Drop Shot Much?

As mind-numbingly nerving as Roger Federer's second round match against experienced Jose Acasuso was, there was a refreshing intelligence of play that was exhibited by both players. Neither started with a particularly famous game plan but humility and the brinks of defeat worked wonders for the creative development of the latter stages of this match.

Acasuso came out blazing, proving that he can hang right in there with the Fed by forcing Roger's second service game to 8 deuces, though failing to convert 5 break point chances. To hold, Federer was forced to hit an amazing service out wide, setting up and beautifully disguised drop volley. However, the lost opportunities did not phase the Argentine, who went on to hold and then go up a break by coming to the net himself. As expected, though, the former world #1 immediately lifted his game as needed and broke back with an utterly gorgeous backhand down the line, hit at full stretch. The set was destined for a tiebreak and the first two points went to the returner. Then something odd happened. Acasuso, mildly possessed, flew off to a 6-3 lead. Roger threw in two aces to erase the set points on his racquet, forcing Jose to serve out the set. The two ended up in a long rally of 20 shots before Fed decided to take all the pace off a backhand, drawing a waywardly hit ball from Acasuso: 6-all. Federer went on to take it 10-8.

The second set wasn't nearly as exciting as after a trade of breaks, each held serve fairly comfortably until Acasuso was able to finagle a deuce game on Roger's service at 5-5. He went on to break and hold to take the second set 7-5. At the 2-hour mark, we began the best of three.

Federer was certainly at odds, unable to gather proper footing, stunningly missing routine forehands and simply panicking. Acasuso took the golden opportunity and ran up to a 4-love lead before Roger could get an grasp of the set. It was looking rather grim for Swiss fans, already imaging a fifth set or, at worst, an embarrassing first week loss for the heart-favourite. No worries though, as Federer quickly found his game: serving easy aces, drawing errors, charging the net and invoking his world-class talent as intimidation. He broke back and went on to steamroll the tiebreak 7-2.

The fourth set was what we would have expected from him during such an early round obstacle, though Federer did seem to use this as a practice session for a potential Nadal final. Roger repeatedly hit the forehand drop shot, the backhand slice drop shot, the half-volley drop shot, the return of serve drop shot... and all with great success. Surely a swift Rafa will connect with more than a big fellow like Acasuso, but Roger, having passed this one, will surely be up to the test.

Heavy, Heavy Hitting

Evidently the soft-touch, graceful game is on its way out of the Open we consider French. If you were lucky enough to catch any of yesterday's matches you must have noticed a theme that consisting of wailing the racquet hard enough to potentially decapitated an unprepared opponent with the oncoming yellow bullet. Oddly enough, this style of tennis was most entertaining on the red dirt.

Nadal, Murray, Hewitt, Safin, even the gentle Italian Starace were drawn into forceful play. Obviously the slow, heavy conditions of the day facilitated fewer errors (forced or unforced), longer rallies and stronger serves. Almost every shot struck yesterday could have been considered a winner had the players not been so incredibly quick. Perhaps most impressive was French wildcard Josselin Ouanna. The 23-year old whacked away from every inch of Roland Garros' Centre Court to outlast retirement-bound Marat Safin and will advance to a third round match up against Gonzo. Ouanna was somehow able to flatten most of Marat's balls and beautifully redirect the fuzz while adding even more pace than provided by the Russian. Needless to say, the returning shot was impossible to track down. After 4 and a half hours of seemingly tiresome play, Ouanna prevailed, blazing his shots as easily as in the start.

However, to taste ultimate success in Paris, I suspect most will try to finish points more quickly and shorten the court as much as possible. The truly arduous matches will start now with Murray seeing the intellect of Janko Tipsarevic, Verdasco meeting crafty Nicolas Almagro and Rafa trying to grind down scrappy Hewitt. None of these is a gimme win, but it's hard to bet against the seeds here. Well, maybe not Murray...

En Route

Round 1 of Roland Garros is well underway, already harbouring defiant battles and highlighting spots of rust on our not-so-well-oiled machines... err world-class tennis players. The warranted heartbreaks thus far certainly go to Ivo Karlovic who aced Lleyton Hewitt 55 times over a grueling 5-set match but was still unable to taste victory and the country of France which has seen 16 casualties despite a homecourt advantage.

Regardless, play continued through Day 2 and the spectators in Philippe-Chatrier were treated to a schedule of Safina, Nadal and Federer! As the crowd was still rolling in Safina ran through two bagel sets to advance into the second round. Rafa was up to begin defending the crown he's worn for 4 straight years. His opponent: Brasilian qualifier Marcos Daniel who seems to be his country's sole hopeful talent since Guga's retirement in 2001. After this performance, Brasil should be proud. While he could not knock out the heart favourite in Paris, Daniel surely pushed Nadal to close his first round match 7-5, 6-4, 6-3. He charged the net, took away Nadal's passing shots, patiently drew out errors during long rallies, broke Rafa three times and, most impressively, never allowed the champion to comfortably settle into the match. Unfortunately, at 30, it is unlikely that Marcos will make too far of a run at the majors but he will certainly be helpful in the future to players who do not appear in his half of the draw.

In fact, Nadal's most worthy competitor was probably quite pleased with Daniel forcing an expenditure of 2.5 hours early on while he finished off veteran Alberto Martin in about 90 minutes. Though the expected RG finalist got off to a mildly slow 0-2 start, he quickly broke back and went on a power cruise-control without looking back. Federer put on a very impressive show, playing the clay more like a hardcourt & even grass at times. Assuming he can keeping his repertoire of shots as varied as he did yesterday, Federer will have no worries floating past the rest of the herd.