Roland Garros - Day 9

First topic message reminder :

Thought I would start this early and allow some discussion to take place:

Andy Murray v Richard Gasquet. Interestingly enough Gasquet in their 3 meetings in Slams has never defeated Andy. Though Richard won their recent meeting in Rome.

Rafael Nadal v Juan Monaco. Juan has his work cut out. Never taken a set off Nadal on clay in 3 meetings. Needs a career best performance if he is to compete.

Janko Tipsarevic v Nicolas Almagro. Never met. This shall prove to be the most intriguing match of the day. Almagro being the better clay player should start as favourite.

David Ferrer v Marcel Granollers. The one meeting on Clay was a straight sets win for Ferrer. Have a feeling this might be tighter affair.

Tsonga/Wawrinka and Berdych/Del Potro shall continue where they left off.

I would put the womens up but the WTA website is being crap!

Predictions anyone?

The question remains are they going to be able to finish the men´s matches or abandon them because of failing light again.... what nonsense

Nice win for Yaroslava Shedova over last year's women's champion. It is a shame that Li Na got bagelled in the final set...

Haddie-nuff wrote:The question remains are they going to be able to finish the men´s matches or abandon them because of failing light again.... what nonsense

Why don't they just start earlier, its not rocket science. Its getting on my nerves now and Murray and Gasquet, if it goes 5 sets which I think is a real high possiblity it may do, they will struggle to finish the match tonight, in fact, it will almost be impossible.

Djockovic-Tsonga tomorrow, that will be a good match.

If the match starts by 16.30 (UK time) and is not halted by rain I would expect it to get finished as there will be around four hours daylight left.

OH MY GOD JUST GET THIS MATCH OVER WITH PLEASE!

Thank god

olly the tractor boy wrote:OH MY GOD JUST GET THIS MATCH OVER WITH PLEASE!

Well it is over now, and rather tamely, might I add. That Zakopalova double fault on match point was rather anti-climactic.

That Rafa forehand looks imperious.

rubbish from Murray, can't keep the ball in court, Gasquet leads 5-1 without doing anything.

yet another forehand error from Murray, 3 SPs to Gasquet. Just what Murray didn't need, the crowd getting right behind their man. Murray needs to start remembering he's a decent tennis player, sharpish

Gasquet wins the first set with one of his classic backhands.

That backhand is so beautiful to watch.

I just saw the replay of Murray's entry to Phillippe Chatrier.

The crowd being its charming self I see.

Gasquet appears to be at ease with the conditions and the expectation, Murray is really out of sorts at the moment.
But obviously it's a best of 5 so very early days yet, I expect Murray to find his rhythm soon.
(Though I'd like to say on the predictor thread before the tourny began, I did vouch for Gasquet to defeat Murray at this stage. I hope its a good competitive match but also that my gift of foresight proves correct again...)

Come on Andy, make a french onion soup out of him.

Monaco is playing really well.. but he's still getting hammered

kemet wrote:Gasquet wins the first set with one of his classic backhands.

That backhand is so beautiful to watch.

The sort of thing that causes me to watch tennis. Glorious.

Nice to see Murray exhibiting the Djokovic-esque 'well played' with the nod of the head in acknowledgment of outstanding shot making from his opponent. I like to see that good sportsmanship. Sometimes you've got to just hold your hands up & accept you're not a fault for losing a point

God, Murray is doing some running here.

Please God, find me a webcast channel! Or any of you lot would do just fine. I can´t miss seeing the Gasquet art. Pleeeeeeeease.

I thought Nadal and Monaco were meant to be good friends? What anob Nadal is for double bageling.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:I thought Nadal and Monaco were meant to be good friends? What anob Nadal is for double bageling.

Rafa Nadal has transformed into the Clay Court Beast and is ruthlessly devouring his prey.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:I thought Nadal and Monaco were meant to be good friends? What anob Nadal is for double bageling.

Monaco makes a habit of getting completely mauled by top players in Slams. Wasn't it About 80 minutes to be off court against Fed in the auSO?

I'm in Canada right now and they're saying Murray is acting up the 'injury'. They note he only feels it after losing a point.

I wanted Gasq to win, but the French crowd is so xenophobic I'd like to see Andy comeback and pummel this. Theres the set!

Gasquet backhand to win the first set, double-fault to lose the second, although the Murray backhand to get to set point was very impressive.

