It's still a long crushed red brick road ahead yet for the contenders at this year's French Open but for Andy Murray his descent to the second round is still yet to be set in stone. Britain's sole representative left in the proceedings at Roland Garros begins week two locked in a battle with Germany's Philip Kohlschreiber and it's only round three! As the Paris light faded so did the Scot's hopes of having the first day of June off to recover for the fourth round, instead he could be looking at his earliest exit from a grand slam event since the 2010 US Open when he succumbed to Stan Wawrinka in five sets at the third round stage. Over three and a half hours have been played in a topsy-turvy match that Murray will feel he should have won in four if it wasn't for his wayward serving. Instead, at 7 a piece in the final set, this match could be anyone's and 24th seed Kohlschreiber will relish the opportunity to break Murray's serve at the resumption with the Scot having to open the proceedings on court Suzanne Lenglen. Whether this will bother Andy is hard to tell but many tennis pundits and journalists will be thinking could this be yet another upset at this year's tournament?
The Parisian crowd have witnessed a somewhat unpredictable first week in both the men's and women's draw and also a bit of history. It's the first time since the open era began that none of the top three seeds in the women's singles have progressed past the third round in the same grand slam event. Serena Williams, Li Na and Agnieska Radwankska all lost to players who - to the casual tennis fan - are relatively unknowns. It has therefore created a real buzz around the women's side because all of a sudden everybody has a slight hand on the trophy. But it's eighth seed and four-time slam winner Maria Sharapova whose hand seems to have a firmer grip on the trophy. French Open champion in 2012 and with a clay court trophy at Madrid under her belt this year, it's hard to argue at why Maria has suddenly been installed as favourite. But can a player who so often cracks when going in as favourite somehow find some consistent form and go all the way? The Russian goes into week two facing Sam Stosur, a former finalist here and also a slam champion in 2011 at the US. It could be that the winner here will almost definitely make the final. That's not to discredit the other players, but towards the business end of grand slam events, it's these kind of players who really step-up their game. Serena's conqueror unseeded Garbine Muguruza could be the quarter-final opponent followed most likely by either eighth seed Angelique Kerber or 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, a clay-court specialist. As witnessed this week however, nothing is a "gimme", but Maria's determination to add to her slam tally and her press conference comments after her third round match seems to elucidate this. "I like to be positive yet realistic, and there is no reason why I shouldn’t be the favourite at this tournament".
The bottom half of the women's draw also sees the highest seed left remaining, which is fourth seeded Romanian Simona Halep who is so far making light work of all her opponents. But a fourth round tie against American Sloane Stephens could cause her some problems. In fact, the bottom half of the draw is extremely competitive with most players having an equally good chance of making it to the latter stages. Should Halep overcome Sloane then a quarter-final with Svetlana Kuznetsova could well be on the cards and the 27th seeding for the Russian does not disclose the fact that she won the French Open title in 2009. Whether Kuznetsova's game has developed enough with the game since that victory in 2009 hasn't really shown, but a match against Halep will truly tell. I can see Halep as a future grand slam champion, we talk of the Nishikori's, Dimitrov's and the Raonic's of the men's game being potential slam champions but the women's game has what I think of as not "potential" but "definite" slam champions in the likes of Halep, Stephens and Eugenie Bouchard. It's quite obvious to see that both Serena and Li Na have reached the peak of their game and are now slowly declining, okay Serena will probably win a couple more slams but in two or three years' time it's the Halep's and Bouchard's who will begin to really peak and win slams. And guess what? They are all going to have a say in what happens at the business end of a grand slam this year too!
The men's draw has gone pretty much as expected barring Stan Wawrinka's untimely first round exit to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Stan's unpredictable mentality which has been absent since early last season seemed to have returned in Paris and the pressure of being a grand slam champion has upheld the Swiss prematurely. "Now, after winning a grand slam, Masters 1000, being No3 in the world, everything is different", Wawrinka described after the first round loss. Stan has always been unpredictable, it's fascinating how he can gruel through matches against Djokovic and can power through Nadal and match Federer with finesse, but yet still can fall at the first hurdle. With the grass-court swing approaching it's hard to envision where Wawrinka sees himself going. Garcia-Lopez however hasn't looked back; the 41st seeded Spaniard has negotiated his way through to the fourth round overcoming young American Donald Young in a five set thriller. He will now face home favourite Gael Monfils and the Spaniard will fancy his chances, so a date with Andy Murray could still be possible at this stage. A date that never materialised however was Nicolas Almagro and Rafael Nadal. The much fancied match-up was eradicated at the first hurdle when Nicolas retired through injury, so Nadal's first "real" test may not come until the quarter-finals against David Ferrer, last year's runner-up. The match every tennis fan is anticipating though is the fourth round clash between Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The Frenchman seems extremely fired up this year and looks raring to tackle anyone in his court-side way. Djokovic survived a scare in the third round against Croatia's Marin Cilic and it was the first time in a while that Novak was berating himself between points, a sign of weakness that Cilic exploited. But the Serb calmed and the pressure to serve to stay in the match was too much for Marin and he double-faulted on match point to hand Novak a passage into the fourth round. There is vulnerability to Novak's game, the French crowd will be fully against him and I actually think that because the Serb has stated how much he wants to win the one slam that eludes him, it's almost as if he has created a demon which will make winning the tournament even harder. I fully expect this to be a competitive match and wouldn't be surprised if it goes to five sets. Tsonga had match points against Novak at the French in 2012 so he will feel he has some unfinished business. I still don't expect there to be an upset here though, Tsonga does struggle in vital moments and that tantalising final against Nadal just looks too good to pass up for the Serbian.
So with the gruelling clay-court hurdle reaching the home straight, the men's race is going as planned, the Swiss maestro Roger Federer still evokes a sentiment that he will cause a ruckus among the top two towards the end of the race. The women's hurdle has seen many top seeds falling but the impetuous Sharapova has taken it in a stride and seems unreachable at the far end.
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