Feature Files From France

Roger Federer is favored to win the French Open after a significant sendoff by Robin Soderling Sunday shattered the reigning champion, Rafael Nadal. Nadal’s disintegration interferes with the illustration of the tournament draw. The four-time Roland Garros winner was ousted in four sets. Soderling accomplished what no other men’s player on tour could do in 31 previous attempts. Nadal ruled the red clay for 31 matches until Soderling’s 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory stopped his surest surface success.
Federer can consummate his resume by winning the title in France. The French Open is the only Grand Slam Roger has not claimed in his historic career and now the door is open for him to capture. Nadal was the shield preventing Federer from a clay championship. Roger can still lose to a remaining contender, but has the best chance to compensate for his only career glitch without Nadal in the picture.
The fearless Swede, Soderling won the 3 ½ hour grudge match with his assertive and active play yesterday. Nadal won all three previous meetings with the 24 year old, including 2007 at Wimbledon. He dominated Soderling 6-1, 6-0, a month ago in Rome on clay. Until Sunday’s stunning showing, sprightly Soderling never reached a third round match in any major tournament. He finished with a fancy 61 winners against a weighed down Nadal. Rafael came up on the short end of the winners, a rare occurrence. The 23rd seed showed fortitude, never lost his edge and did not fold, even when he committed six unforced errors to lose a second set tiebreaker. Nadal dropped the first set by twice being broken on serve. Robin’s booming serves were enough to take the third set off the mistake-laden Nadal. Rafeal lost two sets for the first time in a French Open match when Soderling closed out the third. Soderling’s serve startled and stood in the way of Nadal leveling the score in the fourth set too. The Spaniard was troubled by the 140 mph rips and could not advance to net to crush winning volleys. Nadal was able to battle back to even the set score and force a tiebreaker. To beat Nadal, you have to hit through him, and Soderling took it to the ace this time. He fought off match points at 6-1 in the tiebreaker but an ensuring volley landed wide and the defending champion was tapered.
Nadal made his Roland Garros debut in May of 2005. You have to give him kudos for going undefeated and winning four consecutive titles there. It is one of the bigger upsets in tennis history because no one expected a Nadal departure this early to a much lower seeded underdog.
Reigning French Open women’s champion, Ana Ivanovic, also had an early exit on Sunday. She lost a two-set shocker to the number 9 seed, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The former number one struggled to grind out games in a 2-6, 3-6 falling at the French with a fuss. She called for her trainer during the match and felt dizzy in the first set. Azarenka broke Ivanovic’s serve in the first and third games to take a 4-0 lead. The 19 year old played to her strengths aggressively to hold on for an easy 6-2 win. The Serbian made 20 unforced errors during the match and only mustered three games in the second set. Ivanovic has been somewhat of a comeback story in 2009, but endured a disappointing conclusion to the year’s second Grand Slam yesterday afternoon. She was stretched to a tie breaking win in the opening round against Italy’s Sara Errani. Then, she advanced through the next two rounds with relative ease by executing well. Ivanovic lost just five games during those two matches. The 21 year old faced a motivated, better opponent in Azarenka yesterday. The calm Azarenka will now play her first career major quarterfinal match.
Maria Sharapova’s latest three-set victory is a comforting one for the Russian coming off shoulder injury. The jovial Maria is unseeded but pulled out another close contest in this French tournament. Her fourth victory of the Grand Slam scored 6-4. 0-6, 6-4. It occurred against 25th seeded, Li Na. The Chinese sensation could not contend with Sharapova’s physical play and mental strength. Maria was bageled in the second set but managed to pull herself together to win the third outright. Li was up a break in the final set, 4-2, before she lost her concentration. The 22 year old Sharapova redeemed herself on her way to compiling the necessary four games for the victory. She reaches the quarterfinal round on clay for the fourth time in her career at the French Open. It’s questionable how much Sharapova can endure with her ailing shoulder and thigh. But it will be charming to see how she fares in the semi-finals should she reach that round.
Dinara Safina needed only 13 games and 53 minutes to reach the elite eight of the women’s draw in France. The world number one has only lost five games en route to the quarterfinals. It will be disappointing if she doesn’t lift the championship trophy in a week. Safina annihilated Aravana Rezai 6-1, 6-0 on Sunday. The French native Rezai left the court wide-open for a salivating Safina slugfest. The Russian shrugged off two break points in the third game of set and struck and sliced her way to the opener. Dinara unsettled Rezai and allowed her just nine second set points. Safina mixed a whipping fast forehand and slice backhand against her 57th ranked opponent. She pocketed the second set on her first match point chance. Azarenka is Safina’s next obstacle in her pursuit of the red court title. Tennis fans were looking forward to a Safina-Ivanovic rematch but the draw was vanished with Victoria’s victory.
