A good day for Serena + Djokovic, Nadal on form

It had all the makings of a titanic struggle. One woman vying for the title of Greatest of All Time, another with her eye on the No.1 spot, and another having taken the maiden Grand Slam of the season. What happened? Tuesday happened, that’s what…

The best of the women:
Serena Williams had a good day at Roland Garros yesterday. A very good day indeed. Sure, her 6-2 6-0 win over Magdalena Rybarikova was as impressive as it was efficient (although she later admitted that she had hoped to be on court for longer). But it’s what happened elsewhere in the draw that would have really made Serena smile.

First there was Angie Kerber. The Australian Open champion, whom many had tipped for the title, crashed at the very first hurdle. Angie went down 6-2 3-6 6-3 to Kiki Bertens, dashing her hopes of emulating Steffi Graf and winning a Golden Slam on the rocks of reality.

Then there was Vika. Arguably the form player of the draw, Azarenka was due to meet Serena in the quarterfinals. Not any more. The No.5 seed disappeared down the Paris plughole following a 6-3 6-7(6) 4-0(RET) bashing by Karin Knapp.

A good day for Serena? Yes indeed.

Elsewhere, Venus scrapped past Anett Knotaveit 7-6(5) 7-6(4); 20th seed Johanna Konta got bashed 6-2 6-3 by Julia Goerges; and Ana Ivanovic got her campaign off to a suitably stuttering start, scraping past Oceane Dodin 6-0 5-7 6-2.

Then there was Schiavone. After losing 6-2 6-4 to Kristina Mladenovic the French Open did the humane thing and decided it was time to announce her retirement on Twitter. The problem was she hadn’t retired. The tweet was deleted and Francesca will fight another day.

“Roland Garros announced my retirement, but I didn’t,” Schiavone told the press. “So you can stand up, all of you, and go back to work in the office, because I didn’t say that. It was not the last one for me.”

The men’s action:
Star power. That’s what Tuesday at Roland Garros promised, and what the stars delivered. Novak Djokovic began his bid for a maiden Roland Garros title with a straightforward 6-4 6-1 6-1 destruction of Yen-Hsun Lu.

Not to be out-destructed, Rafa Nadal decided to teach ‘King slayer’ Sam Groth a thing or two about the dirt, thrashing the Aussie 6-1 6-1 6-1. There’s not a lot more you can say about that scoreline.

Carried over from the night before, Andy Murray finally finished the job against Radek Stepanek, but it wasn’t easy. The Scot, trailing by two sets to one from the night before, eventually sealed the deal with a break at the death of the match, winning it 3-6 3-6 6-0 6-3 7-5.

Elsewhere, home hopes for a Tsonga win were fanned by his 6-3 6-4 6-4 win over Struff; David Ferrer was in typically ruthless form on his favourite surface, downing Donskoy 6-1 6-2 6-0; Berdych made short work of Pospisil; Thiem took out Cervantes in four; Coric was an easy winner in his #NextGen battle against Taylor Fritz; and Marcos Baghdatis notched up his 300th career victory with a 7-5 6-4 6-1 win over Gilles Muller.

Finally, it was a good / bad day for the Aussies as Bernie Tomic beat Brian Baker 6-3 6-4 6-4 (good), but John Millman lost a tight one to John Isner 6-7(4) 7-6(12) 7-6(9) 7-5.

Ones to watch…
Wednesday at Roland Garros is Aussie day. Sort of (bit not really). Jordan Thompson takes on Ivo Karlovic on Court 3, followed by Sam Stosur v Shuai Zhang. Over on Court 6 , Nick Kyrgios will do battle with Igor Sijsling.

If you’re looking for an upset, Adrian Mannarino (if he’s on form) could cause Raonic a few problems. Petra Kvitova doesn’t need any help causing herself problems against Su-Wei Hsieh, and Caroline Garcia will be eyeing up Aga Radwanska with a view to the win.