French Open: Reputations counted for little at the French Open today when seeds Amelie Mauresmo, James Blake and David Nalbandian were toppled by opponents ranked outside the world's top 75.
Women's sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze also joined the exodus but
triple champion Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Venus Williams and
Jelena Jankovic survived the carnage and dodged the rain, which
once again returned to Roland Garros, to march on.
Mauresmo's slender hopes of winning her home grand slam were
left in tatters by a 19-year-old upstart ranked 132 in the world.
Before arriving in Paris, Carla Suarez Navarro had never
played at a grand slam. That did not stop the Spanish qualifier
from embarrassing the 22nd seed Mauresmo with a 6-3 6-4
second-round victory.
Seventh seed Blake, one of five American men to reach the
second round, had been hoping to join compatriot Wayne Odesnik in
the last 32 but was bounced out by an opponent who hails from a
family of basketball players.
Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis, ranked 80th in the world,
ensured Blake's nightmare in Paris continued with a 7-6 3-6 7-5 6-3
humbling on Court One. The American has never passed the third
round in six attempts.
Unlike Mauresmo and Blake, sixth seed Nalbandian had enjoyed
a good track record at the claycourt major after reaching the
semi-finals in 2004 and 2006, but he surrendered a two-set lead to
go down 3-6 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-2 to French wildcard Jeremy Chardy.
For a woman who had never before experienced the imposing
surroundings of the Philippe Chatrier Court, Suarez Navarro
remained undaunted and turned into public enemy number one as she
handed Mauresmo her earliest defeat at her home grand slam for
seven years after 72 minutes of one-sided action.
The Frenchwoman, who made 40 unforced errors, bowed out by
shovelling a backhand long on match point.
Former champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was among the
Spaniard's entourage which applauded her moment of triumph as a
crestfallen Mauresmo was left to digest her 14th flop in Paris.
"Frankly, I don't know what to say right now, because there
was nothing much on my side," said a demoralised Mauresmo, who has
never progressed beyond the last eight here.
"All I can say is that I feel sorry about the way I played."
Nalbandian would also be kicking himself after allowing a
winning situation to slip through his fingers.
He would have fancied his chances against the 145th-ranked
Chardy as the Frenchman had spent all year crisscrossing the globe
to far flung second tier Challenger events without playing a single
match on the main tour before this week.
After punching out a string of winners, Chardy pulled off the
biggest victory of his career when Nalbandian scooped a backhand
into the net after three hours of see-saw action.
As Nalbandian tried to work out what to do with the free time
that had unexpectedly come his way, Blake was simply disgusted by
his performance.
"I lost to a guy ranked 80th in the world. Granted, he didn't
play like 80th in the world, he played better than that. But there
are a lot of guys out there that can dictate play against me if I
try to play like that," Blake fumed.
Gulbis had won back-to-back matches just twice this year
before arriving in Paris, but chalked up his first win over a top
10 player this season.
Russia's Chakvetadze became the highest seeded casualty in
the women's draw, falling 6-4 7-6 to Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
Albert Montanes had the audacity to take the first set off
Federer but it did not take the world number one long to pull rank.
Firing winners at ease, he put the Spanish minion firmly in his
place with a 6-7 6-1 6-0 6-4 exhibition.
Things are likely to get a little more tricky in the next round
as Federer will face Mario Ancic, who was the last man to beat the
Swiss master on grass way back in 2002. After being given the
runaround by the rain for three days, Nadal wasted little time
in stifling French qualifier Nicolas Devilder 6-4 6-0 6-1.
The second seed's first-round match had been scheduled for
Monday, started on Tuesday and finally finished on Wednesday.
Today, it took him less than two hours to book his round
three berth against fellow left-hander Jarkko Nieminen.
Williams was a 6-2 6-4 winner over Tunisian qualifier Selima
Sfar while Jankovic overcame a wrist injury scare to see off New
Zealand's Marina Erakovic 6-2 7-6.
The Safin clan endured mixed fortunes on day five. While
Dinara Safina dropped just one game in a rout over Slovakia's
Magdalena Rybarikova, her brother lumbered out.
The eagerly anticipated all-Russian showdown between fourth
seed Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin failed to live up to
expectation, with Davydenko sprinting to a 7-6 6-2 6-2 triumph.
