Day 7 and Still Behind

You really have to wonder what Roland Garros organizers are thinking this year. The questionable decisions started early, when two of their own players, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, requested later starts and were denied. Gasquet lost his first round match to Andy Murray, and Tsonga nearly did, to Daniel Brands of Germany. Later a couple of matches - Gael Monfils vs. Fabio Fognini and Nadia Petrova vs. Aravane Rezai - were not suspended when they should have been. Now, organizers put THE match of the third round, Maria Sharapova vs. Justine Henin on court last, which was bad enough before Petrova vs. Rezai was suspended. Now, those two have to come back tomorrow to play one set and then play a rested Samantha Stosur Monday. The winner of that match will have played five days in a row - at a Grand Slam, in the toughest quarter of the women's draw. Between this match and Serena Williams' illness, Stosur's odds of getting to the quarters and maybe even further are suddenly looking much better.
Meanwhile, the third quarter of the men's draw, one of the most wide-open quarters, suddenly got much less wide-open Saturday. David Ferrer losing was a stunner; Andy Roddick, a little less so. Roddick should be kicking himself. I know he hasn't had any matches on clay this year, but to lose in straight sets to a qualifier and then to watch the toughest player in his section go out? The tennis gods were kind to him, and he didn't take advantage.
That quarter should now belong to Novak Djokovic. The third seed now gets to play Robby Ginepri, one of the luckiest men in the draw, for the right to play the winner of Melzer/Gabashvili to get to the semis. Ginepri shouldn't have been anywhere near the main draw, but a massive number of withdrawals on the men's side got him in automatically, and Saturday, he out-toughed Juan Carlos Ferrero. Good for him for taking advantage of his opportunity.
Meanwhile, in the bottom quarter, we've got Nadal vs. Bellucci and Almagro vs. Verdasco. I've liked Nadal the whole way, but I've been going back and forth on Almagro/Verdasco. Right now, I'm leaning slightly towards Almagro - he's looked good since a tough first round - but I don't think Verdasco's going to roll over easily.
Meanwhile, on the women's side, who knows what to expect? Serena was looking great until the second set of her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Now, if she is under the weather, is she going to recover in time to be able to beat Peer, who's been one of the better clay-court players this spring? Who's going to come through the Sharapova/Henin match now? Since going down 0-4 in the first, Sharapova looked pretty good, and once she survived those three break points at 3-3, she rolled through the rest of the second. Henin, on the other side, looked brilliant in the first four games, but after that, it seemed she lost focus in the conditions. Was it really a good idea for Sharapova to want to stop when the momentum so clearly on her side? Well, if nothing else, she should go to bed tonight thinking she has a real chance tomorrow.
The way the upsets have fallen, Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki suddenly have to love their odds of being around late next week. For Venus Williams, the real tournament starts now - she's got former semifinalist Nadia Petrova up next for the right to play former finalist Elena Dementieva in the quarters - probably. Dementieva's had a nice draw, but she's been inconsistent, and her opponent, Chanelle Scheepers, has won six matches on the clay. Still, it's hard to imagine Dementieva not coming through there.
I'll be back with more tomorrow.