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...
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...
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