The Tricolor Gets Back On Track

During the first-two days of the Paris tournament, the French had lost five-straight matches. To start out the third day of play, Jeremy Chardy lost his hard-fought match against Juan Monaco. Things were looking bleak for the French fans.

Out of nowhere, French qualifier and world no. 179 David Guez upset Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. Julien Benneteau beat Philip Petzschner in a tight match. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga then had a routine win over Albert Montanes to kick off the evening matches.

Gilles Simon had a difficult matchup with Ivan Ljubicic. The Croat has been playing really well of late and had caused a lot of trouble during the indoor circuit. He was especially troublesome for French players. In the last month, Ljubicic picked off Paul-Henri Mathieu, Julien Benneteau, Gael Monfils, Florent Serra, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra. Plus, it did not help matters that Gillou has played victim to the Croat in all three of their previous meetings.

On paper, it looked like he might cause trouble for Simon again. Instead, the 24 year old played well for the most part of the match. The Frenchman was finally able to post his first win over the veteran able by surpassing Ljubicic 6-3 3-6 7-6(4) in a three-set thriller. Gilliou now advances to play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an evil matchup of compatriots in third round.

After hemorrhaging matches for the first-two days, the French ended day three 4-1. Things are starting to look up for the tricolor.

Tuesday’s Results
Singles First Round
Nicolas Almagro (ESP) def. Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) 6-2 6-4
[Q] David Guez (FRA) def. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 6-3 6-4
Juan Monaco (ARG) def. Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 7-6(6) 7-5
Julien Benneteau (FRA) def. Philipp Petzschner (GER) 4-6 7-5 6-3
[Q] Arnaud Clement (FRA) def. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 6-3 6-1
Singles Second Round
6 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) def. Benjamin Becker (GER) 6-2 6-1
7 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) def. Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4
8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. Albert Montanes (ESP) 6-1 7-5
11 Gilles Simon (FRA) def. Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) 6-3 3-6 7-6(4)

Doubles First Round
B. Soares (BRA)/K. Ullyett (ZIM) def. P. Cuevas (URU)/O. Marach (AUT) 6-1 7-6(6)
M. Granollers (ESP)/T. Robredo (ESP) def. J. Del Potro (ARG)/F. Gonzalez (CHI) 7-6(2) 6-2
C. Kas (GER)/P. Kohlschreiber (GER) def. J. Monaco (ARG)/R. Nadal (ESP) 4-6 7-5 15-13 - saved 2 M.P.
J. Kerr (AUS)/T. Parrott (USA) def. M. Damm (CZE)/J. Erlich (ISR) 6-3 6-4
J. Brunstrom (SWE)/J. Rojer (AHO) def. WC S. Grosjean (FRA)/F. Santoro (FRA) 6-3 3-6 10-5

Wednesday’s Order of Play

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(Image: C. Saidi/FFT)