Roland Garros Day Quatre: The future must wait...

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

The future is coming. In fact as I typed that the future became the present, then the past.Every time I type a word I lose two seconds I can never get back. It's best not to think too much about this very depressing fact. I meant the future of the ATP must wait for the next train. The old guard is holding them off, though not without some difficulty, it must be said. The future is slowly taking the reigns on the WTA. Every time I hear any commentator say Halep now number four, I have to go and check. When I saw Stephens as one of the top seeds in Brussels last week I had to double check. Taylor Townsend just beat Cornet, showing mental toughness. In fact, the two opponents Cornet played had a combined age of about 35. There are several players in this draw older than them.

But I digress. In the ATP the future was put on notice. Your time is not now. Gasquet put paid to Tomic, Nishikori paid the price for not being fully fit, Federer ousted Schwartzman, Dimitrov panicked against the big serving Karlovic. Thiem plays Nadal tomorrow. Raonic is old now. He has already turned 23, is turning 24 this year. Thiem is the youngest player in the top 100 and the youngest left in the draw. He plays Nadal tomorrow on Chatrier. I don't know that for a fact, but if it is not on Chatrier, I think that the French will be guilty of slicing off their nose to spite their face. That match should be third on Chatrier so it can be a late afternoon classic. I expect Thiem to get at least twelve games, as I said before. Any less and I will be disappointed.

Well, we have already reached the third round in part and it is only Wednesday. Slams sure do fly by quickly. I also heard that Rory broke up with Woz over the phone. That is the wrong way to do it. It is definitely not my place to say, but surely six months before a wedding you tell someone that in person. Also, Dolgopolov turns 26 this year. I cannot get my head 'round that.

But enough of this, I should start reviewing some matches...


MARQUEE MATCH: DJOKOVIC d. CHARDY
...6-1, 6-4,6-2. 92 minutes. 31 winners, two aces. Test passed. I have, like most people, got a lot of time for Chardy. He plays nice aggressive tennis. He plays tennis like he is 5-0, 40/love up. He hits big and when that doesn't work he hits bigger. He has a huge serve, too. He is a handy player, but he is also someone who has a severe match-up problem with Djokovic [who turned 27 on the 22nd] which makes it hard. He hit 35 errors which is somewhat expected. His problem is that he only hit 19 winners, 3 aces, and he needs to be hitting about 50 winners to cover that many errors. He is under pressure against Djokovic to hit everything just a bit harder. When you play the best, you feel as if you have to go for your shots. You can usually tell how close a match is by points won. Sets can lie but points do not. Djokovic won 89, Chardy 56. A great example of this is that Nadal/Del Potro match way back in 2009. Delpo beat him in the US Open semifinals 6-2/6-2/6-2. Of the 175 points available, Del Potro won 100. He only won 25 points more. It was the closest 6-2/6-2/6-2 I had ever seen. The points show how close that was in reality. Here the points shows that Djokovic was dominant. He moves on to face Cilic. His draw has happened exactly as I said it would, but yet he has not been challenged as much as I thought.
=============================
Un autre match intéressant: FEDERER d. SCHWARTZMAN
...Ten years older, ten years wiser. Federer showed his experience on SL yesterday. Why does no one complain that Federer has to play on Lenglen. I don't want to sound like Pam Shriver, which means I'm going to, but Alize Cornet? I understand why she is on PC but why not Lenglen for her?
But anyway, Diego actually challenged Federer for three sets. He almost nicked a set, too. Federer was not at his supreme best but he was consistent and solid enough to hold off the Argentine. He hit 9 aces and was generally strong on service, though Schwartzman was able to take one of the two break chances he was offered. Federer broke four times from ten opportunities. On court for an hour and forty-three minutes, the Argentine showed he has top fifty potential. He showed he could live with Federer and he showed he had some serious firepower, as well. He is short, though. Courier was discussing this in the commentary booth. He concluded that these days being short in tennis is not an advantage and I have to agree. There are exceptions, though, look no further than Henin. In the next round Federer must deal with his first seed. Tursunov is seeded 31. He has a big game but I do not think he will trouble Federer too much. He could perhaps take a set if he plays very well and the Swiss star comes out a little flat.
=============================
ROSOL MOMENT: STEPANEK D. YOUZHNY
...On paper this was an upset. The fifteenth seed goes out in the second round to some old guy. In reality, an out of form veteran, still ranked highly because of an occasional strong week here and there, lost to a dangerous veteran capable of beating anyone. Stepsy dominated the opening two sets, winning them 6-0/6-3 and hitting 23 winners, two aces, to just ten errors. Stepanek also came to net seventeen times, showing his aggressive intent. He was running riot and Youzhny had to do something. He changed it up. He made Stepenak move and he took the next set 6-3 to give himself hope, to bring himself back into the match. Youzhny gave up no break points in the third and took two from two when he had break points. He refused to let Stepsy get a look in. He could not keep it up, however. He allowed Stepanek to break his serve twice and that would eventually prove to be enough to seal his fate. Stepsy took the match in four and caused our upset of the day. Next up is Gulbis. That match is going to be interesting. It has to be going at least four, if not more.
=============================
ISNER-MAHUT WANNABE'S: JOHNSON D. LOKOLI
...Yesterday a Frenchie took out an American and today the roles were swapped. Johnson battled back, over the course of several days, from the brink to eventually gain the upper hand and then seal the match. It took him overall just shy of four hours to finally, finally come through to the next round. He has a good reward, however, in that he gets to play Sock for the right to be one of two Americans still left in the draw. Saving match points, he came back to win 4-6/6-7/7-6/6-3/6-3. Lokoli led 4-0 in the third, having match points at 3-5 on the Johnson serve and also 5-6 on the Johnson serve. He very nearly claimed the upset, and was the better player for three sets. Johnson led 3-1 in the fifth at the close of play. Come the dawn, he held onto his lead and did the job. He closed out impressively. Johnson is the American number two down at #64. Querrey is at 67 and Sock is at 75. The state of American men's tennis has been talked about plenty. In both singles draws combined the USA still has seven chances to bring home the trophy. What odds on Sloane Stephens to win the whole darn thing?
=============================
BLINK AND YOU MISS IT: TSONGA/MELZER
...There was no thrash today. I was surprised how easily Tsonga swept aside Melzer, however. It took him less than three hours to dismiss him 6-2/6-3/6-4. That shows dominance. Melzer was recently a semifinalist here and to knock him out in such a way is a statement.
=============================
ELVIS AWARD: GRANOLLERS, ESP
...I actually don't know how to talk about this match. So, I will do what I always do. I will tell a story which has some relevance to the matter in hand. First I will show you the scoreline: 1-6/3-6/6-3/6-0/6-2. 73 and 96 unforced errors. Dolgopolov in a nutshell. Back in 2010, I was watching television in my tennis clubhouse. Yes, I play tennis [if I played Todd he would beat me in straight sets I promise] [Ed.note: not if my bad wrist acts up! Ha! - TDS] and I was anxiously waiting for my match. I was watching the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. I was watching Nadal play a Ukrainian qualifier. A Ukrainian qualifier called Olexandr Dolgopolov -- I thought to myself that will be 6-1/6-0. This is going to be seriously painful for the young guy. No. He played brilliant, maddening tennis for an hour and a half. He put up stern resistance. He made Nadal work for a 6-4/6-3 victory. He even bamboozled Nadal. I saw him hit the best drop shot I had ever seen down 3-5 in that first set. It was perfect. I did not think I would ever see a better one. It turns out I would see a better one. I saw a better one two points later, in the same game. I never forgot those two drop shots. Since then I always like to watch half an hour of his matches when I can. It will be a sad day when he hangs up his racket. Luckily, some very nice guy put the drop shots on YouTube. So look and admire.


