French Open at Roland Garros: Mixed bag for French tennis stars
May 30, 2008 // 0 CommentsFor the French, more losers than winners in French Open action Wednesday on their home courts.
With the eyes of France and the world turned toward Roland Garros and the French Open, French players both elated and deflated French hopes with a mixed showing in Wednesday’s matches. A source of national pride almost on a par with soccer in France, tennis at the French Open is causing more than the usual spring fever in French offices and classrooms all over the country as the French of all ages cheer on their countrymen and mourn their defeats.
French winners included Fabrice Santoro, 35, who beat Russian Evgeny Korolev, his junior by 16 years (7-6, 6-1, 6-4). He next faces Spaniard David Ferrer. Also over 30, French player Marc Gicquel roundly defeated young Serb Viktor Troicki, ranked 99th in the world, before cheering students on court #2 (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5). A bit less experienced than their older colleagues, Julien Benneteau and Paul-Henri Mathieu, both 26, benefitted from enthusiastic hometown French support, beating, respectively, American Vincent Spadea (6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 hours 11 minutes) and Oscar Hernandez of Spain (2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in 4 hours 11 minutes) in hard-fought battles in the Porte d’Auteuil stadium. French player Gaël Monfils, 21, outplayed his older countryman, Arnaud Clément, in the center court(7-5, 6-3, 6-1).
Among the ladies, Frenchwoman Émilie Loit, 28, won’t be retiring anytime soon. She beat Czech Klara Zakopalova (6-4, 6-3). And Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, 25, defeated Romanian Olaru (7-6, 6-3).
But the good news for the French players ended there on Wednesday. Marion Bartoli of France ran out of steam against Australian Dellacqua (6-7, 6-3, 6-2), Stéphanie Foretz lost to Russian Zvonareva (6-2, 6-1), Violette Huck went down before American opponent King (4-6, 6-2, 6-1) and Aravane Rezaï was defeated by the Russian Petrova (7-6, 6-3). Despondent Frenchwoman Bartoli complained of exhaustion both mental and physical, saying that she had been playing nonstop since the beginning of the year and now she wanted to forget all about Roland Garros. The French who saw her lose may be feeling the same.
French men were also victims of disappointment and frustration at Roland Garros on Wednesday: Gilles Simon (eliminated by Czech Stepanek 6-2, 6-4, 6-1), Adrian Mannarino (who lost to Argentine Junqueira 6-1, 6-2, 6-2), Thierry Ascione (defeated by l’American Reynolds 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2), Éric Prodon (beaten by Croatian Ljubicic 7-5, 7-6, 7-6) and Nicolas Mahut (who lost to Australian Hewitt 6-4, 6-2, 6-4), who has still not won a match in Paris in seven tries.
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