players involved in the longest match or the most exhausting one, like here for example, Pella upset Dodig 12-10 in the fifth set. It was quite a quick match for that length clocking in at 3h,14 minutes. Dodig hit 17 more aces and 18 more winners than his opponent, too. However, he hit one more double fault and 23 more unforced errors than Pella, so perhaps consistency is key. Pella, Zeballos and Delbonis are the last Argentines standing and Pella has Djokovic up next.
=============================
BLINK AND YOU MISS IT: Verdasco/Gicquel, ESP/FRA
...It took Ferver 90 minutes to see off Gicquel in three straight sets 2, 3 and 1. He broke his opponents serve 7 times and only got broken once. He also hit more than double the Frenchman's winners and generally outclassed him on the day. He plays the winner of Mahut/Tipsarevic.
=============================
ELVIS AWARD: Benoit Paire, FRA
...The match is still going on, but Paire came back from a set and a break down to level it and led Bagman 4-3 with a break in that third set when was suspended. It has been a cracking match and it was also a great comeback from Paire to reassert himself in the match.
=============================
HOME GROWN HERO: Lucas Pouille, FRA
..Lucas managed to defeat Russian Kuznetsov in the first round to the delight of the crowd. He won his Court seven match and thus earned the right to face Dimitrov in the second round, which is I suppose a winnable match. That is going to be on a show court, as well, I think so it should be a great occasion for all.
=============================


I shall now quickly preview some of tomorrow's action....

=Phillippe Chatrier=
Tsonga [6] d. Nieminen
...This should be a high quality four-setter which the crowd will really get into it. Chance of upset is low but still there.

Monfils d. Gulbis
...No man on earth can pick this but I think I'll go Monfils here for no reason at all really.

=Suzanne Lenglen=
Raonic [14] d. Llodra
...I think this will also go four.

Federer [2] d. Devvarman
...This won't go four, but it won't be a complete shellacking.

=Upset Potential=
Mahut v. [8] Tipsarevic
...On Court one with the crowd behind him. Don't rule out a Mahut victory.

Thanks and visit WTA Backspin.

Read more!