”The French Open Tennis 2009 Schedule”
May 30, 2009
The French Open Tournament 2009 tournament results are listed below, with the major surprise so far coming from the women’s bracket. Agnes Szavay of Hungary, ranked 29th, knocked of number 3 seed Venus Williams in two sets. Szavay finished off Venus’s hope of a French Open title with a straight set victory, 6 – 0, 6 – 4.
On the men’s side, number one seed Rafal Nadal advanced with an easy straight sets victory of Lleyton Hewitt. Another featured matchup today has #3 Andy Murray trying to advance against Janko Tipsarevic.
They say not taking your opponent lightly is the best form of flattery. Stepping on the court and giving a 100% for the duration of an encounter, shows the man on the other side of the net that you deem him to be a good player, and only top form execution will be required in order to advance. Well, at least Aussie, Lleyton Hewitt had that going for him today, with top seed Rafael Nadal pasting the former number one, giving up only a hand full of games in a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 demolition.
It was almost comical really, if you think about it, that Rafa was getting bad press after his not-s0-Nadal-like win in the first round over Brazilian, Marcos Daniel. Just because a few sets were close, Rafa’s reign a top the French Open mountain was in jeopardy? Give me a break!
But that is another note worthy characteristic about the Spaniard, publicity, of any kind does not seem to disrupt his tunnel vision of goals — to get a little better each and everyday.To his credit, Rafa has done just that, his serve has improved (you better believe that ace on match point was in), his slice backhand is as reliable as the consistency of the courts at Roland Garros, and finally his desire to simply enjoy his surroundings, and not get caught up in streaks and titles he is chasing, is never in question. The guy just wants to play ball.
Nevertheless, an entertaining match on Chatrier between these two roadrunners, with Hewitt never giving up, and Rafa matching and surpassing the Aussie — being a stronger, quicker, and more spin oriented version of his opponent.
Hewitt did have a slight glimmer of hope during the opening stages of set two, with a break of serve, and his off the rise, flat hitting strokes giving Nadal a moment of concern. No need to worry with Rafa, as he has shown time and time again, his ability to break down each point, into every specific shot, and not get entwined by the moment, allows the Mallorcan to rebound and steam roll through the remainder of his matches.
Rafa’s numbers for his record setting (and counting), 31-victory at Roland Garros consisted of 76% of first serve points won, seven aces and seven breaks of serve. The one hour and fifty one minute battle, did see Hewitt with his fair share of winners, which were unfortunately outdone by (almost), double the amount of unforced errors at 18/35.
With the the grass court season near by, Hewitt can find solace in the fact that although he lost today, no one has been able to fill in the shoes he had today, any better throughout the five years and counting of the Spaniards claycourt dynasty. Lleyton will now look forward to Queens Club and his cherished grasscourt segment of the year.
Rafa on the other hand still has some work to do before he gets his grasscourt nubs on, to defend his Wimbledon glory — four more victims await him at the 2009 French Open.
Next up for Nadal will be either 14 seed, David Ferrer or 23rd seed, Robin Soderling. Before everyone gets ecstatic over a predictable all-Spanish sixteens match -up, let it be known that David is actually losing this third round match with the Swede, with Soderling up two sets to one and one-all in set four.
tags: french open tennis 2009, french open tennis 2009 tv schedule, french open tv coverage, french open tv schedule, the tennis channel
