[Diane Dees]

My favorite of the four!

Mauresmo is out in the first round, so I'll get that bad news out of the way. The other upset the first day, on the women's side, was that of Kaia Kanepi. Both upsets really surprised me.

Among the men, Ivo Karlovic was upset--after he hit 55 aces.

Several WTA players are coming in with various ailments: Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Victoria Azarenka all have bad knees, Dominika Cibulkova has a thigh injury. Sabine Lisicki recovered from a shoulder injury but very recently was hospitalized for a painful g.i. problem.

[Chris Childers]

Wtf?

...............

[Diane Dees]

It's true, Chris. Rafa was unsure of himself, and Soderling was playing out of his mind. See it if you get a chance. Soderling was playing so well that he might have even defeated a more "on" Rafa.

Of all people to beat Rafa--the guy who mocked him publicly two years ago.

[Chris Hanson]

I just checked out the discussion page on the Roland Garros website and, as well as the general disbelief at the Nadal defeat, many are salivating at the prospect of a Federer championship.
I think it's probably on the cards, but by no means a certainty (Nadal is now the classic example of a good thing beaten).
If Fed can't win now, he never will.

Serena again (!) in the women's, for my money.

[Chris Childers]

It sounds like a match-up victory--Soderling was able to use his height and pace to keep Nadal's heavy high top-spin from bothering him too much. The same balls that Federer gets so frustrated trying to handle on his backhand are right in the Soderling strike-zone. (Apparently.)

That Federer will win is by no means a foregone conclusion, though his chances now are certainly improved. If Andy Murray makes the final, he will be very dangerous, because he has already had the experience of losing to Fed in a Grand Slam final and will have learned a lot from that. Djokovic did the same thing two years ago--lost to Fed in the US Open Final then turned around and beat him at the Australian. & Murray seems often to have Fed's number at the smaller tournaments. There's now a ton more pressure on Roger, too; he's got to keep the tunnel vision and take this thing one match at a time. I hope he does it, but we'll see.

Chris

[David Nelson Bradsher]

I couldn't believe Soderling was the one who took Rafa out. One would think Nadal would be more up for any match involving the guy who mocked him a few years ago. But, as we used to say, Soderling was "treeing", built up the momentum, and that's what happens sometimes when there's not much separating the physical abilities of most players. This time, Rafa's mental game couldn't get it done when he was a bit off against a guy playing the match of his life.

DNB

[Chris Childers]

& now as I write this I don't have TV but apparently Fed has dropped the first two sets against Tommy Haas, but won the third. I'm going to go watch it.

Edit: Or maybe I'm not, because it's not on. Sigh.

Edit again: It looks like 5. Fed's up 5-0 in the 4th.

[David Nelson Bradsher]

Originally Posted by Chris Childers

& now as I write this I don't have TV but apparently Fed has dropped the first two sets against Tommy Haas, but won the third. I'm going to go watch it.

Egads!!! What's going on at Roland Garros? Methinks Roger saw too much green grass on his path ahead and stepped right in it when he wasn't minding his next step.

Haas is a good player, but prone to streaks. He could just as easily lose sets four and five easily once Roger gets it going.

[Chris Childers]

Originally Posted by David Nelson Bradsher

Haas is a good player, but prone to streaks. He could just as easily lose sets four and five easily once Roger gets it going.

Good call there. Fed bageled him in the 4th.

[David Nelson Bradsher]

I imagine when he went two breaks down he mailed in the set to converse for the fifth.

My brother just called me at work to tell me that Roger is up 4-2 in the fifth and looking to break again.