Tennis
Venus dazzles as sun beats down in Paris
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-24 11:08
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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France celebrates defeating Daniel Brands of Germany at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, May 23, 2010. [Agencies] |
There was plenty on the menu but those opting for an extra glass of wine would have missed French wildcard Laurent Recouderc's predictable demolition by last year's men's runner-up Robin Soderling.
The Swede's brutal forehand, which bludgeoned Nadal to a first ever Roland Garros defeat last year, was far too hot for the 25-year-old journeyman who lost the first nine games before eeking a modicum of self-respect in a 6-0 6-2 6-3 loss.
Soderling, the fifth seed, walloped 46 winners, many of them threatening to wreak havoc with the beautifully-arranged geraniums lining the rectangle of sun-blasted red clay.
Fashion stakes
"It's always nice to have a quick match in the early rounds. I got to hit a few balls. We had a few rallies, so it was a good match," the quietly spoken Swede, whose sensational run last year was ended by Federer in the final, told reporters.
There was better news for French hopes in the match that followed when Aravane Rezai, a close second to Venus in the fashion stakes with a gold-flanked dress, crushed Canada's Heidi El Tabakh 6-1 6-1 to underline her credentials.
Fifteenth seed Rezai, who learnt to play tennis on ill-lit park courts in St Etienne under the glare of the headlights of her father's van, beat Venus to win the Madrid title recently and is on course to meet the American in the fourth round here.
Seven-times grand slam winner Venus, whose best effort here was losing to her sister Serena in the 2002 final, looked in fine fettle against Schnyder, a player she had beaten in all 10 of their previous meetings.
Inevitably, she was asked to describe her latest outfit, which also featured skin coloured underwear.
"The outfit was about illusion, and that's been a lot my motif this year, illusion," Venus, who turns 30 next month, dreamily told reporters.
Tsonga's hopes of becoming France's first men's French Open champion since Yannick Noah in 1983 also looked an illusion as he laboured against the 89th-ranked Brands.
After dropping the first set, Tsonga seemed to have the match in his pocket when he won the next two but a poor fourth-set tiebreak took it to a decider.
After dropping serve early on he hit back and with the home crowd roaring him on in the evening sunshine he survived to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-7 7-5.
A few seeds are already packing their bags though, most notably Victoria Azarenka, the women's 10th seed from Belarus, who crumbled against Argentina's Gisela Dulko, winning just three games.
In the men's draw Latvian dark horse Ernests Gulbis, the 23rd seed, damaged a hamstring while doing the splits against Frenchman Julien Benneteau and retired at two sets down.
There were no such worries for Croatia's Marin Cilic, the 10th seed, who beat Brazil's Ricardo Mello 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-1.
