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RG Diary: Monday May 23


 

Originally published on: 23/05/11 18:03

The action and the temperature sizzled today as Roland Garros was bathed in sunshine. On Day 2 of the French Open there were a few shocks, the biggest of which was the defeat of No.6 seed, Tomas Berdych at the hands of qualifier Stephan Robert. He went down in five sets 3-6 3-6 6-2 6-2 9-7 in a match that last 3 hours and 13 minutes – the last set was 75 minutes.

Mind you, in terms of long matches, spare a thought for Anne Keothavong today who spent 8 more minutes on court 16 than Berdych and Robert, defeated 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4by Russian qualifier Vesna Dolonts in 3 hours and 21 minutes.

The great thing about Slams is not just the match play but on Court 18 while Keothavong was slugging it out, fans on the back seats were able to turn around and watch first Roger Federer and then Jelena Jankovic practise, while on the other side of Keothavong’s court the Italian Sara Errani beat the USA’s Christna Mchale 67 (4) 62 97, in a match that lasted just under 3 hours, the grunts and groans turned many a head away from Court 16.

Spectators on Court Philippe Chatrier had a real treat, witnessing Novak Djokovic defeat Thiemo de Bakker 62, 61, 63 and then Roger Federer overcome Feliciano Lopez 63, 64 76 (3). But one of the biggest cheers of the day was reserved for homeboy Gael Monfils who, after dropping the first set, athletically defeated the German qualifier Bjorn Phau 4-6 6-3 7-5 6-0.

Don’t forget you will be able to pore over the entire French Open draw with scores and commentary in the comprehensive results section of tennishead magazine.

Today sees the tennishead diary introduce its daily award for best Roland Garros innovation. Today the award goes to whichever thoughtful person recommended the supply of a power point outside Court Suzanne Lenglen where you can re-charge your mobile phone. We noticed it was pretty busy today with phones of all sorts plugged in while their owners hung around waiting to power up. For those hanging around about 2.30 pm, they may have noticed German player Dustin Brown arrive at Suzanne Lenglen court for the Monfils match. He didn’t go on court at that access point though; he waited for a bit in the crowd and then dipped back undercourt. We are currently waiting to ask the cool Jamaican born player whether he got a seat on court or not. We next saw him on Court 11 playing his match against Leonardo Mayer.

Our day at Roland Garros was however, cut short, by an intriguing invitation from our friends at tecnifibre to go salsa dancing, watch facebook in a few hours to see what we got up to!

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.