Sunday, June 1, 2014

Spaniards continue dominant run at Roland Garros

Both Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro advanced to the quarterfinals of the French Open today. Muguruza took out wild card Pauline Parmentier, the last Frenchwoman standing, in straight sets (6-4, 6-2). Parmentier fought as hard as she could againt the rising Spanish star, but to no avail.

Suarez Navarro, seeded 14th, had to deal with yet another of the tournament's upstarts, Ajla Tomljanovic. She defeated Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3.

No one had an easier time of it than Genie Bouchard, who needed just 51 minutes to roll 8th seed Angelique Kerber into a German pancake. Bouchard was simply relentless, hitting 30 winners and making only eleven unforced errors. She was successful nine of nine times at the net, and she should be, shall we say. pretty rested for her quarterfinal meeting with Suarez Navarro.

And then there was 'Pova. She lost the first set (double-faulting on the final point) to an aggressive and on-target Sam Stosur. Then, with the Russian serving at 3-4, 30-all in the second set, something happened. Actually, two things happened: Stosur began her not quite inevitable but not unusual decline, and Sharapova turned on whatever switch it is that she turns on when it looks like she's close to losing to someone she's accustomed to dominating. The 2012 champion won nine straight games, and really, Stosur might just as well have been in the stands for most of it.

Sharapova went a bit crazy out there. At 5-0, she was yelling and shaking her fist like someone performing in Le Theatre National de Bartoli. What can you say, except this is Maria at her fighting best, and this is Stosur at her--well, you know.

The two top doubles seeds--Hsieh and Peng, and Errani and Vinci--both advanced today.

Kerber and Stosur weren't the only entities to collapse today. The Roland Garros app for the iPhone and iPad died--I don't know whether the Android app went out with it. I woke up early this morning and found that my phone app wouldn't open, but it was hours before my iPad app stopped functioning. According to a report on Roland Garros Radio, officials are "working on it."

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