French Open First Four Rounds Review

The French Open is into the quarter-final stages. Let’s look at what happened in the first four rounds.

Seeds washed up on the dirt

Grand slams always feature a slew of upsets in the early rounds, and the French Open 2014 was no different.  After a slow first Sunday, the upsets kicked off. In the men’s, some of the favorites were knocked out such as Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, and Grigor Dimitrov.

All three struggled with going into one of their slams as regarded favorites. Wawrinka, in particular, had the added pressure of going in as the Australian Open champion. As for Nishikori and Dimitrov, both men will have to try better to deal with their next-big-thing status as the game looks to them to replace the current ‘big four.’

But it was in the women’s game where the shocks really were seismic. Serena Williams, Li Na, Agnieszka Radwanska all went down before round four. It was the first time in history all three of the top women’s seeds went out so early in a Major.

Williams was as ineffective as she has ever been in her career. Li Na has thrown in similar subpar performances but her Australian Open win had people hoping for better. Radwanska? No one was really talking about her winning and she had been suffering with an injury since Indian Wells.

Perhaps the saddest upset was that of Federer. Ernests Gulbis is a dangerous player and has beaten Federer before in 2010 on clay so the upset was not such a huge shock, especially  considering Ernests is 25 and Federer 32. More of a shock was the manner of the defeat. Federer had set points in the second to take a two sets to love lead but could not close it out. Had he taken the second, considering the see-saw form of his opponent, Federer would most likely have made it through to his tenth consecutive French Open quarter-final.

New faces

Garbine Muguruza, Serena’s conqueror, made it through to the last eight. Perhaps she is feeling inspired by Serena who told her she could go on to win the whole thing. Maria Sharapova awaits to test out whether or not Serena was right.

Milos Raonic is through to his first Grand slam last eight, and at Roland Garros, of all places, too. More than just a serve, Raonic will face Djokovic in what will be the match of his career so far.

Old Faces back in the mix.

What is so interesting about the last eight of the men and women’s draw is the number of faces who made a comeback after some time away. Petkovic made three slam quarters, including the French, in 2011, before injuries sidelined her. Kuznetsova won the title in 2009, made the semis in ’08, and the final in ’06. She also made the last eight last year where she took a set off Serena.

And in the men, Gulbis broke through at the 2008 French only to then win two more matches at the event this year. Up against Berdych in the last eight, Gulbis has the chance to make his first slam semi.