PARIS, MAY 28 – Even though he might not want to hear it, Roger Federer pulled an Andy Murray when he came back from a 1-5 deficit in the third to defeat Jose Acasuso 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in the second round. Federer looked mentally checked out, even sick for the first portion of the third set, but then Acasuso began to come back down to earth and Federer began to dictate with his forehand and found more pop on his backhand side. Federer drove the same route that Murray took, who was also down 1-5 in the third against Potito Starace.
“I was not afraid to die, so everything was okay. It was sort of a fun match to be part of with so many ups and downs. I could have won the first three sets. Could have lost them also. (So) I’m thrilled to be through,” Federer said.
Juan Martin del Potro wasted Viktor Troicki 6-3, 7-5, 6-0, Nikolay Davydenko took a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 win over Diego Junqueira, while Gael Monfils looked healthy in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over Victor Crivoi and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga thrilled the crowd by out-gutting Juan Monaco 7-5, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(8). Some other male non-American winners were Paul-Henri Mathieu, Tommy Haas, Igor Andreev and Tommy Robredo.
Pity Jelena Dokic, who had retire with a back injury against Elena Dementieva up 6-2, 3-4. She was no lock to win the match, but felt in control. No. 5 Jelena Jankovic beat Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1, 6-2, Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame Galina Voskoboeva 6-0, 6-2, and Caroline Wozniacki bested Jill Craybas 6-1, 6-4. Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino took out Alexa Glatch, 7-6(0), 7-5, but Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak smacked Petra Martic 6-3, 6-3.
Jankovic feels her on court level coming back, and off her off court sense of humor and love the anecdote has returned too. She discussed she and Novak Djokovic’s lunch with Serbian President Boris Tadic when he made a visit to RG on Wednesday.
“He gave us some tips. Did you know if you eat fruit after the meal you get fat? If you eat it late in the afternoon or in the evening, it turns into fat. It’s tough to digest. It turns into sugar. Maybe it’s right; maybe it’s not. That was the first time I have heard something like that. So Novak said he’s going to eat more and more fruit. He’s trying to gain weight. He has that kind of problem. I’ve been eating a lot of chocolate, as well, and I kind of lost weight. I tend to lose weight when I’m playing a lot of matches, when I’m competing, because of that pressure and the nerves. I think you burn much more calories when you play a match an hour and a half than when you practice for three or four hours because of all those nerves you have playing.”
Some other notable winners were Agnieszka Radwanska, Samantha Stosur, Kateryna Bondarenko and Virginie Razzano, the last Frenchwoman standing. Sorana Cirstea scored a huge win over Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-2 and recalled hitting with Steffi Graf a few months back in Las Vegas. Graf was her hero growing up, so Cirstea could barely keep in a ball in the court. That wasn’t the case on Thursday when it was Cornet who was clearly nervous. She’ll face Wozniacki, whom she calls her best friend on tour.
From TennisReporters.net
