The French Open quarters were completed on a rain delayed day in Paris. The tennis review has a quick look at what went down when the raindrops were not falling.
The men’s game.
The semi-finals will see three of the ‘big four’, and the conqueror of the missing member of the quartet in Gulbis.
Nadal dropped the first set to Ferrer before racing through the next three sets. No one really expected Ferrer to repeat his Monte-Carlo success over five sets at Roland Garros. Nadal can afford to drop a set in a best of five as he can work his way into play and the kind of game that is necessary to beat Nadal on clay is nigh to impossible to sustain over five. By the time the match is into the fourth set, the challenger is dropping off, getting tired, while Nadal is into his groove and has energy to burn. Against Ferrer, over whom Nadal has a 17-2 head to head on clay, by the time Nadal had his game together, Ferrer’s game and how to overcome it was all too familiar as he rolled into the last eight.
Nadal will face Andy Murray in the semis. Murray’s presence is something of a surprise considering he has had a poor season and dropped in the rankings to eighth place. Murray was lucky to avoid Wawrinka in the last eight- Stan has thrashed him the last two times they played. Murray had to contend with Monfils instead, and it is hard to predict what will happen with the Frenchman, especially at Roland Garros where he can either make a deep run or disappoint. Back in the last eight, Monfils took Murray to five but dropped the fifth set to love as the skies darkened at 9:40pm. Murray is too much of an accomplished pro at handling such conditions- see his controversial win over Baghdatis at Wimbledon ’12 which ended promptly at 11pm as dictated by the AELTC-and was always going to triumph when matters came to the wire.
The other semi sees Djokovic versus Gulbis. Pundits are calling Djokovic’s win over Raonic a real exhibition. Djokovic’s pedigree at Roland Garros is not disputed and such a performance over an increasingly confident Raonic speaks volumes about how focused and ready he is to take the title.
Gulbis will be a contest for the Serb. The Latvian followed up his win over Federer with a win over Berdych, downing the 2009 semi-finalist in straights. But Gulbis has the game to blow anyone of court, and has beaten Berdych in straights at a slam before at Wimbledon ’12. Berdych is also not the sternest of tests. Like Gulbis, when Berdych is on, he can beat anyone, but he is prone to upsets and blowouts. Still, the most compelling thing about the match was to see if Gulbis could follow up his win over Federer, and he did it with conviction, which bodes well for the semis.
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