Federer moves on at Roland Garros
2008 French Open
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- Day 14: New No. 1 Ivanovic wins title
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- Day 10: Men | | |
- Day 8: Men | | |
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- | | 3: Women | Rain
- Day 2: Women | Men | 1: Men |
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The top-ranked Federer beat Sam Querrey of the United States 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 Monday in the first round at Roland Garros, where the 12-time major champion is trying to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
"You never think you're going to be the guy that's going to draw him when the draw comes out," the 40th-ranked Querrey said. "But someone has to."
Federer was broken once early in the first set, but he managed to win five times on Querrey's serve.
"Once I got settled I played a little bit more better," Federer said. "I was able to create myself a few opportunities against his serve, which was sort of good. ... Give me a few days now again to practice, and hopefully I can play a bit better the next match."
Federer has played well on clay this season, despite having already lost seven times this year — more than he lost in the entire season in 2004, '05 and '06.
He won his only title of the year on clay in Estoril, Portugal, when Nikolay Davydenko retired from the final with a leg injury. Federer then reached the final at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Hamburg Masters, losing both times to Rafael Nadal.
"I've played well all clay-court season long," Federer said. "Didn't have many hiccups really, and I have plenty of matches. That was my goal as well. By playing Estoril, I was hoping to get that before Paris."
Nadal, who is undefeated at Roland Garros, has also beaten Federer in the last two French Open finals and in the 2005 semifinals. He was to start his quest for a fourth straight French Open title against Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, but the rain postponed his match until Tuesday.
The day's most significant upset was produced by another American, 106th-ranked Wayne Odesnik, who beat No. 29 Guillermo Canas of Argentina 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8). The match lasted the minimum number of sets yet took 3 hours, 46 minutes.
"There's not too much to say. I think he played well," said Canas, who's lost his past six matches, all on clay. "I didn't play well at all."
Odesnik is only 22, yet he was exhausted after his match and was checked by a doctor. He credited recent work with a sports psychologist for helping him play well in all of those tiebreakers.
"On the big points, I thought I played more aggressive and executed my shots better," said Odesnik, who was born in South Africa and moved to the United States as a toddler.
He's been trying to improve his clay-court game lately with Felix Mantilla, a Spaniard once ranked as high as 10th. Odesnik actually calls clay his favorite surface, something that's rare to hear from an American.
The only other seeded man to exit on Day 2 was No. 17 Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up, who lost to Simone Bolelli of Italy in straight sets. Baghdatis always draws a big crowd at Roland Garros because he trains at a Paris tennis academy.
"That's the way it is. That's tennis," said Baghdatis, who was returning to the game after more than a month off for personal reasons. "He played better than I did today."
Querrey was making his second appearance at the French Open. He also lost in the first round last year.
"He's an up and coming player who's got a good serve and big shots," Federer said.
Querrey is 6-foot-6 and relies on his big serve, one that once produced 10 consecutive aces in a match. But Federer had little trouble getting serves back, limiting Querrey to six aces and compiling 12 break points, five of which he converted.
"He just seems like he gets the racket on everything," Querrey said.
"It's hard. I mean, I'm still in awe of him," the American said. "Sometimes he hits shots, you're just like, 'I've seen that on TV a bunch of times."'
Richard Gasquet withdrew from the French Open because of a left knee injury. The eighth-seeded Frenchman pulled out shortly before he was scheduled to play Florent Serra. Santiago Giraldo of Colombia replaced Gasquet in the draw, and lost to Serra 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
Florian Mayer of Germany also withdrew. Mayer, who will be replaced by Evgeny Korolev of Russia, pulled out because of gastroenteritis. Korolev will now face Fabrice Santoro in the first round.
Tommy Robredo, the 12th-seeded player, rallied to beat 2004 French Open finalist Guillermo Coria 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 on center court.
Coria was playing at Roland Garros for the first time in three years. He missed much of the past two seasons with a right shoulder injury and had played in only four tour-level events since the 2006 U.S. Open.
No. 11 Tomas Berdych, No. 22 Fernando Verdasco and No. 24 Fernando Gonzalez advanced.
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