French Open: Andy Roddick out in the third round
The 114th ranked player in the world, Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia swatted Andy Roddick away at the Roland Garros in a third match on Saturday to register the biggest win of his tennis career. The Russian has for the first time in the history made it through to the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament. Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan of America were also driven out of the tournament by Bruno Soares and Marcelo Melo. In almost 75 percent of the points, Gabashvili got the best of Roddick. Bryan, on the other hand, lost the match with a margin of 6-3, 7-6. The American’s came back to France without much energy and the much needed spirit and desperation was lacking in them, especially for a Grand Slam event. In another match, Lleyton Hewitt, the two-time winner of the French Open was defeated by Rafal Nadal with a lot of comfort.
Nadal, who is the former world number one player made it through in just two-and-a-half hours on Saturday. Last year, Robin Soldering upset him in the fourth round at Roland Garros. This time round, the Spaniard is going to meet Thomas Belluci of Brazil who is currently sitting at a world ranking of 24. Following the record of Bjorn Borg who won six French Open titles, Nadal is hoping to win his fifth title in the 2010 French Open Tournament.
Nadal and Hewitt came face-to-face with each other for the tenth time in tennis history. Nadal has managed to kick out Hewitt on four different occasions out of their five meetings at the French Open. The Bryans on the other hand managed to gather their eight Grand Slam title in January at the Australian Open tournament. A lot of things went horribly wrong for them probably due to their over confidence.
Roddick failed to turn the match around after being broken on more than three times. The passing shots of Gabashvili particularly in the third set led Roddick to go for an all-out offensive game. His movement went terrible which made it extremely difficult to hit the ball nicely. Roddick has reached the fourth round only once earlier. According to him, the weather as well as the clay court was not suitable for his game. He added that his comparatively short height further damaged his cause. The wet ball went against his style of play. On the other hand, leaving behind the wet tarps was not an intelligent decision on part of the management at Roland Garros. Roddick has been having issues regarding the heavy weight of the ball since long. However, according to the umpire, it was not a new thing as it happens on a yearly basis at the Roland Garros. But this sort of reasoning didn’t seem to satisfy the dejected Roddick.
Roddick does not share a good history with Suzanne Lenglen Court as it was his fifth consecutive loss over here. According to Gabashvili, the courts cannot be made the basis of a player’s defeat or on the victory of another one as every professional player must learn to deal with all sorts of conditions. Courts like Suzanne Lenglen do exist in other parts of the world which is why foreign players feel the heat while playing in France. After defeating David Ferrer, Jurgen Melzer and Gabashvili will now face each other.
After losing the game, Roddick furiously threw his racket away. He never managed to grab a foothold throughout his encounter with Gabashvili. Signs of tension were clearly visible on his face throughout the match. When he smashed the pair of rackets in a state of extreme confusion, a young girl gave them back. Since the start of the match, Gabashvili seemed the favourite one to win the match.
He managed to have a two set lead over Roddick with his single break. On his way towards victory, Gabashvili easily managed to take a lead of 4-0 in the third set. The world number 114th player finished the match in just an hour and 54 minutes with a memorable victory to his name.
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