Williams on winning streak as she cruises into last 16
RaFaEL nadal described the French open schedule as a joke after struggling through his second-round match against Martin Klizan in Paris.
The seven-time champion was scheduled to play on Thursday but only got as far as the warm-up before the rain came down and had to return yesterday morning.
For the second successive match, nadal dropped the opening set, but again he turned things around to defeat slovakian Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
The spaniard’s gripe was that his next opponent, Fabio Fognini, was scheduled to play his match against Lukas Rosol earlier on Thursday and therefore will have had almost an extra day’s rest when they meet today.
he said: “I think everybody knows in this room that the schedule of yesterday was wrong. That’s the real thing.
“The director of the tournament, supervisors, they take a bad position two days ago, because when you make the schedule at 7pm, you know what weather predictions you have for the next days.
“I cannot play third after a men’s and a girl’s match when my possible opponent plays second after girls. That’s not fair. and today I was playing almost three hours on court, and my opponent was watching the TV in the locker room.
“so if you told me that’s fair, I say that’s not fair. The only thing that I can do is be positive, smile, and try to win my match and try to be ready for tomorrow. But that’s not the right thing. This is not right. and I hope they accept the mistake, because girls plays best of three. If they have to play two days in a row, it’s not a big deal. For us it’s completely different.
“The excuse they told me was because Rosol have to play doubles. I am sorry, but that’s a joke. You have one more week to play doubles if you want to play doubles. Why do you want to protect the player who has to play doubles? so I’m going to write myself in the doubles draw then and I have the priority to play? That’s not the right excuse to make a schedule like this.”
nadal looked particularly sluggish in the first set yesterday, making uncharacteristic errors and dropping the ball far too short.
The cold weather partly nullifies the effect of his spin, as does playing another left-hander, but the spaniard managed to pick his game up enough to turn the match around.
nadal said: “In the first set simply was not motivated enough. I tried, but I couldn’t find the necessary motivation. “esterday I just warmed up for half an hour, so I haven’t played much tennis for three days. That makes things not easy. so I started the match probably with not the right intensity, with more doubts than usual. The positive thing was that I had a good reaction at the beginning of the second set.”
Roger Federer, already through to the fourth round after a 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Julien Benneteau, had sympathy with both nadal and tournament
Iorganisers, saying: “I understand that he’s frustrated. That’s understandable. he would like to play every second day. But 50 per cent of the players couldn’t play their match, I think. It makes the situation very complicated for everybody. I think they (organisers) didn’t do it on purpose. They do their best.” It was the end for French entertainer Gael Monfils, who had four match points in the fourth set against Tommy Robredo, but could not take them and ran out of steam in the decider, going down 2-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6, (7/3) 6-2.
another Frenchman, Gilles simon, beat sam Querrey, while david Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and nicolas almagro also reached the fourth round, but 10th seed Marin Cilic lost to Viktor Troicki and Milos Raonic was beaten by Kevin anderson.There were wins for Richard Gasquet, stanislas Wawrinka and 35-year-old Tommy haas. sEREna Williams will hope she can ignore her winning streak for four more matches after cruising into the fourth round of the French open.
The world no 1’s 6-0 6-2 victory over Romania’s sorana Cirstea made it 27 straight wins and 70 from 73 since her first-round defeat at Roland Garros last year.
Williams said: “I actually don’t think about it, and after every match I’m reminded. and, ironically enough, I forget about it as soon as it’s done.
“I don’t think it’s about a winning streak. I think it’s about winning important matches and winning the right matches at the right time.”
Williams has looked extremely focused during this tournament and has lost only six games in six sets so far.
one of the most dominant periods of her career has come since Williams began working with French coach Patrick Mouratoglou last year.
Maria sharapova is a round behind but wasted little time yesterday finishing off Eugenie Bouchard.
The defending champion drew the short straw weather-wise on Thursday, not starting her match until late because of the poor weather and then being unable to finish, with the Russian only two games from victory.
Canadian Bouchard is one of the game’s up-and-coming talents and won Junior Wimbledon last year.
The 19-year-old was not afraid to take on her illustrious opponent and should have levelled yesterday at 5-5 but missed a golden opportunity for a forehand winner and that was that as sharapova wrapped up a 6-2 6-4 victory.
The Russian will play her thirdround match tomorrow against China’s Zheng Jie, who has had an extra day to prepare having beaten Melanie oudin first up on Thursday.
Marion Bartoli did not even make it onto court on Thursday, and the Frenchwoman was given another tough match by Colombian qualifier Mariana duque-Marino.
The 13th seed saved two match points in a first-round win over olga Govortsova four days ago and had to fight back from 5-2 down in the first set yesterday to win 7-6 (7/5) 7-5.
Twelfth seed Maria Kirilenko also made it to the third round along with former champion Francesca schiavone, who knocked out 21st seed Kirsten Flipkens. Last year’s runner-up, fifth seed sara Errani, looked impressive as she continued her progress with a 6-0 6-4 victory over German sabine Lisicki.