Saturday, May 28, 2011

French Open 3rd round play completed in Paris today

It was a "quieter" day today at the French Open, in that all but one of the higher-seeded won their matches, and won them without any high drama. If fact, only one seeded play, Andrea Petkovic (who declared she would no longer dance upon victory,  but instead, changed from doing the Petko boogie to moon-walking), needed three sets to win. 15th seed Petkovic defeated 24th seed Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The one upset was of 16th seed Kaia Kenepi, who was defeated by Ekaterina Makarova.

Arantxa Rus, who took Kim Clijsters out of the Open, won only two games against Maria Kirilenko, who is seeded 25th. 

Despite talk that the Russian players no longer dominate, there are six of them in the round of 16. At least one will fall in that round, however, because 3rd seed Vera Zvonareva will play 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. That match will take place tomorrow on Court Philippe Chatrier. 11th seed Marion Bartoli, the last Frenchwoman standing, will also play on Philippe Chatrier tomorrow. Her opponent will be Gisela Dulko, who upset Sam Stosur in the third round.

10th seed Jelena Jankovic will play defending champion (and 5th seed) Francesca Schaivone on Court Suzanne Lenglen, and--at least on paper--that match has the potential to be quite exciting (and if you're like me, you can't stand the thought of either of these players losing). Finally, also on Suzanne Lenglen, 28th seed Daniela Hantukova will compete against 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kuznetsova, of course, is the 2009 French Open champion, and Hantuchova is the player who upset Caroline Wozniacki.

It's worth noting that the top doubles seeds also advanced today: Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta defeated 15th seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-2.

No comments: