Match report

Michael Llodra © Tennistalk.com
French Open
2nd round
5/28/08 1 2 3 4 5 Tot
fr  Michael Llodra 6 4 5 6 6 3
cz  Tomas Berdych 3 6 7 3 4 2
Tomas Berdych © Tennistalk.com

  • Llodra gives French plenty to cheer about

    5/29/08 12:22 AM | David Cox
    Michael Llodra shrugged off an previously indifferent clay court season, creating the biggest upset of the tournament to date, coming back from 2 sets to 1 down to knock out 11th seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4

    Llodra has made the headlines on a singles court at Roland Garros before, most notably back in 2004 when he reached the last 16 and led Tim Henman by 2 sets to love before succumbing in one of the year’s most dramatic matches

    Berdych made a slow start but found his range in sets 2 and 3, converting clinically on break points and getting that big baseline game working. However from then on, despite making less errors than his opponent, Berdych simply didn’t take his chances. You can’t afford to be 0/7 on break point conversions in the final two sets of such a tight match and he paid for it

    There’s going to be an unexpected player in the last 16 as Llodra now faces Simone Bolelli who knocked out the rising Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro 3-6, 7-6(0), 7-5, 6-2. Del Potro stormed into the top 50 last season and is highly rated by most tennis experts but he lacks wins at the major tournaments. At a towering height of 6ft5, he possesses a huge game but it rarely all comes together and today after a promising start, his groundstrokes gradually disintegrated and a total of 55 unforced errors cost him dear.

    Paul-Henri Mathieu remains the highest ranked Frenchman left in the draw, but only just ! Mathieu was soundly outplayed by veteran Spaniard Oscar Hernandez and found himself two sets to love down. Hernandez wasn’t doing anything spectacular but the Mathieu forehand just drained errors. He needed some luck and Hernandez had 5 chances to break in the 4th set but Mathieu managed to cling on and win 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in over 4 hours

    Eduardo Schwank brought up 20 straight wins, beating Marcel Granollers 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4

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