Friday, May 28, 2010

Tennis' Big Day

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in awhile, tennis gives us a gem of the day, most often when nature demands it. Today was no different.
The good news is that the schedule is mostly back on track – there are only two third round matches of those originally-scheduled to day to be played tomorrow, and neither should take too long to finish. Mikhail Youzhny is up a break in the fourth set of his match against Viktor Troicki, and Aravane Rezai and Nadia Petrova are at 7-7 in the third set of their match. Both players can probably look forward to a restless night of sleep, after they blew match points, break points and leads left, right and center throughout the match. And the winner gets a very well-rested Venus Williams in the Round of 16. It should make for interesting action.
The match I thought might be interesting that ended up being one of the biggest blowouts of the day was Tomas Berdych's win over John Isner. Isner lived up to his seed – a good performance on that front, but he's still got plenty of work to do if he's going to turn into one of the big guns on clay.
Part of me says he's broken my heart before, but Berdych is looking like a fair bet to reach the semis. He's well-rested, he's playing well, and all of the remaining players on his schedule have much more tennis than he does under their belts. If he can keep his head – no sure thing, I'll admit – watch out.
I thought the men had some of the more interesting matches today, but most of tomorrow's look pretty straightforward. Ljubicic vs. Bellucci may be the most interesting one. Hewitt vs. Nadal also stands out, if for nothing more than name value.
The women have much more going for them tomorrow. Shahar Peer vs. Marion Bartoli should be interesting. Peer lost the first set, but then came back and dominated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 in their second round. Bartoli struggled against compatriot Olivia Sanchez, but she will have the home-court crowd behind her. Also keep an eye on Jankovic vs. Bondarenko, a chance for Jankovic to get revenge for her upset loss in Australia, and Hantuchova vs. Wickmayer. Both could be good matches.
By far, the biggest match of the day will be Maria Sharapova vs. Justine Henin, in the first highly-anticipated match in the top quarter. Sharapova is now on a seven-match winning streak on clay and Henin is Henin. Neither has looked brilliant in their first two matches. I picked Henin at the start of the tournament, and I'm going to stick with her in this one.
(Mostly) Fearless prediction, based on what I've seen so far: Henin's streak of sets won in Paris will end this year. Fearful prediction: Her streak of matches at Roland Garros will not.

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