French Open (Day Four) - May 25- June 8 Season I
Roland Garros - Men's Singles
Day Four - Second Round - Paris
Seeds
Draw - Section One
Draw - Section Two
Draw - Section Three
Draw - Section Four
Draw - Section Five
Draw - Section Six
Draw - Section Seven
Draw - Section Eight
In the upset of the tournament so far,
Darcy Cowan was the biggest name casualty on day four of the French Open after a second round exit to CWLand's
Jojo Mustard. In a truly surprising result, Mustard produced his best tennis on clay this season as he romped to a straight sets win over the fifth seeded American. Mustard played some brilliant tennis in his tournament opener against Belgian
Yves Parmentier, and continued that form early against the teenage American sensation with some quality strokes. Despite both players looking ahead towards the upcoming grass court season to win some titles, neither looked out of place on centre court at Roland Garros. In a very competitive opening two sets, the 24-year old Mustard snared a two-sets-to-love lead following a marathon second set tiebreaker. In a four-hour slog, Mustard got the better of the younger and more athletic opponent to pull off a surprise victory - advancing to the third round with a
7-5, 7-6(11), 6-3 boilover.
It could have been an all-CWLand clash in the third round had 25th seed
Jamee Hancianu prevailed in his second round contest against Hungary's
János Varga. But in his second straight five-set tussle, the teenage 25th seed Hancianu wasn't quite as lucky as he was against
Adam Murray as a see-sawing contest went the way of the world number 48. Despite having already played a doubles contest with his brother earlier that morning, Varga came out looking fresh - likely as a result of the fourth seeds' elementary victory. But after claiming the first set 6-3, Hancianu came storming back into the contest as he claimed the second set 6-1 in just under half an hour. The match continued in the same vein as the Hungarian resurgence started with a brilliant third set, before Hancianu clawed his way back to level terms to send the match to a decider. But with both men tiring - for very different reasons - it was the world number 48 which snared a third round clash with Mustard following a most impressive
6-3, 1-6, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 victory.
Eighth seed
Sven Oxenstierna continued his impressive run of form as he raced to a straight sets win against American teenager
Anothy Ficher. Oxenstierna, who seems to be hitting form at just the right time after an underwhelming clay season thus far, had little trouble against the qualifier as he took little under two hours to seal a
6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win. The Ox faces his toughest opponent thus far in the third round after 36-year old
Jean-Alain Depuis continued his dream run at his home Grand Slam. After snaring a massive win against 27th seed
Morgan Carter, the fairytale of Depuis continued with a five-set victory over Morocco's
Ross Onwye.
In the same section, 24th seed
Randy Smeltz produced a second straight victory against difficult opposition as he defeated world number 79
Yordan Zakov in straight sets. The typically dogged Bulgarian looked completely outclassed by the CWLand number three; Smeltz backing up his four-set win against
Becker Haas with another clinical display against Zakov. The German-born Smeltz was only really troubled in the second set by Zakov - but he again showed that he's got the ability to fight out of sticky situations by claiming it in a tiebreaker. Smeltz's star is quickly rising, and will rise even further if he can upset ninth seed
Illya Altman in the third round. Altman was rarely troubled by veteran Russian in his
6-3, 6-1, 6-4 win; the Ukrainian looking a lot better than he did in his first round match.
Finally,
Brett Read met a surprising end to his tournament as he bowed out in straight sets to Norwegian monster
Kim Vollan. After watching his brother
Tom crash out in the first round, Vollan wasn't keen to go down without a fight as he rampaged against the 23rd seed. The topsy-turvy season of Read continued as he was broken early against the big-serving Norwegian; a mistake you can't afford to do against a man with such power. After dropping the first set because of the dropped service, Read suffered again in the second after a very shaky group of second serves handed Vollan an unassailable 4-0 lead. Whilst Read played better tennis in the third set, he was unable to make inroads on the Vollan service; the clay court doing little to stem the rapid serves as Vollan completed a surprising
6-4, 6-2, 7-6(8) win.
Another man who was given little hope of advancing far in the tournament, fourth seed
Radek Špidla, continued to prove his critics wrong with a comfortable straight sets win. Drawn against Brazil's
Roberto Santos, Špidla produced perhaps his best single set on clay in the opener to bagel the world number 61. Santos, a noted returner, had little answers for the rampant Czech ace who fired down twenty-four aces. Santos had a chance for redemption in the third set as he brought up two set points - only for Špidla to power his way to 5-5. Whilst he showed signs of slowing down late, he still had too much for the Brazilian has he secured a
6-0, 6-4, 7-5 win.
