After a bit of a sketchy start, Roger Federer soon found his form against Julien Benneteau, someone who has caused Federer problems in the past, winning in straight sets 6-3 6-4 7-5. Apparently Benneteau was struggling with a bit of an injury - in fact, Roger said afterward in an interview with Pam Shriver that he (Julien) wasn't playing the way he normally does and he almost expected him to retire from the match. In spite of that, it was still more of a challenge than his first two matches so far at Roland Garros, which were basically just cruise control. This was his 899th win, so a win on Sunday would put him in an elite group of 900 wins or more.
Interestingly enough it has been Rafael Nadal who has struggled more in his first two matches, losing a set so far in each one. It seems that some of the bigger hitting guys are getting the idea that if they just "go for it" against him they can trouble him a bit. But holding that level on clay in a best of five match is a different story. Apparently Rafa wasn't too happy that his match got pushed back to the next day after all the rain and he wasn't shy about letting the tournament organizers know that the reigning champion was a bit put out that his next round opponent got to finish his match the day before.
The third round match between Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov should be an interesting one. Dimitrov was able to pull off a win against him just a couple weeks ago. My sense is that Novak will be the mentally tougher of the two in this one, wanting so badly to have the chance at the career grand slam. Will certainly be one of the more interesting ones.
Finally I can't let pass the opportunity to post a couple pictures of the adorable Federer twins. The first one I just came across from a few weeks ago but they look so cute I had to share it. The second one is from their brief stay watching Daddy play his match against Benneteau. I love their white fur parkas in the cold Paris weather.
It was a busy tennis week this last week I realized as I was trying to find time to watch four different finals on Sunday. As I digested my disappointment that I wouldn't be watching Roger Federer in either the semifinal or final of Rotterdam I had to remind myself that I am a tennis fan, not just a Fedfan, and that I could still enjoy watching some good tennis even though I wasn't watching my favorite. So putting my disappointment aside I was able to appreciate the good matches that were still on the docket for the weekend.
In spite of this, though, I admit that none of the matches turned out the way I had hoped. Though I for the most part like Juan Martin Del Potro and would usually want him to win when he's not playing Roger, I couldn't help but feel the pain for Julien Benneteau for his previous losses in finals and really wanted to see him break through this time. Almost the whole match though it felt like he was just trying to keep up with the great play of Delpo and in the end there really was nothing he could do against someone playing this well. JMDP deserved this win, after a poor showing in last year's final, and poor Benneteau once again had to face another disappointment. Though not one of my favorites, and certainly a threat always now to Federer, I really hope he gets his breakthrough title at some point before he retires.
In the women's final, though I'm not always one to cheer for Serena, in this case after the emotion shown after regaining #1 I was really hoping she would be holding the trophy at the end to supplement her great accomplishment. She just didn't seem herself in this match, though, never seeming fully comfortable, and Victoria Azarenka wasn't about to be intimidated. I'm sure it felt so good to her to prove that she had been the valid #1 by beating her replacement. It will be interesting to see upcoming matches between the two.
I didn't see the full final between Nadal and Nalbandian, really only some of the second set, but my impression of what I saw was that Rafa still wasn't playing like his normal self, making quite a few errors, but when Nalbandian was in a great position with two breaks in the 2nd set he just folded and gave it away. I think it will be a test for Nadal in his next tournament where Ferrer will also be playing, so we'll see what his form is by the end of February for his next tournament. I'm sure he felt very happy to be holding another trophy, though, whether he played his best or not.
In the final match of the day I was really hoping to see Tommy Haas pull it off. I have liked Tommy for a long time, and I think it's a real inspiration to see him playing great tennis at the age of 34 after a long injury timeout. He really didn't even have a chance, however, with the way Milos Raonic was playing. I don't know what it is about the conditions in San Jose, but he wasn't giving an inch on his service games, and the return winners that he was hitting on Tommy's service games were incredible. I'm sure he wishes he could buy the tournament himself to keep it in San Jose where he has had so much success, winning it three times in a row. To be honest, though, what I was thinking at the end of the match was that I really hope he's not in Federer's draw for Indian Wells!
I guess I will cover the happier news first. It was an emotional day for Serena Williams as she regained the #1 ranking. Her match against Petra Kvitova was a topsy turvy sort with Petra looking the most on-form I have seen her in a long time. Serena seemed at a loss to know what to do at times, making more errors than we normally see from her. After losing the first set Williams came back to win the 2nd but was immediately broken again in the third. It was hard to figure out whether she was simply not feeling well from an obvious cold or if her emotions were just getting the best of her as at times she seemed close to tears after missing routine shots. Though she had said after her last match basically that regaining the number 1 ranking wasn't too important to her, it became obvious toward the end of the match that it truly was, and when she managed to fight her way back from the brink of loss to take the match 7-5 in the third, her emotions betrayed the fact that it actually meant the world to her. As she said, she has been through so much and to get back as the oldest ever female #1 at 31 years old is an incredible gift. It was even hard to hold back the emotion as an observer.
Another 31-year-old had a very different experience on the same day.
Suffering the 200th loss of his career, on the day that his opponent ironically earned his 200th win, Roger Federer obviously was having a bad day in the office. For those who watch him play often it was quickly apparent that his game wasn't working for him against a very inspired player in Julien Benneteau. I'm sure Benneteau was hoping to exact a bit of revenge after the loss suffered at Wimbledon after being up two sets to none. He probably figured this was his chance, especially when he saw that Roger wasn't on his game. I mean, double faulting four times isn't something we normally see. Every time I would start thinking he was starting to pull things together it would quickly go sideways again. It was a disappointing loss for those who have been waiting to see him play again, hoping for another tournament win. Instead we will see him lose quite a few ranking points. His fans got spoiled between the fall of 2011 and all of 2012, seeing him win many titles, and it's difficult to get back to the reality that he is 31 and isn't winning everything again now.
Apparently he is taking a trip to South Africa before the Dubai tournament to support his foundation, hoping to get to meet Nelson Mandela. Hopefully he will be able to find enough practice time to get his game together in the next week-and-a-half to perform better in Dubai and especially Indian Wells, being that he has 1,500 points to defend between those two tournaments.
