Well, it wasn't boring today, was it?

Guillermo Canas d. Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-7(5), 8-6

Finishing off a third round match that was suspended yesterday due to darkness, Guillermo Canas managed to avoid blowing a two set lead and pulled out a tight one. 

"Today I started a very different match. First I wasn't playing at the same level as what I'd been playing during the previous matches.  He started playing well. I wasn't moving very well.  I was feeling very tense and things started getting complicated.   Sometimes you need a little bit of luck in that sort of match to win," said Canas.

Nicolas Kiefer d. Igor Andreev 6-4, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-4

In another third round match that had to be completed today, Nicolas Kiefer took out Igor Andreev.  He'll face Guillermo Canas next.

Roger Federer d. Carlos Moya 6-1, 6-4, 6-3

I'm not sure if Moya could have given Federer much more of a match with a healthy shoulder, but he certainly had no chance with one arm. 

Federer had nothing but kind words for Moya after the match.  "(It was) not all that fantastic because he's injured. And with the problem in the shoulder, he has let me play on my service.  I felt that he had no faith in his own tennis.  I was even surprised that he finished the match, which proves that he's a real champion. He could have stopped before," said Federer. 

Victor Hanescu d. David Nalbandian 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2

I know David Nalbandian has had a variety of injuries that have kept him getting any kind of rhythm this year, but I still wouldn't have bet on 24-year-old Romanian Victor Hanescu reaching his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal today.  He's only ranked #90 in the world and he isn't even having a good year (7-10). 

I didn't see this one so I don't know if the result was more because of poor play by Nalbandian or great play by Hanescu, but Nalbandian gave all the credit to Hanescu.  "He played very well. I felt I couldn't really do very much.  He played better," said Nalbandian. 

Rafael Nadal leads Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 3-6, 3-0

Remember what I said about feeling badly for the French crowd because all the French women lost yesterday?  Well, cancel that.  This was so inappropriate.  The AP has a report on the controversial incident, but basically early in the second set Nadal hit a ball that looked out, but Grosjean continued to play the point and didn't stop play to ask the umpire to check the mark as the rule requires.  He lost the point and then wanted the umpire to check the mark. 

Well, of course the umpire can't check the mark then - you didn't follow the rule.  And it's not like it's an obscure rule; everyone knows it and Grosjean does too.  Then the chair umpire totally botched things - he refused to check the mark (good for him), but didn't explain anything to the crowd and let the crowd go on jeering for 10 minutes without threatening any point penalties.  Tournament officials had to come out on the court before Grosjean would ask the crowd to be quiet and allow play to begin again. 

Grosjean, whose game I love to watch and I've never had a bad thing to say about him in my life, was bush league on this one.  He's the one who messed up by not stopping play and he egged the crowd on and wouldn't even ask the crowd to quiet down when Nadal asked him to. 

The French crowd is very knowledgeable about tennis and I'm willing to bet 90% of them knew the rule but were willing to hijack the match anyway.  And it's not like they had any reason to have anything against Nadal.  I hope Nadal crushes Grosjean when they resume the match on Monday.  And I hope Amelie Mauresmo never wins the French Open! (and I like her) 

I did get a kick out of Mary Carillo describing the reaction of Rafael and his uncle and coach, Toni Nadal.  As she told the story once things calmed down at the beginning of the third set Rafael turned to his corner and winked at his uncle, who returned the wink.  Carillo then looked at Uncle Toni and he winked at her too.  So I think they've got things under control. 

Comments

I agree with everything you wrote. Does it seem to you like professional tennis has an image problem all around? Is the ITF keeping up with the times, or do you think they've got some real catching up to do if they're going to lure more tennis fans to get interested?

I saw the conclusion of the nadal grosjean match. it was a good one. i was hoping that nadal would lose. nadal the second day of the match had better conditions. unlike the day before whrer it started to rain and the ball got havier and nadal couldn't produce his heavy topspin shot as good.

Well, professional tennis is the many-headed monster. No single entity is in charge so who even knows what they're going for from one week to the next? So yes, they do have some real catching up to do if they want to lure more fans. But let me count the ways...that's such a long post I think it'll have to wait until after the French Open.

Yeah, Nick, I saw it too and you're right - the weather conditions were much better for Nadal today. Normally I wouldn't mind Grosjean working the upset, but not after his antics yesterday. But Nadal is so much tougher than him mentally it's silly. Grosjean was already down a break when they started today and needed a fast start. But it was Nadal who started faster - he always does. And Grosjean did a good job of staying on serve in the fourth for a while and then just cracked at the end, blowing easy shots and handing the match to Nadal. Nadal wasn't flustered at all to be in a close set or down 15-30 on his serve or whatever.