CAMELOT FANTASIES

Well, the last day of the Round of 32 - the 3rd round at Roland Garros is not quite done and dusted as they say.  The top half played today, and what a day it was. 

In the Nadal quarter, Rafael Nadal got through his match in straight sets as expected, but one of them was not without drama, where in the second set, Leo Mayer certainly had his chances. But Nadal held on to win it 7-5, and then cruised in the 3rd as he did in the first, though it looked like the Nadal serve may have been affected a bit by a bit of a back problem. We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Ivo Karlovic was forced to retire to Kevin Anderson with a bad back after only a set.  A shame, because he was having a great tournament.  David Ferrer got it done in straights against Seppi in similar fashion to Nadal. One tight middle set, that went David's way in the tiebreaker and two easy sets and he will play Anderson next. Dusan Lajovic also got it done in straights against Jack Sock, and he'll play Nadal next for his reward. 

The Murray quarter certainly had the most drama, as 3 of the 4 matches went the full distance and two are not complete yet. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (GGL) got it done against Donald Young after losing a 2 set to 0 lead with a 6-4 victory in the deciding 5th set. And in a strange up and down match where it looked like Gael Monfils was done physically after 4 sets against Fabio Fognini losing the 4th in a bagel, Monfils reversed the tide, took the decider easily 6-2 and advanced to play GGL next.

The two late matches Verdasco vs. Gasquet, and Murray vs. Kohlschreiber were not completed as mentioned and will finish tomorrow.  #24 seed Verdasco leads #12 Gasquet 2 sets to love and they are knotted at 2-2 in the third.

In what was probably the most thrilling match of the day and the tournament thus far, #28 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and #7 seed Andy Murray are locked in a battle royal, tied after 3 1/2 hours in the fifth set, suspended by darkness, 7-7 with Murray to serve.

Kohli took the first set 6-3 with some fine aggressive side to side play that had Murray scrambling.  In the second and third sets Murray reversed the trend coming up with some much more aggressive play of his own, belting forehands and down the line backhands past the talented German, who is coming off a title win last week.  Murray went ahead 4-2 in the 4th set, 2 service games from victory, and then simply collapsed on serve with some sad and ugly double faults to hand Kohlschreiber a break back, and give him new life.  Kohli took advantage of a suddenly passive Murray again, and stormed back to snatch the final 3 games to take the 4th set. 

In the fifth set, Murray struck first and broke Kohlschreiber and was ahead 2-0, but Kohli hung in there and Murray got a bit passive again, and Kohli broke back straight away for 1-2, and then held his serve for 2-2.  Murray was shaken and stirred to get broken for a second time in the set, and Kohli had a break lead in the match for the first time since the first set, 3-2.  But yet more drama was in store, as Murray got aggressive again and Kohli was unable to hold his advantage and was broken himself for the second time in the set. Murray sealed his break and held serve for 4-3, but not without some concern as he was grasping his left hamstring during the game (again, he had done some similar grabbing earlier, but it didn't seem to affect his game at the time) and sure enough the trainer came on during the changeover. 

After a rubdown, but no Medical Time Out, Andy was back out, and on the receiving end of a solid love service game from Kohlschreiber out of nowhere for 4-4.  Andy returned the favor at love in his own service game, and went ahead 5-4 and got another rubdown. Philipp held serve again to love for 5-5, and with light fading, Murray survived a tighter service game with a big shot at 30-30 and held from there for a 6-5 lead, and earned yet another rubdown from the trainer.  Kohlschreiber survived his next service game after being down 15-30, but took 3 straight points to hold to get it to 6 all. 

As it got darker and even more tense, with no tiebreaker to relieve the suspense, Murray was again passive, and it almost cost him. He double faulted at 40-30 to give Kohli deuce and a chance. Kohli took his chance with gusto and produced two big shots, the last of which Murray could only look at as it buzzed past him for a break point.  Murray faced with almost certain death if he got broken, buckled down and took the next 3 points and held on for a 7-6 lead and his final on-court rubdown of the day.  At the changeover the officials decided to let them play one more game in the darkening gloom and Kohlschreiber did not fail to tie it up in another nail biting deuce game, 7-7, match suspended due to darkness. 

So this match, and the Gasquet-Verdasco match will continue tomorrow, both will be the second match of the day. Gasquet-Verdasco on Chatrier after the ladies, and Murray-Kohlschreiber after Berdych-Isner. 

Who will take the exciting Murray-Kohlschreiber match?  Murray to serve with the "scoreboard advantage".  Who will be ready? Which player will be advantaged by the darkness suspension?  The winner of course.  

Good luck to both players.

Respectfully,
masterclass