World Tennis News - French Open Week 1

The Big Guns

The top four seeds have all made it through to the second week of the Men’s championship but not without some tests along the way.

Seven-time champion Rafael Nadal lost the opening set against both Daniel Brands and Martin Klizan in the opening two rounds while former champion Roger Federer was extended to five sets in his fourth round victory over Gilles Simon, the 900th match win of Federer’s career.

Top seed Novak Djokovic was pushed hard by David Goffin in three tight sets in the first round but then eased through into round four after crushing an injured Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. No.4 seed David Ferrer is also yet to drop a set in Paris.

World No.1 Serena Williams has dropped just 10 games en route to the last eight while defending champion Maria Sharapova has moved through to the last 16 with relative ease.

Third seed Victoria Azarenka had to fight from a set down to overcome Alize Cornet in the third round while 4th seed Agnieszka Radwanska saw off 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic to reach her first Roland Garros quarter final.

Epic Battles

Week one saw a number of pulsating encounters in the Men’s singles with Tommy Robredo having a particularly long week as the veteran Spaniard battled from two sets down in three consecutive rounds in an emotional run to the quarter finals.

The third round meeting between 12th seed Tommy Haas and 19th seed John Isner on Court 1 was possibly the most spectacular meeting.

Haas built a two set lead before Isner fought back and the giant American staved off twelve match points in the fourth set before levelling the match and having a match point of his own in the decider. The 35 year-old German saved it and eventually came through 7-5, 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-7(10), 10-8 after four hours and 37 minutes.

Day one saw a thrilling women’s first round meeting between Venus Williams and Urszula Radwanska on court Suzanne Lenglen. After a marathon three hours and 19 minutes the younger Radwanska sister took out the elder Williams sister 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4.

Upsets

The biggest upset of the Men’s draw came in round one with 2010 semi-finalist Tomas Berdych falling to wild card Gael Monfils. The French former World No.7 fended off a strong comeback from the Czech No.1 to come through 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-7(4), 7-5.

Former champion Li Na was felled in round three of the women’s singles as Bethanie Mattek-Sands fought back to take out the sixth seed 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Another American dispatched top 10 opposition as Jamie Hampton took out Petra Kvitova 6-1, 7-6(7).