TENNIS RG14 – Round 3 in Roland Garros had a surprise in store for Philipp Kohlschreiber and Andy Murray because the match needed two days to finish. At the score of 6-3 3-6 3-6 6-4 7-7 on Saturday it was decided to postpone playing and to finish the game on Sunday. From Paris, Simone Kemler
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Round 3 in Roland Garros had a surprise in stall for Philipp Kohlschreiber and Andy Murray because the match needed two days to finish. At the score of 6-3 3-6 3-6 6-4 7-7 on Saturday it was decided to postpone playing and to finish the game on Sunday. Up to that point it had been the expected tough match with long rallies from the baseline. During the first set Kohlschreiber managed to come back into the match after having been 1:3 down but then the Scottish Olympic Champion succeeded with his constant game winning the next two sets 6:3. In the fourth set Kohlschreiber caught up being 2:4 behind to finally win the set 6:4. The fifth and final set started and quickly brought a Murray a 2:0 lead, also here Kohlschreiber could catch Murray just to give the break for his 3:2 lead away – at about 9:30 pm the match was postponed at a score of 7:7 to be finished on sunday midday where the two players started their duel right where they left it. Fortunately for Murray his cramps had vanished and he managed to overcome Kohlschreiber with 12 – 10 in the fifth set in what were another eight games advertising the sport of tennis. So did he feel proud after the victory and having come through to such a test 3-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 12-10?
” … obviously I was up in every set, and to not finish at the end of the fourth set when I was up 4 2 serving 30 Love was obviously tough. But, physically in the fifth set I was struggling, I was cramping. So I was disappointed obviously that I wasn’t able to finish in four sets. But at the same time, stopping the match probably helped me a little bit, because if I had played seven or eight more games, probably wouldn’t have been great. But today was a pretty high standard, I thought, for probably the best standard of the match I think from both of us. You know, he came up with some great shots when he was behind in games today. I thought both of us served a little bit better. It was a good finish to the match.”
Now Murray will face the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco whereas Kohlschreiber’s next stop will be Halle/Westfalen preparing the Grass Court season at the Gerry Weber Open. Despite this close defeat in Paris, Kohlschreiber too, showed a brilliant performance and should have every confidence for other victories to lay ahead.
