French Open Daily: Day 3
Spain's Rafael Nadal (left) was extended to five sets for the first time in 40 career matches at Roland Garros. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)
What's Happening Wednesday
The second round begins. Tennis Channel's live coverage runs from 5 a.m. ET until noon. ESPN2 continues with live and same-day action from 12 until 6:30 p.m. ET. (Clip and save the complete TV schedule.)
Key matches to watch on Wednesday include:
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands vs. Varvara Lepchenko (Court 3, 5 a.m. ET): The All-American clash is the first match on Court 3. The winner will be the first U.S. woman in five years not named Venus or Serena to advance to the third round at Roland Garros.
• Maxime Teixeira vs. No. 2 Roger Federer (Court Suzanne Lenglen, 5 a.m. ET): We all know Federer has taken a backseat to Djokovic and Nadal in the French Open build-up, but doesn't the setting for this second-rounder seem a little off? To quote Open Source Twitter follower @SingleAlley: "No respect for Fed! Sent to Susanne Lenglen...."
• No. 2 Novak Djokovic vs. Victor Hanescu (Court Philippe Chatrier, third match) and No. 25 Juan Martin del Potro vs. Blaz Kavcic (Court 2, third match): Should Djoker and Delpo prevail, they'll meet Friday in the undisputed marquee matchup of the third round.
The complete order of play for Day 4 can be found here.
What Happened Tuesday
The temperature dipped slightly (a high of 66 degrees), but the sun kept shining.
• Nadal survives Isner's best shot. Rafael Nadal improved to 28-0 in first-round matches at Grand Slams with a win over John Isner, but it wasn't easy. Extended to five sets for the first time in 40 career matches at Roland Garros, Nadal dug deep to pull out the 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-4 victory. "Rafa is pretty good at tennis," Isner tweeted, tongue firmly implanted in cheek.
• Sharapova shines. Wearing an Eiffel Tower-inspired dress, Masha cruised to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Croatia's Mirjana Lucic.
• Almagro suffers mystifying loss. The Spaniard held a commanding two-sets-to-none lead over Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot, but let it fritter away before losing, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-7(5), 6-4.
• Teary exit for Ivanovic. The Grand Slam woes of 2008 French Open champ Ana Ivanovic continued as the 23-year-old Serb crashed out, 7-6(3), 0-6, 6-2, to Sweden's Johanna Larsson. Ivanovic has now lost in the first round of three of the past four majors.
• Other seeds march on. Andy Murray briefly lost his cool against Eric Prodon, a French qualifier who seemed intent on drop-shotting him to death, but held strong for a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Other seeded men's winners included No. 5 Robin Soderling, No. 8 Jurgen Melzer, No. 16 Fernando Verdasco, No. 18 Gilles Simon, No. 20 Florian Mayer, No. 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov, No. 24 Sam Querrey and No. 32 Kevin Anderson. Women's seeded winners included No. 4 Victoria Azarenka, No. 6 Li Na, No. 7 Maria Sharapova, No. 15 Andrea Petkovic, No. 21 Yanina Wickmayer, No. 24 Jarmila Gajdosova and No. 27 Alexandra Dulgheru.
Paris Clicks
A video montage of every match point from Djokovic's streak ... Elena Baltacha (in the second round at Roland Garros, no small accomplishment for a British woman) is writing a column for BBC Sport ... Six-time Grand Slam champ Stefan Edberg is doing just fine these days ... Lucky loser Ryan Harrison talks about making his way into the main draw.
Photo of the Day
Andrea Hlavackova slips during her first-round match against Victoria Azarenka (from SI.com's Best Shots from Day 3 at the French Open).
Go Figure
2 ... Sets dropped by Rafael Nadal in Tuesday's victory over John Isner.
0 ... Sets dropped by Rafael Nadal during the entire 2010 and 2008 French Opens.
27 ... Years since three British players last made the second round at Roland Garros. Elena Baltacha and Andy Murray won Tuesday to join Heather Watson in the Round of 64.
Must-See Video
It took 24 hours, but video of Michael Llodra's tantrum from Monday's first-round loss -- when he hit a ball at a female security guard in the stands out of frustration -- finally went viral.
They Said It
"I don't know what happened. He started to play better and better than me at the end of the third set. I didn't play my best tennis and finally I lost. That's all."
--Nicolas Almagro, attempting to explain his come-from-ahead loss to Lukasz Kubot
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703555804576102283797315612.htmlA
