The two top seeds of the first half of the draw advance to the 4th round.
FEDERER – MAHUT 6-3 4-6 6-2 7-5
King Roger had a bit of a scare (just a bit) with an inspired Mahut. The Frenchman, famous for playing (and losing) the longest match in the history of Tennis with Isner, is quite an erratic player. Knowing that the chances with the Swiss Maestro were not so good for him, he somewhat managed to change the rule of the game to convert the match in a hard court one attacking Roger whenever he could. Finally, with some help of the crowd he grabbed the 2nd set, but that was already one too many. The world no.3 fought back to win the macth in 2h and 37 minutes.
Federer commented “I knew he could play very well from the baseline, if he had time.
“It’s a bit tricky when you want to play a claycourt match but actually it would be better to play a hardcourt match. So that’s tricky at times. I thought he did well. I struggled a little bit, but overall obviously I’m happy I came through.”
Roger will play Goffin, a lucky loser. The nice thing is that Federer is Goffin’s tennis idol and it would have been an incredible thrill for him to play against him.
“I’ve been watching Roger playing on telly for so many years,” he said,
“Roger has always been my favourite. He has perfect tennis, perfect technique, and I like the man. From a human standpoint, he is a great person, whether on the court or outside the court.
“So I expect a very difficult match on Sunday.
“If I say yes I have a chance I will sound arrogant; if I say no, you’ll say I lack ambition. We’ll see.”
“I would have loved to play Becker and Edberg,” he said.
“They were the ones for me growing up that I looked at and sort of idolised, and obviously Pete came along and I had a chance to play against him, which was just amazing.
“I played him on Centre Court at Wimbledon. That was my first appearance there. That was great stuff.”
Federer lost 2 sets in the first week of the the Roland Garros only once in the last 7 years. It was in 2009 when he won the title!
DJOKOVIC – DEVILDER 6-1 6-2 6-2
Trashy stuff here. It took only 1h and 47 for Nole to demolish the Frenchman in something that looked like as a tennis lesson.
The Serb will play Seppi in the next round that defeated Verdasco in an epic 5 set match.
Head to head is 7-0 for Djokovic (3-0 on clay). The Italian needs to do something really special to get to the quarters.
OTHER MATCHES
Tsonga – Fognini 7-5 6-4 6-4
Wawrinka – Simon 7-5 6-7 (5) 6-7 (3) 6-3 6-2
Del Potro – Cilic 6-3 7-6 (7) 6-1
Berdych – Anderson 6-4 3-6 6-3 4-6 6-2
Granollers – Jaziri 7-6 (1) 3-6 6-1 3-6 7-5
Goffin – Kubot 7-6 (4) 7-5 6-1
THE MOST DRAMATIC RALLY OF THE YEAR
