Review of Day 4 and Preview of Day 5

The Gael Monfils - Fabio Fognini match is the big story of the day.  Well actually its how the match referee totally played favorites and made the French Open look like a joke. 

In the match Monfils cruised to a 2 sets to none lead.  It was looking like it would be a short, easy day for the Frenchman.  But in true Monfils fashion he would rather "hotdog" his way to a win, and play dumb tennis, well this got him into trouble and he opened the door wide open for Fognini to make a comeback and take the next 2 sets to even the match.

Now this is when the fun starts, tied at 4 games a piece in the 5th set, all the other courts were stopped due to darkness.  Well earlier in the set Monfils was down a break, but managed to break back to even up the set and the crowd was fully behind him and the momentum was definetly in Monfils corner.  So instead of the match referee or whatever he is (lets just call him a asshat in a suit) he comes onto the court to probably stop the match for the night.  That wasn't the case, it was almost as if he was influenced the the crowd and should I say it, influenced that it was a French player in the French Open, because Monfils still wanted to play.  Well Fognini wanted nothing to do with continuing the match.  He pleaded his case to the asshat in the suit and the chair umpire, even Monfils was chirping in his ear.  The fans knew what was going on and started to get all over the Italian for wanting to quit for the night.

Fognini is complaining to anyone with a pulse, Monfils is standing at the service line with his arms stretched out as if to say "c'mon man", Fognini's coach and trainer in the stands are giving him the "cut" sign to say "no more, don't play".  The asshat in the suit then walks off the court saying to continue play in darkness, when 10 minutes ago all the other courts were shut down due to darkness.  Why would they make this ruling?  Its simple there is a French turd on the verge of winning in his home tournament and the crowd was whipped into a frenzy.  The dude didn't have the sack to pull the plug, like he should of.

After the asshat walks away Fognini continues to make his case in the corner where the asshat in the suit is standing with his walkie talkie.  This continued on for almost 8 minutes.  Finally the chair umpire penalizes Fognini a point for delay of game.

It was so dark that the ball could hardly be seen.   Both players looked like a couple old geezer playing baby ball out there.  Neither one would hit it very hard just because they were scared to whiff.  Fognini ended up holding his serve to make it 5-4, well play still continued to Monfils serve.  Fognini had 3 match points on "monchichi's" serve but could not convert, and Monfils held to even it at 5-5.  Finally after going 5-5 in the 5th they decided to stop play.

Fognini on his way to his chair and packing his bags made sure to tell the chair umpire what he thought of him in Italian.  I'm sure calling him a dumb piece of shit was mixed in there.  Walking off the court Fognini made sure to scream at anyone who would listen.  I don't blame the guy, the tournament suited asshats were trying to fuck him over.  Well it didn't work, and this match will continue tomorrow.  Hopefully Fabio puts it to all the dipshits who tried to screw him over.

Defending womens champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova was very close to being knocked out by Andrea Petkovic of Germany.  The Kuz lost the first set and had 3 match points against her in the 2nd, and thankfully to Petkovic getting nerves, let Kuznetsova come back to take the set and send it to a 3rd set.  Kuznetsova then was able to take the third set and get a shaky win.  She better up her game, or she will not be around to see week 2.

Some dude wearing neglige beat Arantxa Parra Santonja....Aravane Rezai needed 3 sets to take out Angelique Kerber...Caroline Wozniacki got a easy win over Tathiana Garbin....Flavia Pennetta destroyed fellow Italian, Roberta Vinci...Nadia Petrova had no problem beating Agnes Szavay....Dominika Cibulkova, Maria Kirilenko, and Alexandra Dulgheru were all seeded women who won on Wednesday.

There was one upset on the womens side, and yes I did call it (check yesterdays blog)  Polona "boss" Hercog took out #24 seeded Lucie Safarova.

Not all of the mens and womens matches were completed on Wednesday,  showers came and go all day long causing many delays in the action.

Lets get to the mens side of things.  I want to toot my horn once again, I predicted that Thiemo De Bakker would upset the 32nd seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.  Well that is exactly what happened, the Dutchman beat the Spaniard in 4 sets.

Roger Federer disposed of Alejandro Falla in straight sets...Robin Soderling bitch slapped Taylor Dent around 6-0, 6-1, 6-1...Jo-Wilfried Tsonga smoked Ouanna in straight sets...Marin Cilic, Mikhail Youzhny, Tomas Berdych, Albert Montanes, and Stanislas Wawrinka are all seeds who had little trouble moving on to the 3rd round.

John Isner, Monfils, Marcos Baghdatis, and Andy Murray are among some others who had to delay the completion of their matches to Thursday.

Day 5 Preview:

After play on Thursday, all the 2nd round games will hopefully be completed.  Andy Roddick, Rafa Nadal, Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Fernando Verdasco, Maria Sharapova, and the great David Ferrer will all be in action.

Match of the day:  The completion of the Monfils-Fognini match will be interesting to see. 

Upset of the day:  Ana Ivanovic, the winner at this tournament just 2 years ago will take out the #28 seed Alisa Kleybanova.  I do not have a mens upset pick, I think it will stay to form on the mens side, but one in the process to watch is the completion of the John Isner - Marco Chiudinelli match.  Chiudinelli was up a set and tied 5-5 in the 2nd when darkness halted the match.  He may finish off the upset, but I doubt he will.