Find out who made it through to the Roland Garros 2013 Quarter-finals and how a slam changes in the second week.
This is a guest article by Liz Curran who is currently attending Roland Garros 2013. Follow her on Twitter @lizcurran
We’re in the Roland Garros home straight.
It’s the end of Day 9 of the Roland Garros main draw and we now know the people who will make up the women’s and men’s quarter final matches.
The rhythm of a slam changes about now. Suddenly with all the Round of 16 matches completed tomorrow’s order of play has the matches on the two main show courts starting at 2pm, rather than at 11am as they have up until now.
Line up for the Men’s Quarter Finals:
- Djokovic v Haas
- Nadal v Wawrinka
- Robredo v Ferrer
- Tsonga v Federer
Rafa!
And for the Ladies:
- Serena Williams v Kuznetsova
- A Radwanska v Errani
- Kirilenko v Azarenka
- Jankovic v Sharapova
Sharapova practicing
Many players have left now and are already practising or competing in their next competition (many of my favourites are currently in Nottingham for the challenger on the grass) and there’s beginning to be a slightly different air about the place. This feeling will continue to grow as we head towards the final weekend and the finals themselves when the locker rooms will only have the two last contenders standing in them.
Thankfully the junior competitions including girls, boys, singles and doubles are still in full swing so there is plenty of youthful energy about the site at the start of this second week of the Slam.
I really enjoy watching the juniors play. Calling them boys and girls is something of a misnomer – they are in various stages of being pretty close to being fully grown up and their matches are competitive and very watchable.
Today (Monday Day 9) however was still very much packed out for the completion of the final Round of 16 main draw matches including the Stan Wawrinka V Gasquet 5 set thriller which brought The Boulevard to an anxious standstill as everyone stood to watch the screens on the side of the Suzanne Lenglen court in the balmy early evening sunshine. The noise the crowd made would have made a football team proud – it really was spine tingling to listen to the chants of Allez Richard, but Stan the Man was too strong and he goes through to face the King of Clay, Rafa Nadal.
Crowds watching Wawrinka v Gasquet on the big screen
Two miscellaneous observations
I have to share that I found a third water fountain on site – finding them feels like winning an Easter Egg hunt. This one is on the road leading to the exit next to court six. I think I am the only person that gets excited about these items but they are pretty, and obviously useful, in my opinion. I think I have now found them all but if I find another one lurking then I will of course share it!
Another water fountain!
Finally, I’ve watched quite a few juniors tennis matches since Sunday, when the competition started. Today it struck me that the ball kids on these matches tend to me mini sized. They really do seem to be very young indeed. The following picture illustrates – this little one is not much taller than the net!
Until next time
Liz