First Week in Roland Garros

Ahh, a first week in a Grand Slam is very long as a lot of match are going on and a lot of surprised comes with it.

This week was kind of rainy with Tuesday where less than 3 hours of play, and matches finishing late to get back on schedule. Nadal played his first 3 rounds in back-to-back days, while some player like Federer had two resting days between his first and second round match.

In the first round, the most expected match was Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten against Paul-Henri Mathieu. It was an exiting match and very emotional in the end for the 3 times Champion here in Roland Garros.

Argentine qualifier Eduardo Schwank sensationally beat 1998 Roland Garros champion Carlos Moya, the former World No. 1 from Spain, in the first Grand Slam match of his career. The 22-year-old Schwank held his nerve to beat Moya 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-7(1), 4-6, 6-3 in the longest match of the day over four hours. It was his 19th straight win, he was coming to RG with 3 challenger tournament won in a row (3x5=15matches) and 3 more in the Qualification of Roland Garros.

Canas, Baghdatis, Ferrero, Juan Monaco, Tipsarevic and Seppi lost in the first round are the other seeds who have lost in their first match here.

Some seeds were getting some troubles to get through as Robredo against Coria in a 4 set battle or Verdasco in a 5 set one. Even Djokovic had to recover from a set down against German Gremelmayr.

In the second round Federer had to recover from a first set loss under rainy conditions, Berdych falls to the Frenchman Michaël Llodra in 5 sets, while Davydenko was storming through his compatriot Marat Safin.

David Ferrer blasted away the "Magician" Fabrice Santoro 6-0 6-1 6-0, probably in his last match here in Roland Garros, Santoro has the record of most participations in a Grand Slam tournament with 62.

Blake lost to the surprisly good Letton Ernests Gulbis in 4 sets and will meet Nicolas Lapentti in the next round.

3rd round matches are the last one to win to get into the 2nd week. It is a record of 5 Frenchman who reach the Last16 with Jeremy Chardy who created the surprise beating Nalbandian after losing the first two sets. Paul-Henri Mathieu who ended the 20 match winning streak of the Argentine Eduardo Schwank. Mika Llodra who came through the talented Italian Simone Bolelli. Gael Monfils who battled in all his matches to get at this point and will meet Ivan Ljubicic who eventually beat Nikolai Davydenko in a very intense 5 set thriller. And the last Frenchman is Julien Benneteau who played his first two rounds in 5 sets, he is playing next Roger Federer.

It is the first time since 1971 that as many Frenchmen reach the 1/8 of the French Open.

The others to reach the 1/8 are Fernando Gonzalez who recovers from 2 sets and a break down to beat Swiss n°2 Stanislas Wawrinka. Stepanek beat easily Robredo in 3 sets. He will play David Ferrer who had a scare against former n°1 Lleyton Hewitt who was 2 sets to 1 up.

The end of the tournament could have some interesting encounters with Federer who could play Gonzalez and Ferrer en-route to his 3rd consecutive Final. And Nadal will meet fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro before Djokovic in what could be THE match of the tournament.