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5/26/09 3:24 AM | Ricky Dimon
Igor Andreev survives a five-setter with Fabio Fognini on Monday night at the French Open. Martin Vassallo Arguello also advances to the second round.
Igor Andreev came through a bizarre five-set affair against Fabio Fognini on Monday night at Roland Garros, prevailing 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. Andreev needed three hours and 12 minutes to book his place in the second round of the French Open.
Fognini entered this match in fine form as a qualifier, while Andreev had been struggling with a recent abdominal injury, and for a while it looked Andreev was going to get blown right off the court. Dictating play throughout the first set, Fognini fired 13 winners while not allowing his opponent to strike a single winning shot. The Italian used two breaks to dominate the opening frame of play 6-1.
Sets two through four continued to depend solely out Fognini's racket. His game completely disappeared in the second and third sets as he practically handed Andreev a two-sets-to-one advantage. Just as suddenly as his form collapsed, however, Fognini regained it in the fourth. The world No. 62 was not blasting winners as consistently as he had in the first set, but he came up with some spectacular shots and needed only one break to force a decisive fifth.
That's when things got crazy. Midway through the final set, Andreev lost a contact--although it was still somewhere in his right eye--and required about 10 minutes, along with the help of a trainer, to solve the problem. The Russian was tended to again at an ensuing changeover, at which point Fognini took the opportunity to get a back massage. A highly-amused crowd promptly broke out in a wave.
The on-court proceedings were equally entertaining. Neither man came close to dropping serve until Andreev served at 3-4. He saved one break point and eventually held for 4-4, but that started a sudden string of three straight service breaks. The No. 25 seed broke at 4-4, gave it right back without much of a fight while serving for the match at 5-4, but promptly gave himself another chance to serve for it by breaking at 5-5. With the match on his racket a second time, Andreev at long last finished things off with a routine service game and an ace on match point.
Next up for Andreev is Martin Vassallo Arguello, who advanced when Thomaz Bellucci retired late in the third set with cramps. Vassallo won the first set 6-4, lost the second 7-6(4), and it was all tied up 5-5 in set three when Bellucci called it quits. The Brazilian had a 5-3 lead in the third, but squandered it and then decided he would not be able to overcome his physical problems.
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