TENNIS FRENCH OPEN – David Ferrer is through to the Round of 16 at the French Open for the 6th time in his career with straight sets victory over Andreas Seppi 6-2 7-6(2) 6-3. Last year’s finalist has now made it to the second week of 16 consecutive majors. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
David Ferrer (5) is through to the Round of 16 at the French Open for the 6th time in his career with straight sets victory over Andreas Seppi (32) 6-2 7-6(2) 6-3. Last year’s finalist has now made it to the second week of 16 consecutive majors. Ferrer spoke of this achievement “I do my best to be consistent, to be among the best. Now I have reached the round of 16[,] I feel good. And I think this is an asset in a tennis career, to be this consistent.” There was not much to separate the two opponents, Ferrer and Seppi. The main difference in the match was the fact that Ferrer simply played the big points better.
Ferrer knew the danger of underestimating a player of Seppi’s caliber and so he raced out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set. It looked as though Seppi was going to claw his way into the match as he saved three set points on his serve to avoid losing it 1-6. Down 2-5, he saved another two set points and had break point to get one of the breaks back. However, poor decisions on those big points by the Italian, allowed Ferrer back into the points and gain the advantage. The Spaniard was not going to let a 6th set point go to waste. With an inside out forehand volley into the open court, he took the set 6-2.
In the 2nd set, Seppi was with Ferrer every set of the way. Every time he was broken, he broke back. Just when it looked like he was going to lose the 2nd set down 4-5. He broke Ferrer to get back on serve and force the matter to be decided in the tiebreaker. Ferrer gave his own assessment of this point in the match, “Well, I was up 40 15, and then I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden I was perhaps down a little. I was perhaps not aggressive enough with my forehand at that moment. This is when he started dominating the game, and then he played a lot better than before…and therefore, I lost my serve. This is because I was not paying enough attention to the game at that moment.” However, it was here again that Ferrer showed his experience and ability to play the big points well. He dominated in the breaker taking it 7-2 and the 2 sets to love advantage.
Again in the 3rd set, Seppi kept things close until the 8th game when he was serving to get to 4-4. Ferrer raised the level of his game and earned the crucial break which allowed him to serve for the match at 5-4. Ferrer wisely gave himself three match points as he needed two of them to close out the match 6-2 7-6 6-3. Ferrer will face Kevin Anderson (19) of South Africa for a place in the quarterfinals. Anderson made it to the Round 16 when Ivo Karlovic retired from the match with an injury after dropping the 1st set 3-6.