=============================
HOME GROWN HERO: SIMON, FRA
...I'm running out Frenchmen to choose for this award. Let us hope that Gasquet does well here. I am also keeping my Tsonga card just in case. Anyway, Simon dismissed Gonzalez 6-4/6-0/6-2. The victory was as dominating as it sounds. One hour and forty-four minutes is a long time. Simon needs to work on shortening points, if I may repeat that which is repeated too often. Simon did not win through hitting winners. He did not win through overwhelming offense but throttling defense. Simon is the 2013 Seattle Seahawks.
=============================

Any other notes?

* - Both the Williamses are out. That has not happened since Wimbledon 2011.

* - Matosevic actually won. He actually won a grand slam match. The baseball equivalent is the Cubs having a winning season .

* - Davydenko is considering retirement. He very nearly beat Federer at the 2010 Aussie Open. He also, I think, beat him at the World Tour Finals in 2009.

* - It is the first time in years that I haven't been looking forward to Wimbledon more than I have been enjoying the French. This French Open is more exciting than they usually are.

* - Pam Shriver makes me wince. Not always, but when she isn't making me shudder she's making me wince. Why is she allowed to commentate again? For the same reason Jacksonville got an NFL team I presume?

* - Of the remaining top eight seeds, Berdych and Murray look most vulnerable. Berdych today lost a set to someone who's name I can remember but can't type.

* - I liked John Isner's Facebook post. "So 5 breakers so far - 2 on Sunday and 3 today.. Shocking?! Obviously kidding.. It hasn't been as pretty as I'd like it but I'm very happy to be in the 3rd round here at ROLAND-GARROS!! Need to keep serving big and playing big to keep moving on.. Gonna rest up and get ready for the battle with Tommy Robredo in a couple days."


Thanx all and visit WTABACKSPIN please.

Read more!