Tennis Atlantic

Day 4 Qualifying Report From Roland Garros 2015
Stefano Berlincioni for Tennis Atlantic

My last day at Roland Garros, an unbelievable experience for me.

Started the day at Marco Cecchinato- Michael Berrer. The Italian was dictating every rally at the beginning of the match but as soon as he took the lead for 4-2 he had to face an improved Berrer. Cecchinato suddenly lost the plot and on 4-4 literally mentally checked-out and regrouped a bit only at 4-6 0-3. He kept shouting to his box “He is not missing a single ball”.

Later I witnessed the epic kiss on clay by Christian Lindell after he won against Jan Hernych

Other matches where I could catch only photos of match points were Margarita Gasparyan-Maryna Zanevska and Alexa Glatch-Katerina Bondarenko

I greatly enjoyed Gasparyan’s one handed backhand and Glatch’s classy tennis.

Elias Ymer played another solid match even if he almost choked in the end, here is the short video of final point

I watched for a while Gastao Elias-Facundo Arguello. Elias was very nervous from 7-5 5-2, he started being less aggressive and Arguello sensed his opponent choking. They went to the tiebreak where Arguello played terrible tennis and at changeover over made a sign to his box miming “We can go home now”. He double faulted on mp. Arguello will not be going home however, as he reached the main draw as a lucky loser, and his reward is Andy Murray. Elias will face Benoit Paire.

I moved to Luca Vanni-Andrey Golubev for their third set. Vanni was always the second best in rallies and had to save 0-30 on 0-0 and on 1-1 and also 15.40 on 3-3. He broke from nowhere Golubev on 4-3 and managed to hold without risks. He saved all the key points with his huge serve. At the end of the match as usual was very kind with everyone asking him an autograph or a selfie.

Last ATP matches that I attended was Jared Donaldson-Nikoloz Basilashvili. It has been a great match, the best I watched in 4 days. Both played at great level and intensity, it is a pity that one of them could not qualify, both deserved. Donaldson lost 3 tough games from *2-1 to 2-4 in the third set and then he surrended.

I watched for a couple of other WTA matches: completely unimpressive Teliana Pereira (playing defensive and moonballing tennis, with also the bad habit of shouting a couple of seconds later than her shots) qualified over Laura Pous-Tio and Andrea Hlavackova won over Anatasia Rodionova in a match where you could smell the reciprocal “hate” in the air. In their last meeting they didn’t shake hands at the end of the match. I had to go to airport in the middle of second set

I had a tremendous time attending 2015 Roland Garros qualifying, and it was a pleasure to share my reports with the readers.

Scores

Referenced men’s matches
Berrer d. Cecchinato 6-4 6-2
Lindell d. Hernych 3-6 6-4 6-4
Elias d. Arguello 7-5 7-6
Ymer d. Carballes Baena 6-3 7-5
Vanni d. Golubev 6-4 3-6 6-3
Basilashvili d. Donaldson 6-2 4-6 6-2

Referenced women’s matches
Glatch d. Bondarenko 6-2 3-6 6-3
Gasparyan d. Zanevska 6-3 6-7 6-4
Pereira d. Pous-Tio 3-6 6-0 7-5
Hlavackova d. Rodionova 6-2 6-7 6-3