I usually like preparing my day at Roland Garros, and write down the matches I want to watch but more often than not I end up watching different matches than those planned. I had in mind to attend either Coric-Fritz on court 8 or Bouchard-Siegemund on court 16. But given the long long long queues to enter the stadium and the queue to access court 16, I made my way to court 17 as I wanted to watch the end of the match between 2010 French Open finalist Sam Stosur and Misaki Doi. But first on court 17, 74-ranked Qiang Wang faces 17-year-old French wild card Tessah Andrianjafitrimo.
Qiang Wang defeats Tessah Andrianjafitrimo 6-0 6-0
I have nothing against that player I had never heard of before, but I really don’t get why Roland Garros officials awarded a wild card to Tessah Andrianjafitrimo who is ranked 311th and has never won a WTA match. 6-0 6-0 for Wang in an hour… no comment.
Former top 10 Nicolas Almagro defeated Pablo Carreno Busta in an all Spanish final in Estoril. It’s his first trophy since his victory in Nice in 2012. The match was indecise till the very last games: Almagro lost the first set on tiebreak, then served several times for the second set and finally went on winning 6-7 7-6 6-3.
Rafa admitted he played his worst match of the tournament in the semifinal, but it was still enough to defeat Kohlschreiber in straight sets and advance to the final.
Nadal aims to clinch his record ninth Barcelona title, while Nishikori seeks to become the third player in history (after Mats Wilander and Rafael Nadal) to lift the Conde de Godo Trophy three years in a row.
Kei Nishikori is the two-time defending champion:
Rafa Nadal won the tournament 8 times, the last time in 2013:
Nishikori or Nadal, who do you think will win?
Photo credit: Banc Sabadell
World number one Novak Djokovic struggles a bit but defeats Philipp Kohlschreiber in two sets 7-5 7-5, in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. His next opponent: Feliciano Lopez.
A really solid 6-3 6-4 win for Novak Djokovic who is once again the big favorite for the title here. But he could lose his number one ranking if he loses in quarterfinals and Roger Federer wins the tournament.
Djokovic’s coach, Boris Becker won the Bercy tournament three times in 1986, 1989 and 1992. He was also finalist in 1990 and 1995.
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