French Open Results, Roland Garros, Paris, France
Men's Singles 2nd rd: (1) Roger Federer (Swi) bt
Albert Montanes (Spa) 6-7
(5-7) 6-1 6-0 6-4, Mario Ancic (Cro) bt David Marrero (Spa)
4-6 6-0 6-3 6-2,
Robin Soderling (Swe) leads Paul Capdeville (Chi) 6-3 6-2
0-0, (9) Stanislas
Wawrinka (Swi) bt Marin Cilic (Cro) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1,
(24) Fernando
Gonzalez (Chi) bt Pablo Andujar (Spa) 7-5 6-0 6-7 (4-7) 7-6
(7-3), (27) Igor
Andreev (Rus) is tied with Robby Ginepri (USA) 6-4 2-6 5-5,
Florent Serra (Fra)
leads Victor Hanescu (Rom) 6-4 1-0, (4) Nikolay Davydenko
(Rus) bt Marat Safin
(Rus) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-2, (28) Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) bt Diego
Junqueira (Arg) 6-3
6-4 6-2, Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Marcos Daniel (Bra) 4-6 6-3
2-6 6-3 6-4, Gael
Monfils (Fra) leads (14) Luis Horna (Per) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 3-3,
(12) Tommy Robredo
(Spa) is tied with Marc Gicquel (Fra) 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 3-3, (21)
Radek Stepanek
(Cze) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 6-1 6-0 6-7 (7-9) 6-3, (25) Lleyton
Hewitt (Aus) leads
Mardy Fish (USA) 6-4 6-3 1-0, (5) David Ferrer (Spa) bt
Fabrice Santoro (Fra)
6-0 6-1 6-0, Ernest Gulbis (Lat) bt (7) James Blake (USA) 7-6
(7-2) 3-6 7-5 6-3,
Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) bt Bobby Reynolds (USA) 7-5 6-4 5-7
7-5, Jeremy Chardy
(Fra) bt (6) David Nalbandian (Arg) 3-6 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-2, (30)
Dmitry Tursunov
(Rus) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 6-0, (15)
Mikhail Youzhny
(Rus) bt Maximo Gonzalez (Arg) 6-3 6-2 6-2, (22) Fernando
Verdasco (Spa) bt Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) 7-5 4-6 6-3 7-5, (26)
Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Martin
Vassalo Arguello (Arg) 7-5 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7-2), (2) Rafael
Nadal (Spa) bt Nicolas
Devilder (Fra) 6-4 6-0 6-1
Men's Doubles 1st rd: (1) Bob Bryan (USA) &
Michael Bryan (USA) bt Rohan
Bopanna (Ind) & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureschi (Pak) 6-1 6-4, John
Isner (USA) & Samuel Querrey (USA) bt Potito Starace (Ita)
& Filippo Volandri (Ita) 6-3 7-5, (9)
Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) & Leander Paes (Ind) bt Sanchai
Ratiwatana (Tha) & Sonchat
Ratiwatana (Tha) 6-2 6-4, Jose Acasuso (Arg) & Sebastian
Prieto (Arg) bt Tomas
Behrend (Ger) & Tomas Cibulec (Cze) 6-2 6-1, (3) Jonathan
Erlich (Isr) & Andy
Ram (Isr) leads Eric Prodon (Fra) & Laurent Recouderc
(Fra) 5-3, (11) Mariusz
Fyrstenberg (Pol) & Marcin Matkowski (Pol) bt Jaroslav
Levinsky (Cze) & David
Skoch (Cze) 6-4 7-6 (7-3), Michael Mertinak (Svk) &
Jean-Claude Scherrer (Swi)
bt Travis Parrott (USA) & Filip Polasek (Svk) 3-6 6-3
6-4, (8) Jonas Bjorkman
(Sweden) & Kevin Ullyett (Zim) bt Eric Butorac (USA)
& Ashley Fisher (Aus) 7-6
(10-8) 1-6 7-6 (7-2), Janko Tipsarevic (Ser) & Viktor
