RG Diary Monday May 30

 

Originally published on: 30/05/11 20:59

Time waits for no man, except maybe a few tennis players today at Roland Garros. The match that was delayed overnight due to bad light resumed second up on Court Suzanne Lenglen today and it was Frenchman Gael Monfils who made his way to the quarterfinals, taking the fourth match point to defeat David Ferrer 64 26 75 16 86. There was an almighty roar from the crowd when he finally did it. The overnight break seemed to favour him.

Let’s hope the same is true for Andy Murray who came back from a two set deficit against Serbia’s rejuvenated Viktor Troicki to level the match at two sets all when at 9.30pm play was suspended due to bad light. Rafael Nadal will meet Robin Soderling in the Quarter Finals and Juan Ignacio Chela has to wait overnight for the end of the Murray vs Troicki match to see who he will face.

But time was not kind to Fabio Fognini, who could not wait to announce that he will not take to court to play Novak Djokovic in their planned quarter final, suffering as he is from an injury to his leg, sustained in the marathon match yesterday against Albert Montanes. Time will not heal him.

The women were more prompt in their matches with all four of today’s singles matches reaching completion, Na Li defeated Petra Kvitova 26 61 63, Victoria Azarenka beat Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets 62 63 and seems to be the woman in form at the moment, along with Maria Sharapova who defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets albeit with a tie-break at the end of the first set, 76 (4) 75. Andrea Petkovic continues to turn heads and excite the Germans with her win over Maria Kirileno 62 26 64.

Today’s tennishead award for innovation at Roland Garros goes to Longines, long time sponsor of the French Open and their cute little court side clocks, well exactly, innovative, because they are not really clocks they look like watches without straps and we thinks that is neat. So, here we are signing off, a tout a l’heure, from Roland Garros on Day 9.

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