PARIS, MAY 25 – The seeds bore up fine on the men’s side, even No. 6 Andy Roddick, who beat Romain Jouan of France 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 on his personal graveyard court, Suzanne Lenglen. With Ivo Minar besting Oscar Hernandez, it should be a rough, yet nego
tiable sail for the American to the quarters, where he could face Roger Federer. His buck will more than likely stop there, but four wins at Roland Garros would mean a lot to the former No. 1, more than just a victory over an unknown French wild card on steamy day.
“There’s certainly no rougher court as far as my past record, probably negative memories,” he said. “Obviously I know there is more of a ceiling at this event for me probably than any other event, as far as what I’m going to have to do with my game and kind of the limits that it puts on my style sometimes. That being said, it is one of my goals, I’d like to make a second week here. I feel that’s a feasible goal and something that I’m surprised I haven’t done to this point in my career. I’m certainly realistic about this tournament, but at the same time, I feel like if you take this tournament out of the equation, my record on clay has actually been better than a lot of specialists. So I would like to progress further.
Rafa Nadal rarely found his form in a three-set win over Marcos Daniel, but was happy to get through during a spotty day off the ground. “I expected a tough match,” he said. “I did not start with my best tennis here in the past four years. But the important thing is to have a positive mentality and try to win. And I won. I won in three sets. That’s important.”
Roger Federer drop-shoted Alberto Martin to death. “I’m happy I got to learn how to use the drop shot over the years,” said Federer. “I used to not be a fan of the drop shot at all. I always thought it was a shot you only hit when you’re panicking from the baseline, when you’re scared maybe to take on the fight. Today I realized that actually you can use it to your advantage against like players like Martin. It just makes it a little bit more easy.”
There were no major upsets on the men’s side, but on the women’s side, Alexa Glatch upset the injured No. 14 seed Flavia Pennetta 6-1, 6-1. It was the U.S. Fed Cup heroine’s first main draw win on European red clay. Venus Williams survived Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three, Dominika Cibulkova won the popcorn match over Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 and but Slovenian qualifier Polona Hercog upset No. 23 Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
from TennisReporters.net