The men’s third seed, Andy Murray, crushed Croatian, Marin Cilic to reach his first quarter-final at the French. Murray’s defeat of Cilic 7-5, 7-6, 6-1, was also the first time a British man has advanced to the quarter-final round since Tim Henman. Murray is playing excellent clay court tennis. He can seriously contend now that some of the top seeds are out and reach his peak of the clay court season by upstaging at Roland Garros. Murray and Cilic traded breaks and off-shots during the tentative, trying first set. The 22 year old Murray looked more controlled than his 20 year old foe in the next set. Cilic made 40 unforced errors to Murray’s 14 and surrendered the second set tiebreak with a forehand wide. The Scot was powerful in unleashing a 4-0 lead in the third and forced Cilic to misfire for the match sweep. Murray made the key shots and Cilic made the most errors. Cilic was bothered by pain throughout the match, looked beaten from the baseline and encountered a slick clay court specialist in Murray. Andy survived the three-set clobbering by moving the ball around and wearing down his opponent. His solid ground strokes and hard work should result in more wins. There is no reason Murray can’t set his eyes on the finals of the French.
Another Andy, Roddick, reached week two for the first time in his career at the French. The number 6 player in the world rubbed out a win over Marc Gicquel of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Roddick is only the second American man to advance this far since Andre Agassi six years ago. Andy had seven aces to go along with a modicum 11 unforced errors and is playing his best clay tennis ever. He is moving better on the surface and sliding into his forehand, rupturing remarkable hits. The possibilities were limited of Roddick winning a French Open with Nadal and Federer. The 26 year old has just as good a chance as anyone else with the way he’s playing tennis. The third round snubbing of Gicquel will be followed today with a challenging match against the talented Frenchman, Gael Monfils. Monfils reached the Roland Garros semifinals a year ago but if the Texan adheres to his dependable backhand slice and consistent serve, he can win this round. Roddick looks more comfortable shifting his feet on the clay. He is serving smart and clocking cross-court shots with effective placement. The key to Roddick’s wins has been getting guys out of position on the receiving end of his straight-forward serve to effortlessly set himself up for winners. Roddick is picking his times wisely to approach the net and has improved his volleying vastly. (Update: I just learned Roddick was thumped in straight sets to 11th seeded, Monfils, this afternoon; the score was 6-4, 6-2, 6-3; so much for my theory on the American)
The Nadal tumbling wasn’t the only upset on the men’s side. Novak Djokovic had a faulty third round performance in bowing to 29th seed galloping German, Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday. The fourth-seed, Djokovic, didn’t get many chances against the clay court specialist. He played too passively instead of seizing control of the match. Kohlschreiber was incredibly solid from on all his strokes, who will join countryman, Tommy Haas in the quarter-finals. It was the first time the German has reached the French Open third round and he came ready to play against the former two-time semifinalist, Djokovic. The Serb could not get into his usual rhythm. He was playing for the third time in three days after completing a suspended three-set win on Friday. Djokovic had 16 more unforced errors than Kohlschreiber, to finish with 38 total.
Finally to Federer. The racquet master conducted a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 shellacking on Paul-Henri Mathieu to deal the Frenchman a stretched-out loss. Roger faced a few nervous moments but navigated past Mathieu in the second by racing out to a 3-0 lead. The local favorite, Mathieu, pounced on some opportunities to take advantage of Federer. The disciplined Swiss did not afford his opponent those chances when it mattered most, however. Roger next plays the 16th seeded Haas in a great men’s quarter-final match-up. (Update: Roger won in a five set thriller over Tommy) Soderling meets Nikolay Davydenko and will be a slight underdog. Federer was in the same draw as Djokovic and the two were destined to be semifinals opponents before Novak was walloped over the weekend. If they meet, it will be really interesting to see if Soderling can beat Federer. Roger has all the pressure on him now and the situation at the French got a lot more fascinating with Soderling’s upset of Nadal. Typically, I would say Roger is unbeatable, but he just has not proven anything on clay yet. His superior skills are enough to win the title in Paris. But he is destructible and especially vulnerable this year. Whatever the outcome, Nadal’s exit has injected new life into the tournament. The French Open is unfurled for anyone’s taking.

Parting points: Florida State upended Ohio State 37-6 in the NCAA baseball regional tournament. At least it wasn’t in football, and at least FSU was the number one seed.