French Open Day 7: Tracking the progress of seeded players (Men's singles)

All the major results in the men’s section from Saturday at Roland Garros.

Fallen Seeds

#8 Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia)

No.8 seed Tipsarevic was outgunned by a rampant Mikhail Youzhny, the No.29 seed from Russia. Tipsarevic had just had a marathon 5-set win against Fernando Verdasco on Friday and, with barely a day to recover, was ripe for the picking as Youzhny played some brilliant attacking tennis to book his place in the 4th round with a 6-4 6-4 6-3 win over his higher-ranked opponent. Youzhny made 42 winners in the game to Tipsarevic’s 22 while keeping the unforced errors to 29. The Russian will play Tommy Haas in Round 4.

The one who pro’seed’ed

Round 3

#1 Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

The challenge from Grigor Dimitrov was ruthlessly crushed by the World No.1 as he dished out a hammering to the Bulgarian 6-2 6-2 6-3. Djokovic came to play, and there was no doubt about it from the first point of the game. He played at a really high level and Dimitrov was simply blown away by the scale of the Serb’s game. Novak fashioned 16 break point opportunities on the Dimitrov serve, and every service game was a struggle for the 22-year-old. Djokovic was relentless from start to finish; opponents beware.

#3 Rafael Nadal (Spain)

Nadal made it past Italian 27th seed Fabio Fognini in straight sets 7-6 6-4 6-4. The Spaniard, though, yet again had some uncommon wobbles, something which has plagued him all week. He didn’t lose a set, but was down two breaks in the first set and managed to retrieve that and win the set in a tie-break. He got better as the match wore on, but definitely one of his most unconvincing first weeks at the clay court major. He next meets 13th seed Kei Nishikori of Japan.

#7 Richard Gasquet(France)

The 7th seed was impressive in his three-set win over Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-4 6-3 6-3. He broke the Russian’s serve five times during the contest. His win sets up a tantalising clash in Round 4 with Stan Wawrinka – a clash that will see the battle of the two best single-handed backhands in the business.

#9 Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland)

Wawrinka completed a four-set win over the dangerous Jerzy Janowicz 6-3 6-7(2) 6-3 6-3. Stan quickly wrapped up the first set in 24 minutes with a single break of serve. However, the no. 21 seed from Poland responded in the 2nd set, upping his game that saw him take set 2 in the tie-breaker. Sets 3 and 4 remained close, but Wawrinka showed his class in the big moments to grab the crucial breaks of serve. Janowicz served 10 double faults which did not help his cause. He was a -9 (37-46) on winners – unforced errors, while Wawrinka was a +19 (48-29).

#12 Tommy Haas (Germany)

35-year-old Haas staved off the challenge of American John Isner in a marathon five-setter. With Isner, you almost expect the match to go the distance. Haas was patient and bided his time in the first two sets, looking for the crucial break of serve while holding his own. He took a two-sets-to-love lead before the American mounted his comeback. Isner won the third 6-4 to set up what was to be a dramatic 4th set. Serving at 5-6 to stay in the match, Isner saved 9 match points to deny the German and pushed the set into a tie-break which he won 12-10, saving another 3 match points in the process. One of them was on Haas’ own serve, where he double-faulted.

A visibly frustrated Haas was beside himself at having squandered the opportunity, and Isner took advantage of it by taking an early 4-2 lead in the decider with an early break in the third game of the set. Haas, though, broke back in the seventh game to pull it to 3-4 after which the set went on serve until the 18th game. Isner was playing his second consecutive five-setter after having outlasted fellow American Ryan Harrison just the previous day, coming from two sets down on that occasion as well. That soon began to have its effect as Isner started cramping in the right thigh area which hampered his mobility on court.

He still managed to serve well as he kept dropping the hammer with his powerful first serves. That was until the 17th game where Haas finally managed to break the Isner serve for the third time in the match; Haas converted only 3 out of 23 break point chances that he fashioned. The German came off the break to serve for the match and didn’t falter this time to seal a 7-5 7-6(4) 4-6 6-7(10) 10-8 victory in four-and-a-half hours of play.

#13 Kei Nishikori (Japan)

A very entertaining match for two-and-a-half sets, after which local lad Benoit Paire faded quickly. The Frenchman, with the vocal home support behind him, whipped up quite a frenzy in the first two sets with some exceptional shot-making as they split the two sets. But Paire, the No.24 seed, seemed to wither away as the match went on and the Japanese, who was rock-solid throughout, kept motoring to finish it in four – 6-3 6-7(3) 6-4 6-1.

#16 Philip Kohlschreiber (Germany)

Another German booked his place in the Round of 16 at the French Open when 16th seed Kohlschreiber brushed past Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-0 7-6 6-1. The winners were flowing from the German’s racquet as he broke his opponent’s serve 6 times in the match. His next task is to find a way to try and stop the marauding world no. 1 – Novak Djokovic.

TRIVIA

Novak Djokovic, with victory over Grigor Dimitrov, notched up the 500th match win of his career. He is the sixth active player to do so, joining Roger Federer (899), Rafael Nadal (622), Lleyton Hewitt (574), Tommy Haas (524) and David Ferrer (522).

Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese men’s player to reach the 4th round of the French Open in 75 years after Fumiteru Nakano in 1938, Nakano went on to lose in the 4th round.

Tommy Haas became the oldest man to reach the 4th round of the French Open since 2007.

John Isner saved 12 match points in his 3rd round encounter with Tommy Haas, a new record, eclipsing the previous best of 11 match points saved by Adriano Panatta when he beat Kim Warwick in Rome in 1976. In the 2000 French Open final, Magnus Norman saved 10 match points before losing to Gustavo Kuerten on the 11th.