TENNIS: FRENCH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE SECOND seed, Kim Clijsters, left the French Open to the accompaniment of cutting wind and head-shaking patrons on Court Philippe Chatrier yesterday, a shocked three-set loser to 114th-ranked Arantxa Rus in the second round of the 110th French Open.
This was the biggest upset of the tournament so far, one of the biggest of the year. The Dutch player looked nearly as surprised as the Belgian was distraught and won nine of the last 10 games to take the match 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Rus deserved her win after hauling herself back from the edge of defeat in the second set. Clijsters, twice a runner-up here, was a set and 5-2 up and blew match point; remarkably she had another chance to close it out but collapsed again.
Her steady game went to pieces in the third set and she seemed unusually stiff, her right ankle heavily strapped. Ground strokes went to all parts, not all of them the result of the gusts that whipped through the chilled court on a grey day, and she hit an astonishing 65 unforced errors and double-faulted 10 times.
Her injury clearly restricted her movement, no consolation at all for a crushing experience.
In the immediate aftermath of Clijsters’s shock exit, Andy Murray struggled to lift the gloom on Court Philippe Chatrier in reaching the third round of the men’s singles with a grinding 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over the rank outsider Simone Bolelli.
Murray won ugly, relieved rather than elated, but his demeanour in trying conditions was impressive. It was almost impossible to look good as the red dust swirled in the wind and grey skies held the sun at bay. For once, though, there was more shoulder-shrugging on the other side of the net, as Murray rubbed the grit from his eyes and searched for the grit in his soul.
Bolelli, deceptively languid with unfussy body mechanics, was an awkward and determined opponent but there was nothing in his game that should have surprised Murray, who beat him the two times they had met.
It would have been criminal for Murray to lose to the Italian, here as a lucky loser, albeit one with a bit of recent form.
A literal and metaphorical chill hung over the place. Clijsters had not long departed, devastated by her loss and gusting winds bit at the players’ ankles, messing up their groundstrokes and confidence.
Neither player started well. Bolelli broke Murray twice, and Murray managed three of his own in a ragged first set that rarely rose above mediocre.
There were break points against Murray on each of his service games of the first 25 minutes, as he hit three double-faults and looked not so much out of sorts as out of ideas. It took him a while to read the uneven rhythm of the match. Ten aces to two for the match probably told the difference.
When Bolelli broke the world number four in the third game, heads swivelled in seats not exactly rammed to capacity: surely we were not about to witness two major upsets here in a row?
Four ordinary errors by an opponent who has beaten only one top-10 player in 25 attempts (Giles Simon two years ago) handed parity back to Murray and he began rebuilding the set.
Then Murray immediately returned the favour to a player who had only ever won twice in a row on clay seven times in 34 matches.
Murray had break point at 3-4, but, standing way deep and wary of Bolelli’s top spin, netted a simple forehand. He found the net again with his trusty backhand and the moment had gone as Murray hit long.
He had two set points at 6-5 but was pushed behind the line again, as Bolelli fought back hard for deuce, then hung on.
Not until the microcosm of the tie-break did Murray impose himself. Bolelli won a single point on his own serve and Murray closed it out with a commanding backhand drive.
The second set followed the pattern. Murray broke easily then double-faulted to give up three break points at 2-1, Bolelli taking his chance with a delightful cross-court clip. Murray broke again and tightened up his game to serve out at 6-4.
Not much separated them in the third until Bolelli had three break points and held his nerve to go 5-3 up; the mood in the Murray camp dipped. On cue, however, he broke back. It was mesmerisingly predictable.
Murray definitely did not want a fourth set in these conditions against this opponent. Bolelli obliged when he netted a forehand and dropped serve again, but Murray had to fight to serve out at 7-5. The end, via a two-fisted backhand, was blessed relief.
GuardianService
