Maybe it’s because so much tennis is being played, maybe it’s because the stakes aren’t yet that high, but in the beginning of a major tournament the focus of attention isn’t always on the role that heart plays. But if you want to see heart on the court, heart that makes the difference, that is the critical component, stick around for the quarterfinals, the gateway to what matters most to players, a Grand Slam title.
It was well on display today on both Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen. Francesca Schiavone, the defending champion, found herself in a deep hole the same size as the one Maria Sharapova was in a few days ago in her match against newcomer Caroline Garcia. Nineteen year old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the last teenager in the draw, was having her way with the nearly thirty one year old veteran. The score? 6-1, 4-1. In the words of the late Yogi Berra, it’s getting late early.
How was Schiavone going to get herself out of this one? Well, Maria did it with steely determination, unwaivering self-belief and that worked for her, it usually does. Francesca is Italian, though. She’s all heart.
She came back to win the second set 7-5. The third set was a topsy turvy affair. Francesca took the lead 5-1 and served for it at 5-2, but couldn’t convert. She served for it again at 5-4, and couldn’t convert. Yikes. The wind was swirling, the temperatures were cool. Conditions were difficult.
Finally she broke her opponent to go up 6-5 and then she served for the match for the third time. She had two match points that went begging. Finally, Francesca created a third match point for herself with a drop shot executed from the baseline, to perfection. Gutsy. You could see her look up at her box, on their feet, and say “Forza!”
And so, finally again, on that match point, a microcosm of the whole match, Anastasia made a volley reply and Schiavone drove it past her for a winner down the line, taking the deciding set 7-5 as well.
Walking off the court, Francesca scooped a handful of the red clay and smeared it on her face.
Who wants it more? Who doesn’t get tight? Who doesn’t choke? Who has the most heart?
All of these questions were to be answered on Lenglen in the fifth set between Murray and Troicki, the resumption of their match from the day before that was suspended as darkness fell, two sets each. Murray came from two sets down to take sets three and four, and when they took the court this afternoon for the deciding set, he was working from behind all the way again.
Troicki went out to a 5-2 lead. He served for the match at 5-3 and was up 30-0, two points from the victory, and then the wheels fell off. He choked, he got tight, you could see it. He kept looking around and up to his box with a self-defeating smile, shoulder shrugs that seemed to say it was out of his control, it was someone else’s fault. That is not going to get it done. That is the opposite of heart, of digging deep.
Nineteen minutes later Murray had charged back all the way and was at 6-5, serving for the match himself. He went up 40-0, Troicki fought back and saved those three match points. But it was too little too late. Murray had a fourth match point on the Ad and as in the women’s match, he ended the last point, requiring some incredible gets from him that he made, with a glorious shot, in this case a backhand crosscourt passing shot for the winner. This is the fifth time in his career that Murray has come back from two sets to love to win a five setter.
Murray is into the quarterfinals (the match against Troicki was still round of 16) and he’ll play Juan Ignacio Chela, a match he is much the favorite to win.
While Djokovic was having another day off, due to Fognini’s withdrawal, Roger Federer and Gael Monfils took the court for their quarterfinal match. Roger won the first two sets and you had to wonder if it was already over or if Gael was going to put up more of a fight. To his credit he played a very competitive third set, 6-6, but Roger went out in front in the tiebreak and never looked back.
At 6-1 in the tiebreak, I found myself saying out loud “A handful of match points”, only to be echoed in exactly those words by Patrick McEnroe who was calling the match on ESPN. Hey, Patrick, wanna spend more time at home with the wife and kids? I’m available.
Federer has not dropped a set in the tournament. And this is his 28th consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal or better. Think about that. Seven years, all four tournaments, round and round we go from Paris to London to New York to Melbourne and start all over again, not to mention all the other stops on the tour. He has never retired from a match; he has been nearly totally injury free. It makes a case for staying relaxed in your body. He’s fluid, light on his feet. Even Rafa Nadal has said that he would play like Federer if he could, that it takes much more effort for him to play his game.
Roger will play Novak in the semifinals on Friday. It should be a fantastic, exciting match.
On both the men’s and women’s sides, history is being made in this year’s French. Never before in the Open era have the top three women’s seeds been gone before the second week. And never before have all five of the top men’s seeds advanced.
In a day of play that was marked by heart, the match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Marion Bartoli on Lenglen was no exception. Sveta won the French in 2009, I saw her win it against Dinara Safina (who?), someone you had to feel sorry for she went into such a meltdown. Kuzy, as she is known, is the first to admit she often gets nervous at the end of big matches, but that day Safina’s nerves took up all the air and space.
Today, Marion Bartoli was on her game. She’s such a quirky player, with the weird serve motion, and the constant jumping around and shadow cuts at the ball to get ready. She’s a little chunky too. But she hits the ball well off of both sides, two hands for forehand and backhand, and if you get it in her strike zone, she’s lethal. Today she was relentless and Sveta played well, but not quite well enough. Was it heart? Lord knows Marion wanted it. She’s French, the crowd was really behind her and she used it and worked it.
She served for it at 5-2 in the second, having won the first in a tiebreak. Unable to close the door, she got another chance at 5-4 and she took it.
At this level of tennis, you can’t fade, you can’t blame, you can’t hold back. Famously, Guga Kuerten, drew a heart on the clay on Chatrier, and then lay down inside it. That says it all.
guga laying in the heart he drew
(Via Kamakshi Tandon)
One last comment on today’s action. There was a unique moment in the Murray Troicki match early in their deciding set. A ball kid thought the point was over when Troicki, up at the net, hit an overhead, but Murray got it back and Troicki angled another overhead for a winner. But just as he was going for that shot, the ball kid was running out on the court at the net, just barely not colliding with him. It was disruption of play, unintended, and the umpire ruled that the point be replayed. Troicki was upset, understandably. The kid felt terrible, a young boy, maybe ten or twelve. Being a ball kid in France is a huge honor, thousands of kids apply from all over the country for the coveted positions. A point or two later when the same boy hesitated to retrieve the ball, Troicki messed with him in a way that was testy and unkind and to my mind, showed his true character, not a pretty picture. I just hope the head of the ball kids wasn’t too hard on him.
That’s it for today. This is really a fun, special French Open. Stay tuned for the remaining matches, there are bound to be some great moments.
See you tomorrow at Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.