The highlight of the third round with be a showdown between world number one
Jason Hall and 31st seed
Patrick Pascaul after the pair picked up four-set wins. Top seed Hall had one momentary lapse of concentration in his match against
Sergio Joaquin; but the third set bungle did little to pertube the American who picked up a
6-4, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 win. Meanwhile, local hope Pascaul also dropped the third set against world number 92
Boris Denisov before sealing victory. In what will be Hall's biggest test to date, Pascaul will have a packed crowd behind him on centre court in what is set to be an awesome contest.
- Seeded players out: Darcy Cowan; Jamee Hancianu; Brett Read.
Roland Garros - Men's Doubles
Day Four - Second Round - Paris
Seeds
Draw - Section One
Draw - Section Two
Draw - Section Three
Draw - Section Four
Sixth seeds
Heath Davis and
Jojo Mustard have silenced their critics with a comprehensive first round thrashing of Russian
Valery Belousov and Ukrainian
Mykhaylo Martynenko. Fresh off a confidence-boosting victory over fifth seed
Darcy Cowan in the singles draw earlier in the day, Mustard seemed to inspire his partner as the pairing sealed an elementary straight sets victory. Belousov-Martynenko were rated the 56th best team in the draw, and their performance reflected that assertion as the CWLand pair routed them in just seventy minutes. Despite an inconsistent performance at the World Team Cup last week, the sixth seeds came through unscathed
6-3, 6-0. Their opponents in the second round will be Brazilian pair
Marzio Claverini and
Flávio Augusto Martins who also picked up a straight sets win against Ukraine's
Roman Dorogan and CWLand's
Spas Delev. The loss for Delev-Dorogan completes a poor week for the pairing who both suffered early exits in the singles draw as well. With the Brazilians ahead 3-2 in the first set, they managed to get the all-important early break of service to shoot to a 4-2 (and then 5-2) lead. The second set went in the same fashion as the team ranked 39 broke service early to edge ahead en route to a
6-3, 7-5 win.
There will, however, be at least one CWLander in the third round of the draw as makeshift pair
Jefferson Drake and
Martti Korpinen proved too strong for British pair
Liam Bailey and
Matthew Charnock. Admittedly the CWLanders suffered from a lack of cohesion between them, but they eventually had enough about them to see off the English pair. Bailey and Charnock blew the only break point in the first set and paid for it dearly as the favourites went ahead in a tiebreaker. However, a late break in the second set to the underdogs ensured the match would to a decider following a tremendous volley from Charnock at the net. But the confidence of Drake, and the fantastic net game of Korpinen was enough to get the CWLand side over the line
7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2 to set up a second round clash with eleventh seeds
Ninteh Doh and
Rob Bowenburg.
After a sensational week of tennis in Düsseldorf,
Morgan Carter has suffered a terrible blow to his confidence as he and
Wayne Boyd fell in a three-set boilover. After winning a combined total of seven out of eight matches (three of which won whilst paired with Boyd), Carter backed up his first round exit in the singles draw with an unlikely first round exit in the doubles. The fourth seeds took a tight first set against Indian brothers
Ashim and
Seby Kumar, before handing the underdogs a free pass back into the match after failing to capitalise on some four match points in the second set. The blow to the American pair's confidence was shattering as the Kumars got on a massive run to pick up an upset
5-7, 7-6(6), 6-1 win. The Indian pair now face Britain's
Oscar Highsmith and Ireland's
James O'Raherty in the second round.
- Seeded players out: Wayne Boyd / Morgan Carter.
Alessandria Chalenger
Round of 16 - Alessandria
Draw
Eighth seed
Jarko Maxum has advanced to the quarterinals of the Alessandria Challenger after picking up a straight sets victory over Kiwi
Sam Cunningham. The CWLand teenager again started slowly, but after getting warmed up he managed to come from a break down to take the first set. His impressive tennis continued as he worked the New Zealander over to claim a convincing
7-5, 6-4 win. His toughest test will come next as fourth seed
Denis Isaev (who came from a set down to defeat Monaco's
Jochem van der Linden) awaits in the quarters.
Scotland Rivers, however, met his end in the second round to top seed destroyer
Mario Timko. After upsetting world number 111
Fok Zhenyu in his first round match, Timko came into the contest with bundles of confidence as he shot out to a 3-0 lead. But Rivers managed to fight back to level terms and to go into the tiebreaker with the momentum; mometum which quickly disappeared as he fell 0-3 behind. Timko had it all his own way from there as he defeated a defiant Rivers
7-6(1), 6-3 to advance to a quarterfinal against seventh seed
Gocha Berianidze.
- Seeded players out: Felipe Pelayo.