End of the first week
Finally, an American male has won a singles match. Kellen Damico, 10th seed in the Boys Juniors won his first round match today 6-3, 6-3 against Roy Bruggeling of the Netherlands. Keep your eyes and ears on Damico, who is scheduled to attend University of Texas this fall. Of course, Sam Querrey was supposed to be a Freshman this past year, but after such a successful 2006 summer, he turned pro and is now ranked 67th in the world. I’m just saying.
In the major leagues, everyone that is reading this should agree with me that I was dead on regarding how good James Blake’s draw was. That being said, it’s too bad he couldn’t take advantage. Instead, the wiley veteran Jonas Bjorkman has made it through to the round of 16 and will take on Carlos Moya tomorrow. For those that took me literally a couple of days ago, I was also wrong about Juan Monaco, who lost badly today to fellow Argentine Guillermo Canas in the round of 16. Canas will take on the winner of the epic battle I am watching from the comfort of my apartment between Davydenko and Nalbandian. Currently they are in a 4th set tiebreaker, with Davydenko up 2 sets to 1. We are just about to reach the 200 minute mark. I’ll keep you updated. In other Men’s action, both Federer and Robredo advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will face each other, defeating Youzhny and Volandri, respectively.
On the Women’s side, the quarterfinals are set, with the following matchups – Henin/Williams, Jankovic/Vaidosova, Ivanovic/Kuznetsova, and Sharapova/Chakvetadze. It should be noted that 7 of the top 8 seeds are in the quarters (Mauresmo being the only one not to advance, but Chakavetadze has taken her place and is the 9th seed). This is great for Roland Garros because it will provide very exciting, dramatic matches for the rest of the tournament, but it also speaks negatively about the depth of women’s tennis. FYI- Davydenko just won in the 4th set breaker, unbelievable match. He will face Canas in the quarters, which could be another marathon.
Personally, I had a great day hitting with the clients at Stade Jean Bouin this morning, followed by heading to Roland Garros to watch Kellen Damico’s match and some Men’s Doubles, Bjorkman and Miryni are very good. In fact, I bet my coworker 1 euro that Bjorkman would win the singles and doubles titles. He didn’t take the bet, I guess he didn’t like the 50,000 to 1 odds I wanted. After that, I headed over to Luxemburg Gardens where I relaxed a bit, listening to music and reading. For anyone in Paris or visiting soon, Luxemburg Gardens is a lovely park with tennis courts, playgrounds, fountains, and many picnic areas that is quite a popular spot for both Parisians and tourists on such a lovely weekend day. Will be heading back out to the tennis tomorrow, as the other side of the Men’s quarters will be decided, and the lone American male (boy) to win a singles match will be competing again.
One last note, congrats to long time Grand Slam Tennis Tours traveler Mia Fabrizio, who won a distinguished award this month.