Day 7 Roland Garros Update

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

Nadal and Fognini lived up to its billing. An extremely entertaining match full of great rallies and mind-boggling errors. Nadal looks a little undercooked at this year's RG and Fognini came close to nicking a set. If he makes it there, I can't see this Rafa taking more than a set off the Djoker. It does look rather as if Nadal is either injured or not at the races for some reason. Perhaps there is a window of opportunity open. A very small window for Djokovic and Federer to exploit. I think Gasquet might be good enough to nick a set off of Nadal but he can't really trouble Nadal over five sets. Nadal will just take the French number two's game -and specifically his forehand- apart. I think this could be Fed's last shot at the Roland Garros trophy and he will know that.

Llodra/Mahut put out the fith seeds Tecau and Mirnyi, which means that seeds 3,4 and 5 have now all departed. Zeballos and Cuevas the South American duo put out ninth seeded Melzer/Paes, as well. The Bryans cruised as usual.

Which big seeds fell in the men’s singles? Another of the big eight fell, but lots of smaller seeds did, too. Tipsarevic lost in three easy sets to Youzhny as his luck finally ran out, whilst Janowicz, Fognini, Paire and Dimitrov all lost to big seeds.

Isner lost to Haas in an absolute epic which was probably the match of the tournament. Haas won it on his THIRTEENTH match point...it was truly a memorable match.


MARQUEE MATCH: Djokovic def. Dimitrov
...After his truly stunning win in Madrid over the might Djoker, this was touted as one of the big third round matches. However, revenge was on the Djoker's mind and so it turned out. Much like a certain alter ego on the women's tour whose name I daren't speak so close to the French capital in case I anger it, Djokovic will find you if you beat him and he will beat you worse. He will have his revenge. He was red hot here and was too good in every area for the young star. Once he broke down the Bulgarian serve, the match started to go very quickly.
=============================
ROSOL MOMENT: Mikhail Youzhny, RUS
...Not really an upset. Tipsy had gotten into the third round on a wing and a prayer. He had reached the third round simply by grinding and winning matches despite playing badly. The Russian, however, was one hurdle too many for the world number 12. Ousted 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 things will surely only get worse as we go into the grass swing.
=============================
ISNER-MAHUT WANNABE'S: Tommy Haas/John Isner, GER/USA
...Isner loves his five setters. Again he came back from the dead here and pushed Haas before finally losing 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-7 10-8 in 4h, 40 minutes. The German has been to at least the quarters in Melbourne, London and New York but never here at Paris. He has to beat Youzhny to do so. This match was truly incredible. He had twelve match points saved, and he saved one or two himself before finally winning this epic. I cannot do this match justice but it was just incredible in just about every way.
=============================
BLINK AND YOU MISS IT: Kohlschreiber/Hanescu, GER/ROU
...It took the German an hour and fifty to dismiss Viktor 6-0, 7-6, 6-1. Incidentally, it was 7-0 in that breaker. This was a thrash and the fact the middle set was close is all credit to the Romanian. He managed to make this beating look almost respectable. The middle set took twenty minutes longer than the other two combined. Kohl hit six aces and forty winners in blowing past his hapless opponent.
=============================
ELVIS AWARD: Tommy Robredo, ESP
...He came from two sets down to Monfils to win. He actually played a great match and pulled out top tennis when he had to call upon it, too. His match against Almagro is winnable and I could see him in the quarterfinals here. Either way, it looks likely we will have at least one Spaniard in the semifinal.
=============================
HOME GROWN HEREO: Richard Gasquet, FRA
...Davydenko had the potential to be a huge banana skin to the Frenchman, but Gasquet was far too good for Davy this time. In just two hours five Gasquet walked past Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. The Russian did use the dropper very nicely but sadly he is not the force he once was. Gasquet hit 5 aces and 27 winners to just 18 unforced errors. But the real story is that Gasquet played a clever consistent match here. He played smart shots and he used the crowd very effectively, as well.
=============================

Thanks all and visit WTA Backspin, too, please.

Read more!