TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – Rafael Nadal, current world’s number 1 and undisputed “King of Clay” comes into this year’s French Open in an unusual position; he is not the overwhelming odds-on favourite to win the title. However, in his opening round match against Robby Ginepri, the Spaniard was near perfection as he demolished his opponent 6-0 6-3 6-0. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal, current world’s number 1 and undisputed “King of Clay” comes into this year’s French Open in an unusual position; he is not the overwhelming odd-on favourite to win the title. He has suffered three losses on clay this season (first time in nearly a decade) and won his lone Master Series 1000 title of the year in Madrid when is opponent retired in the final. However, in his opening round match against veteran American Robby Ginepri, the Spaniard was near perfection as he demolished his opponent 6-0 6-3 6-0 in about an hour and 42 minutes. Nadal with this performance raised the odds that he is still the man to beat here in Paris.
Ginepri started the match with a double fault and this seemed to have set the tone for the rest of the match. He relinquished his service game when he again double faulted and Nadal quickly snatched the set 6-0 in 29 minutes. Ginepri was constantly being rushed and made to feel that he had to go for winners at the slightest of opportunities. This in turn made the American very erratic. He committed 16 errors alone in the first set whereas Nadal only had 7. The Spaniard relinquished only one point on serve and was very aggressive on his return game. When Ginepri had 3 game points in the 5th game of the set, Nadal remained adamant that he had to have break opponent and so he did.
In the 2nd set, Ginepri showed signs of the player that saw him rise to a career high ranking of 15 in 2005. He finally got the scoreboard and was able to earn his sole break point of the match during the 4th game of the set. Nadal quickly dismissed this slight danger with a few quick flicks of his racquets to remain on serve. The American did not initially look dismayed by this missed rare opportunity and held serve to go up 3-2. However, his effort of securing those three games against Nadal became his undoing as he lost the next ten games of the match 0-6 3-6 0-6. The 3rd set was a masterclass of Nadal’s clay court prowess. He allowed Ginepri only 9 points in the set as he won three times as many. Overall, the Spaniard only dropped 11 points on serve and had 27 winners to 15 errors. Ginepri on the other hand committed 41 errors to 18 winners.
This matchup had a bit of controversial slice to it as many questioned whether the USTA should have awarded Ginepri this French reciprocal wildcard. The detractors overlooked the fact that the American had rightly earned it by his recent efforts on the Challenger circuit. It is highly unlikely that a much younger inexperienced American player would have fared better than Ginepri did against Nadal. Added to all this was the fact that the 8th time and defending Champion had his first round match shunted to the 2nd show court, Suzanne Lenglen instead of the Philippe Chatrier court in favour of the Alize Cornet v Ashleigh Barty match. However, Nadal had this to say on the subject, “Doesn’t really matter a lot. Always playing Roland Garros is a pleasure for me, is a really honor, and is a special feeling. So all the memories at this place give me are unforgettable.” The Spaniard will be looking to continue the good times here with his 2nd round encounter against Austrian Dominic Thiem a very hot prospect on the tour.