This acting from Murray is disgraceful. Funny how the back only troubles him on points he loses. He's better than this. Evenly posed but I'm not liking this gamesmanship (after I praised his sporting conduct earlier as well...)

kemet wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote:I thought Nadal and Monaco were meant to be good friends? What anob Nadal is for double bageling.

Rafa Nadal has transformed into the Clay Court Beast and is ruthlessly devouring his prey.

A bit like Luka Rocco Magnotta then. Nasty individual

Monaco has no business beyond the 2nd round of a slam IMO, a futures level player would have got more games against Nadal than Juan

Nadal seems to play his quickest match play on the clay. He has just dispatched Monaco in 1 hr 46 minutes: 6-2 6-0 6-0

In that last game where Murray broke Gasquet to take the second set, Gasquet showed his displeasure at Murray rubbing his back everytime he lost a point ...

Rafa just apologized to Renee Stubbs (Tennis Channel journalist) for his demolition of his friend, Juan Monaco. He almost looked morose.

EDIT: Just to clarify, there is a hint of irony in this post.

What's he supposed to do, step off the gas and let Monaco win?
This is a guy who is 13 in the world, he can look after himself and wouldn't expect anything less than professionalism from Nadal.

Monaco maintains his clay average of winning 1.4 games per set vs Nadal.

La Pauvre Gasquet 1-6 6-4 6-0 6-0

Gasquet falling apart, who would have thought it.

Should apologize to the crowd aswell they expect a 3 hour snoozathon not a 1 hour 40 r@pethon.

Immense stuff from Nadal and demonstrates why I see no one stopping him at Roland Garros.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

kemet wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote:I thought Nadal and Monaco were meant to be good friends? What anob Nadal is for double bageling.

Rafa Nadal has transformed into the Clay Court Beast and is ruthlessly devouring his prey.

A bit like Luka Rocco Magnotta then. Nasty individual

The only person capable of vanquishing this beast is the Nadalator, one Novak Djokovic. The Scintillating Swiss tried in vain to turn on the style on this grinder's surface for years in vain.

It will be with mixed feelings that I will be viewing the potential duel between the Swiss and the Ascendant Serb.

No Lydian, we expect Monaco to get beat by Isner the previous round, thus allowing Isner to dispatch of the búttscratcher in 4.

Ferrer has a chance to vanquish Nadal out imo. He is on a frantic mission to save tennis from this ugly, grunting, spectacle.

don't get how gasquet always falls apart, thought it might be different in front of a home crowd

Such a shame.

Gasguay the better talent, Murray the better one at gamesmanship, mind games, desire to win at all costs and conditioning. Knows all the tricks to put an opponent off and will go to them at any sign of trouble.

And it will unfortunately prevail.

Gasquet looks to have physically gone after barely more than an hour and a half of tennis. I've missed the last hour or so, has he picked up an injury? Or is it just poor conditioning?

Meanwhile, the Fragile Frenchman appears to capitulating rather meekly.

Murray was being outplayed so resorted to his trump card of out psyching the weak, by resorting to childish antics, holding his back whenever he lost a point.

He knows it will work against a mental midget like Gasguay, and it did. So many players with a better game than Murray, but the lack the shameless desperate mindset he's got.

The funniest part is Murray totally overplays drop shot and you can telegraph it every time yet gasquet is so slow. Nadal or djokovic would run those down all day and put them away.

Well this match has turned around.

Gasquet in a long list of bottlers. Such a shame. The guy is hugely talented and constantly wastes it.

Can't say I was impressed with Andy towards the back end of that 2nd set. No need for that.

slashermcguirk wrote:The funniest part is Murray totally overplays drop shot and you can telegraph it every time yet gasquet is so slow. Nadal or djokovic would run those down all day and put them away.

Gasquet isn't used to coming in. He's usually so far behind the baseline you would mistake him for a linesman.

consigliare wrote:Murray was being outplayed so resorted to his trump card of out psyching the weak, by resorting to childish antics, holding his back whenever he lost a point.

He knows it will work against a mental midget like Gasguay, and it did. So many players with a better game than Murray, but the lack the shameless desperate mindset he's got.

It was done the once. Don't overplay it eh

Not his fault neither that the guy opposite him hasn't balls to step up!

Murray serenely moves into a 2-1 lead. keep it going Andy!

Yes Gasquet is falling apart but lets not ignore some of the tennis Andy is playing.