consecutive time Archives - World Tennis Magazine

By Blair Henley

Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin’s matches were suspended due to darkness yesterday, but both easily finished off their opponents 6-3, 6-3 on a sunny Day 6 at Roland Garros. They face each other next, setting up a showdown more suited to a Grand Slam final than the third round.

The two last played in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Australian Open where Sharapova emerged victorious, but Henin, seeded No. 22 has never lost to the Russian on clay. Twelfth-seeded Sharapova famously likened her movement on the dirt to that of “a cow on ice” and will be at a strong disadvantage against her heavily favored opponent.

“It’s going to be an interesting match,” Henin said. “Comes very early, of course, third round, but I expect a big fight as we always had in the past. It’s going to be very exciting to play her again in the second career. The motivation is going to be really high just to keep going in this tournament.”

Serena Williams blasted winner after winner in her 6-1, 6-1 route of Julia Goerges, making her way into the third round of a Grand Slam for the 41^st consecutive time. Despite winning in under an hour, the No. 1 seed says the match was helpful.

“I can learn a lot, like, ‘OK, what am I doing today? How can I get them to all be like that?”’ she said. “Those are the questions that I ask and I try to answer.”

At the bottom of the draw sister Venus also advanced, topping Slovakian counterpuncher Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round for the first time since 2006. Her best result at the French Open came in 2002 when she lost to Serena in the final.

No. 29 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will face Serena next after handily defeating American Jill Craybas 6-4, 6-1. Another Russian Anastasia (Pivovarova), ranked No. 187, upset No. 25 seed Jie Zheng 6-4, 6-3. No. 7 seed Sam Stosur and No. 16 seed Yanina Wickmayer advanced in three sets. No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 13 Marion Bartoli, No. 14 Flavia Pennetta and No. 23 Daniela Hantuchova also won.

By Charles Bricker

What more fitting way Friday for Rafa Nadal to win for the 30th consecutive time at Monte Carlo — at 40-15 a flat dart of a serve to the far corner of the deuce court and Juan Carlos Ferrero’s weak return into the net.

Nadal’s serving gets short shrift stacked up alongside his heavy topspin forehand, his amazing defense and his high-intensity competitiveness, but it can’t be overlooked in the arsenal he’s depending on to take him back to the top of tennis.

It’s not a boomer. He seldom hits heavier than 120 mph. But after some down time the last year and a half, the accuracy is back and he’s added some important variety to his placements.

This 6-4, 6-2 victory over good friend Ferrero moved Nadal into the semifinals against David Ferrer and let it be said that no one appears good enough at this point to stand in his way.

That was far from Nadal’s finest tennis on display on this windy, drizzly day in Monte Carlo, but that’s not to suggest he was mediocre. There were enough scintillating shots off his forehand side, plus one deadly short-angled backhand cross-court late in the match to let you know that, if the conditions are better, he’s going to be just about impeccable.

On the down side, he committed more unforced errors than winners for the first time this week (16 to 17) and he was broken for the first time as Ferrero rallied from an early break down in the opening set to win three games in a row. But after a short delay and calmer winds Nadal took control.

I’ve chronicled in this space how much more confident he looks on serve, especially in the ad court, where he’s no longer just trying to curl the ball deep to the backhand side against righties. He’s coming down the line more and throwing in a few body shots, and, when opponents “cheat” over to cover the down-the-middle, it only makes that slice to the backhand side more effective.

That break by Ferrero in the opening set was his only break point. In two previous matches this week, against young Thiemo de Bakker and linebacker-sized Michael Berrer, Nadal had defended the only three break points against him in a couple of matches that never reached the one-hour mark.

But it’s one thing to run up some impressive numbers against de Bakker and Berrer. It’s quite another when you’re dealing with Ferrero, who has won Monte Carlo twice. Back from injury last year, Ferrero has slowly recovered from a plunge to No. 115 back to No. 16 this week and came into the Nadal match with a 19-5 record. No one would be astonished if he was top-10 by the first day at Roland Garros.

This would be Nadal’s first real test of the clay court season and, though his stroking could use a bit more consistency — not much, but a bit, to reach his French Open standard — his defense was, as usual, fantastic. And as this match wore on and Ferrero found it harder and harder to hit winners (he had just 14 total), he played with more and more risk and too often found himself wide or deep of the lines. Nadal does that to everyone.

For Nadal, this is going to be a most interesting clay court season. He has to find just the right balance between wanting to play as much as possible before Roland Garros and the lurking threat of more knee problems.

Right now, he couldn’t look fitter. But none of us look at him any longer in the way we did two years ago — as the indestructible youth. There have been enough glitches with those legs to leave you wondering when, not if, the next injury will occur.

Maybe the road bumps the last year and a half are over. Maybe the doctors and trainers have found the right path to keeping him on court. No one, including Nadal, knows at this point.

This is just his first clay court tournament of the long build-up to the French, but know this. He’s playing with supreme confidence and it’s good to see him back at that level.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com