The weather turned out better than expected today, and fans are being treated to a full day of tennis. Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Blake etc etc were all in action today, but I staked our Court No. 1 early in the day to get a seat for the Gael Monfils/ Olivier Rochus match, which wasnt scheduled until 3rd match on. I took my seat at the beginning of the continuation of the Milagros Seguera/ Virgine Razzano match, which was put on hold yesterday with Razzano up one set to love. I was hoping for a quick finish, I didn’t get it. Seguera ended up winning 9-7 in the 3rd, about two hours later. It wasn’t the best quality of tennis, as it seemed neither player wanted to win, making tons of errors at crucial moments, but it was at least exciting.

It was certainly worth it, as I was four rows from the court when Monfils and Rochus started came out on the court. As they approached the net for the coin toss, the first thing I thought of was Rocky IV, as the stark contrast in size was bewildering. Rochus was of course playing the part of Rocky, and Monfils Ivan Drago. Besides being two of the most exciting players to watch on tour, these two facing off in Paris is even more intriguing. Monfils is of course from Paris, and the crowd is typically 100% for him. However, Rochus is a French Belgian, and has always been a fan favorite at Roland Garros. Needless to say, I was excited for all aspects of the match.

The match did not disappoint. Neither played their best, but the points were scintillating. The play was somewhat streaky, but Monfils came out in the end- 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Rochus simply ran out of steam in the fifth, despite the crowd urging him on. Throughout the match, the crowd seemed to support whichever player was behind, as they simply couldn’t fully commit to root for or against one player. Both players made many more errors than winners, but that had as much to do with their style of play than anything. Both are so fast, its nearly impossible to get the ball by them with a winner, so eventually the point would end in an error. It’s a shame to to see Rochus exit so early, but I was happy for Monfils who has had a tough go of it the last couple of months.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow, in the meantime here are updated results from the other matches.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Grand Slam General Questions, Roland Garros: Travel Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.