Sunday, May 24, 2009

2009 Rolland Garros Preview

It’s been a while since I’ve followed any tennis on the news or even on television. So now’s the time to do so with the second Grand Slam of the year already underway. The Rolland Garros (or more famously known as the French Open) is played on clay and will always represent our best chances of winning a Grand Slam.

The biggest disappointment about this year campaign is that we will not have David NALBANDIAN. Earlier this month he announced that he will undergo a hip surgery, resulting in not being able to continue for the rest of the season. By all means this has to be a big lost for us as he is still regarded in my opinion as one of our best.

So all Albiceleste hope will rest on the shoulder of Juan Martin DEL POTRO. The fifth seeded will face local hero Michael LLODRA in the first round. We all remember the last time he was action in the Grand Slam (Aussie Open) and how he was humble by Roger FEDERER. But a lot has changed since then as he has defeated Rafael NADAL and Fedex in a couple of ATP tournaments held during the last few months.

Another interesting tie will see 2004 winner Gaston GAUDIO taking on Radek STEPANEK. El Gato enters the tournament courtesy of a wild card entry. Juan Ignacio CHELA will have a tough tie when he takes on 3rd seeded Andy MURRAY.

Here are the rest of the first round fixtures: -

Diego JUNQUEIRA vs. Paul CAPDEVILLE (CHI)
Agustin CALLERI vs. Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP)
Martin Vassallo ARGUELLO vs. Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA)
Juan MONACO vs. Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP)
Maximo GONZALEZ vs. Andres SEPPI (ITA)
Brian DABUL vs. Sergiy STAKHOVSKY (UKR)
Sergio ROITMAN vs. Jurgen MELZER (AUST)
Eduardo SCHWANK vs. Guillaume RUFIN (FRA)
Leonardo MAYER vs. James BLAKE (USA)
Jose ACASUSO vs. Santiago VENTURA (ESP)

7 comments:

Sebastian said...

Well...our first two representatives have lost in straight sets too.

They were not the favourites, but I expected GAUDIO and CHELA to battle a little bit more against STEPANEK and MURRAY.

I was struck by the fact that I realised today that Gastón GAUDIO is the last Roland Garros champion not named Rafael NADAL.

It seems a long time ago now, but when GAUDIO won in 2004, he was the last one to put his hands on that trophy before NADAL started his reign in Paris.

Sebastian said...

Also, Agustín CALLERI lost to Nicolás ALMAGRO.

How far will DEL POTRO get?

messidona19 said...

I think he'll reach the quarters.
What ever happened to Guillermo Coria? In 2004 he was such a great player that i beleived that he could win straight Roland Garos titles but he mysteriously dissapeared.

Anonymous said...

I do not think ANYBODY is going to stop Rafa winning his 5th straight. I'd love Fed to win it but I do not seeing that happen unless Rafa pulls something and can not go on. I want Fed to get that complete Grand Slam. If he doesn't win this I hope he wins his Wimby back in a month or. Only time I have felt worse from watching that last game was the PK shoot out vs the Germans last time around. LETS GO FED!

Jack!

Unknown said...

It's really to bad that Coria got in psychological trouble. I would have loved to see him compete against Nadal/Federer on gravel :(

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