Continuing from yesterday’s post, here is the rest of the Quarterfinal preview at the 2009 French Open.
The Djokovic (4) Quadrant:
QUARTERFINAL WEDNESDAY – #5 Del Potro vs. #16 Robredo
The top half of this quadrant showed continued dominance by the one guy that I think is WAY too far under the radar right now–5th seed, Juan Martin Del Potro. After two easy matches in the first two rounds, Del Potro then discarded 25th-seeded Igor Andreev in straight sets to enter the Round of 16. Meanwhile, the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 9th-seed, after struggling through two rounds, also blasted his third round opponent, Christophe Rochus, in straight sets: 6-2 6-2 6-2.
That set up a nice Round of 16 match between Del Potro and Tsonga, where a lot of people believed Tsonga might roll, I thought the other way around. It turns out neither were correct, as the match did go 4 sets, but it was still a pretty convincing win for the Argentine, whom I believe to be the favorite to win this whole thing right now.
The bottom half of this quadrant looked like it was going to produce a nice Round of 16 match between the World’s #4 Novak Djokovic and the accomplished clay tactician, Tommy Robredo. Robredo held up his end of the bargain, though he struggled through splitting the first two sets, he recovered to smoke the young Maximo Gonzalez, 6-1 and 6-0 in the 3rd and 4th sets to advance to the Round of 16. However, Djokovic laid an egg against German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the Third Round. Not that Kohlschreiber doesn’t have the game to beat Djokovic, but he clearly doesn’t have the game to beat him in straight sets in a Grand Slam event. Djokovic looked distracted and distant. Kohlschreiber took advantage.
Kohlschreiber continued his excellent effort in this Grand Slam by really pushing Robredo in the Round of 16, but he just didn’t have enough at the end on a surface that greatly favored his opponent. Robredo eventually won in 4, moving on to the Quarterfinals for the fourth time here are Roland Garros (every odd year since 2003).
BSB’s PICK – Del Potro in 4. BSB’s current favorite to win the whole tournament, Juan Martin Del Potro should be able to handle Robredo. It is more likely to go 3 than 5, but we believe that Robredo can take a set from the red-hot Argentine.
The Federer (2) Quadrant:
QUARTERFINAL WEDNESDAY – #2 Federer vs. #11 Monfils
The top half of this bracket was a good story for two countries that have been starved for male tennis stars recently. The lone American to get out of the first round was 6th-seeded Andy Roddick, who swept through the first two rounds in 6 sets and got another straight set win in the Third Round against Marc Gicquel. France is going to other direction with its male tennis stars. They are up-and-coming, and 11th-seeded Gael Monfils might be the most exciting of a bunch that had three top-11 seeds in this draw. Monfils had no trouble in his first two rounds. He did drop a set in the Third Round match against 24th-seeded Jurgen Melzer, but looked pretty good in an unthreatening 4-set victory.
That all set up an American-French clash in the Round of 16. The most anticipated (at least by me) of the 8 matches in this round actually turned out to be a blowout. Monfils made short work of Roddick, in a straight set 1 hour, 51 minute domination. Monfils was just too mobile and flat-out too good for Roddick on this day and cruises into the Quarterfinals after a Semifinals performance last year.
The bottom half of this quadrant opened with the only Third Round match between two unseeded players, as Tommy Haas knocked off 22-year old French prodigy Jeremy Chardy in four tough sets. Then there was the bottom part of this quadrant–where all the eyes have turned since the Nadal loss. 2nd-seeded Roger Federer (only missing this tournament for the career grand slam and an argument for the greatest of all-time) had struggled a bit, but gotten through the first two rounds. His Third Round match was against veteran Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, playing in his 8th French Open. Federer, as has been more common recently, came out slow and dropped the first set before stepping it up and beating Mathieu in 4 to set up a date with Tommy Haas in the Round of 16.
Haas has been around the block, so to speak, so he was not intimidated by Federer, winning the opening set in a tiebreak and then the second set, 7-5. Federer, who watched the defeat of the one man who has stood in his way at this tournament yesterday, was now staring at a 2-set deficit, himself. He hit a big forehand down 3-4 and 30-40 to spark a rally to win a hard-fought third set, 6-4, before hitting the switch and steamrolling Haas, 6-0 (in 21 minutes) and 6-2 in the final two sets. A truly impressive performance by The Federer, but how much did it take out of him? Though it was a 5-set match on clay, it didn’t even reach the three-hour mark because of the two big servers and the quick holds, so he should be, at least a little rested when he takes on hometown hero, Gael Monfils in the Quarters.
BSB’s PICK – Federer in 5. If Nadal were still in this tournament, this might be different, but there has to be even more incentive for Roger now that he sees a clear path to a record-tying 14th Grand Slam and the completion of the career Slam, which only 5 players have ever done. He probably let up a little with Haas in those first two sets after watching Rafa go down, but he realized what was at stake and turned it on when he needed it. Oh, by the way, this is a pretty awesome rematch of an epic Semifinal from last year’s French Open, in which Federer was lucky to survive in 4 sets. John McEnroe actually believes that Monfils is the favorite in this match, but I am going to pick Federer. Experience and, dare I say it, destiny may be in play here for The Federer. Either way, it’s going to be great!
