Ljubicic, Ferrero Exit French Open, Nadal Up TodayPosted on June 2, 2007 Two minor upsets featured on the men's side Friday at the French Open where red-hot Italian Filippo Volandri outlasted the clay-challenged No. 7 seed Ivan Ljubicic in five sets, and Mikhail Youzhny knocked out former Roland Garros champ Juan Carlos Ferrero in four sets.
The No. 29-seeded Volandri, still riding the emotional wave from beating world No. 1 Roger Federer earlier in the claycourt season, came back from 1-2 sets down for a 6-4, 6-7(7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory, besting his career-mark third round effort at Roland Garros in 2005. The No. 13-seeded Youzhny lost the first set before topping Ferrero. The Spaniard has lost a step since 2003 when he won Monte Carlo, Roland Garros, and stood atop the ATP Rankings briefly. Other seeded winners Friday were (1) Federer (d. Starace, bagel in the third), (4) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Llodra), (9) Tommy Robredo (d. Tipsarevic, bagel in the third), (15) David Nalbandian (d. Monfils in four), and (19) Guillermo Canas (d. Vliegen in four). "I didn't make any mistakes," said Federer after finishing his match with a 6-0 flourish. The only unseeded player into the fourth round Friday was Argentine Juan Monaco, who straight-setted Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Second-round winners in all-unseeded matches were Russian Igor Andreev (d. Massu in four) and French hope Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. countryman Simon in four). On court Saturday on the men's side at Roland Garros are Mathieu vs. Andreev, (2) Rafael Nadal vs. Al Montanes in an all-Spanish match-up, (16) Marcos Baghdatis vs. Jan Hajek, (6) Novak Djokovic vs. Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience, (23) Carlos Moya vs. Juan Pablo Brzezicki, (14) Lleyton Hewitt vs. Jarkko Nieminen (punter upset alert!), Fernando Verdasco vs. (12) David Ferrer in another all-ESP, and Jonas Bjorkman vs. Oscar Hernandez. |
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