Taiwan’s remaining competitors in the French Open were eliminated yesterday, first with Lu Yen-hsun and Japanese partner Go Soeda going down in straight sets in the second-round men’s doubles to hometown player Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. This was followed by the defeat soon after of Greater Taichung sisters Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching to Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in third-round women’s doubles play.
Early yesterday Taiwan time, the Spanish 11th seed duo of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja won their second-round women’s doubles match against Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Vera Dushevina of Russia 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Third seeds Llodra and Zimonjic were almost spot-on with their first serves, recording an 85 percent success rate, on their way to a 6-3, 6-3 win over unseeded Lu and Soeda in a match that lasted 1 hour, 3 minutes.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, the Chan sisters were unable to capitalize on break-point conversions as they also went down in straight sets to Makarova and Vesnina, the sixth seeds, 6-3, 6-4.
Of their eight break-point chances, they converted only four times, while the Russians notched 7-of-9 conversions.
In men’s singles play, Mikhail Youzhny was having such a bad day in the third round of the French Open that he felt the need to apologize, right on court during the match.
Photo: AFP
The 27th-seeded Russian scraped “SORRI” into the clay with his right foot in the middle of his 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 6 David Ferrer.
“There was a lot of people. That’s why I write: ‘Sorry.’ Because I can’t show them a nice game,” Youzhny said. “The way we played in the beginning, it was not really interesting for people.”
Youzhny is well known for a more painful on-court meltdown. In 2008 at the Sony Ericsson Open, Youzhny whacked himself in the head with his racket three times after losing a point. The antic left him with a thick stream of blood running from his hairline down his nose.
Against Ferrer, Youzhny won his first game early in the second set, making it 2-1. He held serve at love when Ferrer sent a forehand return into the net.
However, instead of heading straight for his chair for the changeover, he stopped just inside the service line and started writing out his message.
“People in the stands may not have noticed, but I think I had to do this,” Youzhny said.
Also yesterday, fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova advanced by beating Nina Bratchikova of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Also yesterday, unseeded Varvara Lepchenko of the US beat 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 in their third-round match.
The 63rd-ranked Lepchenko never had made it beyond the second round at any Grand Slam tournament. However, she came back to eliminate Schiavone, who was the runner-up at last year’s French Open.
Lepchenko joins Sloane Stephens, who won Friday, to give the US two unseeded women in the fourth round at a major tournament for the first time since Wimbledon in 2002.
On Friday, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic faced fired-up Frenchmen and partisan crowds at Roland Garros and took differing routes to negotiate safely past them into the fourth round of the Grand Slam.
Third seed and former champion Federer looked less than superhuman when he had to recover from a second-set loss to beat Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Philippe Chatrier Court.
Over on Suzanne Lenglen Court, as the sun was starting to set, top seed Djokovic had an entertaining, though one-sided, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over Nicolas Devilder, the lowest-ranked man left in the draw at 286th.
The women’s draw lost third seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
Radwanska looked uneasy in a 6-1, 6-2 loss to 2009 French champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
Federer’s survival made one fan particularly happy. Belgian David Goffin, who stuck posters of the Swiss 16-time Grand Slam champion on his bedroom wall when he was younger, will be next up across the court for the 2009 title winner.
Goffin became the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam since compatriot Dick Norman at Wimbledon in 1995 and also has the distinction, at 21, of being the youngest man left in play here.
“I’ve been watching Roger playing on telly for so many years,” said Goffin, who had to be treated for a bloody finger during his 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, 6-1 win over Pole Lukasz Kubot. “Roger has always been my favorite. He has perfect tennis, perfect technique and I like the man.”
Told about Goffin’s hero worship, Federer laughed and said: “I’m happy to hear it. It’s going to be an unusual match for me, knowing that now.”
The French fans played a great part in Friday’s big matches, encouraging Mahut to level against Federer with his first break point of the meeting.
“It is maybe because of my game that he wasn’t able to play better,” the 89th-ranked Mahut told a news conference. “I was able to force him to play bad in a way.”
Qualifier Devilder was also cheered wildly by the crowd, though in his case there were no breaks, just five occasions when he managed to hold his own serve.
The light was fading by the time the Serbian passed Devilder with a fierce forehand on the first of three match points to finish off the victory in 1 hour, 44 minutes.
“The last 15 minutes was very hard,” Djokovic said when asked about the dwindling light. “But it was very important for me to finish the match today. I wouldn’t like to come back tomorrow and play a few games.”
Devilder, 32, was happy despite the defeat, saying: “The crowd was behind me supporting me and I had to make the most out of it. It’s going to be a great memory.”
Djokovic, looking for a French Open win to complete his set of Grand Slam titles, will now play Italian 22nd seed Andreas Seppi, who beat number 14 Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Women’s world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka had little trouble beating Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 6-4, while Australian Samantha Stosur, the US Open champion and 2010 runner-up here, battered Russian Nadia Petrova into submission in a baseline battle to book a fourth-round match with US teenager Stephens.
While the French fans were sorry to lose Mahut and Devilder, fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lived to fight another day for them when he beat Italian showman Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
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