Troicki (Ser) bt Lukasz
Kubot (Pol) & Lovro Zovko (Cro) 6-1 2-6 6-3, Stephen Huss
(Aus) & Ross Hutchins
(Gbr) bt (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Mark Knowles (Bah)
6-4 6-4, Rik De Voest
(Rsa) & Robin Haase (Ned) bt (12) Max Mirnyi (Blr) &
Jamie Murray (Gbr) 3-6 6-3
7-5, (14) Marcelo Melo (Bra) & Andre Sa (Bra) bt Simone
Bolelli (Ita) & Andreas
Seppi (Ita) 4-6 6-3 6-2, (2) Daniel Nestor (Can) & Nenad
Zimonjic (Ser) bt
Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) & Gilles Simon (Fra) 6-3
6-3
Women's Singles 2nd rd: (32) Karin Knapp (Ita) bt
Olivia Sanchez (Fra) 6-2 7-6
(7-4), (21) Maria Kirilenko (Rus) is tied with Jie Zheng
(Chn) 6-4 3-6, (13)
Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) 6-0 6-1,
Aleksandra Wozniak
(Can) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 1-6 6-1 6-3, Olga
Govortsova (Blr) bt (31) Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) 6-0 7-5, (7) Elena
Dementieva (Rus) bt Marta Domachowska (Pol) 6-1 6-4, (4) Svetlana
Kuznetsova (Rus) is tied with Vania King (USA) 2-2, (18) Francesca
Schiavone (Ita) bt Sanda Mamic (Cro) 6-3 6-0, (16) Victoria
Azarenka (Blr) bt Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea (Rom) 6-0 6-0, (12) Agnes
Szavay (Hun) bt Sabine Lisicki (Ger) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, Petra Kvitova
(Cze) bt Samantha Stosur (Aus) 6-2 6-1, (29) Anabel Medina
Garrigues (Spa) is tied with Tsvetana Pironkova (Bul)
4-6 6-3 1-0, Kaia Kanepi (Est) leads (6) Anna Chakvetadze
(Rus) 6-4 4-5, (8)
Venus Williams (USA) bt Selima Sfar (Tun) 6-2 6-4, (26)
Flavia Pennetta (Ita) bt
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 3-6 6-1 6-1, Carla
Suarez-Navarro (Spa) bt (22)
Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) 6-3 6-4, Casey Dellacqua (Aus) bt
Nathalie Dechy (Fra) 6-4 6-2, (19) Alize Cornet (Fra) bt Gisela
Dulko (Arg) 6-0 4-6 6-4, (28) Dominika
Cibulkova (Svk) bt Milagros Sequera (Ven) 6-3 6-0, (3) Jelena
Jankovic (Ser) bt
Marina Erakovic (Nzl) 6-2 7-6 (7-5), (27) Katarina Srebotnik
(Slo) bt Ekaterina
Makarova (Rus) 6-0 7-5, Iveta Benesova (Cze) bt Shuai Peng
(Chn) 6-4 6-3, Petra
Cetkovska (Cze) bt Galina Voskoboeva (Rus) 7-5 6-3
Women's Doubles 1st rd: (1) Cara Black (Zim) &
Liezel Huber (USA) bt Klaudia
Jans (Pol) & Mervana Jugic-Salkic (Bsh) 6-3 6-4, Sophie
Lefevre (Fra) & Aurelie
Vedy (Fra) bt Darya Kustova (Blr) & Klara Zakopalova
(Cze) 6-1 6-4, (15) Mariya
Koryttseva (Ukr) & Vladimira Uhlirova (Cze) leads Raluca
Olaru (Rom) & Arantxa
Parra Santonja (Spa) 3-1, Julie Coin (Fra) & Violette
Huck (Fra) bt Amandine
Hesse (Fra) & Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) 6-1 6-3, Emilie
Loit (Fra) & Pauline
Parmentier (Fra) bt Marina Erakovic (Nzl) & Michaella
Krajicek (Ned) 6-4 7-6
(7-3), (11) Shuai Peng (Chn) & Tian Tian Sun (Chn) leads
Tathiana Garbin (Ita) &
Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-2 3-1, Timea Bacsinszky (Swi) &
Alize Cornet (Fra) bt
Gabriela Navratilova (Cze) & Tamira Paszek (Aut) 6-4 2-0
ret