Gael Monfils lost in the second round of the French Open Thursday, losing the conclusion of his much-discussed controversial match to Fabio Fognini of Italy 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 9-7.
The 13th-seeded Monfils had saved three match points before their match was suspended because of darkness on Wednesday at 5-5 in the fifth set.
Fognini was booed when he came back on the court for just 31 minutes on Thursday and withstood the crowd pressure to save a break point on his first game serve.
He made the decisive break in the 16th and last game coming back from love-40.
“He played well and he won,” Monfils said. “I like him. It was a strange match but he was better then me.”
Their relations weren’t so friendly before play was halted around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Monfils, a former French Open semifinalist, had served for the match at 5-3 in the third and blown it.
Tempers flared in the fifth set before the ninth game, when Fognini was reluctant to play because of darkness and was deducted a point.
“At 4-4 in the fifth set, the tournament referee (Stefan Fransson) asked Fabio if he wanted to keep playing,” Monfils said. “He said ‘yes’ twice. We could hardly see anything. I had already played in the dark before and both of us wanted to try to finish the match.”
But Fognini changed his mind. Following a long discussion with Fransson about whether to suspend the match, Fognini was still unhappy with the decision to continue and kept arguing, which led to Monfils being awarded a free point.
The conditions were so dark that Patrick McEnroe described the scene on ESPN2 as “One of the most amazing sights that I could barely see.”
Fognini accrued three match points at 5-4, but failed to convert any, and had some more choice words for the chair umpire while packing up his equipment for the night.
Fognini, who had never won a match at Roland Garros before this week, regretted his behavior.
“At 4-4 in the last set, there was a lot of tension,” he said. “At 5-4, 15-40, somebody directed a laser pointer towards me. That’s when I said very bad things in Italian.”
Fognini, through to the third round for the first time in any Grand Slam event, will next face 20th-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Andy Roddick is into the third round of the tournament after the American endured two delays and difficult conditions to defeat Blaz Kavcic 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
The damp weather took some zip off Roddick’s biggest weapon, and for much of the match he was dueling from the baseline on his worst surface. But Roddick has become a more patient player in recent months, and he willingly settled into rallies that often lasted more than two dozen shots.
“It was brutal for me out there,” he said. “I couldn’t get my serve to go anywhere, and the ball was just sitting up. It kind of takes away a lot of shots and it makes it just about hitting the ball and running. …
“I don’t know the last time I lost serve seven times and won. So, I mean, it’s bad, but there’s got to be something good in there somewhere, too.”
Roddick hadn’t played a match on clay this year when he arrived in Paris, but he’s now above .500 lifetime at Roland Garros—9-8.
Ana Ivanovic hit another low in her slide since winning the French Open two years ago, losing in the second round to No. 28 Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-0.
A former No. 1 player, Ivanovic was unseeded because she’s ranked only 42nd. The defeat marked her earliest exit in six trips to the French Open.
“It was a combination of a few things,” Ivanovic said. “I don’t think I played that bad, actually. For a while, I think she didn’t miss a ball at all.”
The match lasted barely an hour—brief enough to be completed between showers. Play was delayed for 4 1/2 hours at the start, and there were two later interruptions.
No. 4 seeded man Andy Murray beat Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2. American John Isner, seeded 17th, hit 38 aces and defeated Marco Chiudinelli 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (7), 6-4.
