PARIS – Had Camila Giorgi held her serve when leading 5-4 and 6-5 in the third set of her round of 32 clash against Sloane Stephens, day 7 at Roland Garros would have been almost historical for Italian tennis instead of being just a memorable one.
In a see-saw encounter against last year’s US Open champion, the Italian served twice for the match. She played a bad game when serving at 5-4, but played much better at 6-5. Giorgi was a little unlucky when she was two points away from closing out the match when Stephens hit a miraculous shot that kissed the line.
After the women raised the bar in Italian tennis with a golden generation of top ten players – including Grand Slam champions Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, along with major finalists Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, it is now the men’s turn to carry the Italian flag. For the first time in 42 years, Italy has two male players in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, with Fabio Fognini going up against No. 3-seed Marin Cilic and Marco Cecchinato facing No. 8-seed David Goffin.
Cecchinato is hoping to take advantage of the fact that Goffin might be a little weary after a long grueling match against Gael Monfils, who is a crowd favorite in Paris. The Belgian said that the match took a lot out of him mentally. Cecchinato and Goffin faced each other in Rome a couple of weeks ago, with David prevailing 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
Fognini is not completely an underdog in his match against Cilic. The Italian certainly has the game to cause an upset, but I doubt that he will be able to go all the way and capture the title like Adriano Panatta in 1976. Fabio advanced to the round of 16 after prevailing over Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in a tough five-set match.
“Edmund has a very powerful game, at the end I thought that he was more tired than I was. I think it’s normal that someone with his type of tennis will get more fatigued during a long match,” Fognini said in his post-match press conference.
In terms of pure tennis skills, the gap between Fognini and Edmund is massive. Fabio plays with much more variety and can produce many more shots. Edmund has a more limited shot selection but is also more consistent. Edmund wasn’t able to use his powerful serve to his advantage and was surprisingly outclassed in the ace department: The Brit only had two aces, compared to Fognini’s seven.
Even if the match wasn’t of the highest quality, Fognini raised his level at the end of the fifth set and played amazingly in the last game of the match. The British fans and media seemed to be disappointed by the lack of personality showed by their player.
Some of the most important tennis countries have been completely shut out at this year’s French Open. Switzerland and Great Britain have zero players in week two, while France has only one contestant left – Caroline Garcia in the women’s tournament.
Yesterday there was an extermination of French male players: Pouille, Monfils, Gasquet and Hubert were all eliminated from their home tournament. Yannick Noah is still the last Frenchman to capture the French Open title with his historic win in 1983.
Despite the lack of major titles, French men’s tennis has been in great shape over the past few decades. Noah has been No. 3 in the world, Forget and Grosjean No. 4, Leconte, Pioline and Tsonga No. 5, Simon and Monfils No. 6 and Gasquet No. 7. This year’s lackluster performance from the French players certainly came as a surprise.
In the round of 16 of the men’s tournament, Nadal and Verdasco come from Spain, Fognini and Cecchinato from Italy, del Potro and Schwartzmann from Argentina, Zverev and Marterer from Germany, Djokovic from Serbia, Cilic from Croatia, Anderson from South Africa, Goffin from Belgium, Isner from the United States, Nishikori from Japan, Thiem from Austria and Khachanov from Russia.
In the women’s tournament, Serena Williams, Stephens and Keys come from the United States, Halep and Buzarnescu from Romania, Sharapova and Kasatkina from Russia, Kontaveit from Estonia, Wozniacki from Denmark, Putintseva from Kazakhstan, Tsurenko from Ukraine, Garcia from France, Muguruza from Spain, Kerber from Germany, Mertens from Belgium and Strycova from the Czech Republic.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
