Djokovic/Del Potro French Open Round 3 Review

Juan Martin Del Potro (left); Novak Djokovic (right)

The match that everyone has been waiting/hoping for since the French Open draw came out has come and gone.  I don't really know what the schedule makers were thinking when they decided to make this the last match of the day.  I'm sure they didn't expect the matches before it to go the distance, but this was a time when the women's match should have been scheduled last, this match was too big of a blockbuster to even have the possibility of being played over a two day period...but I digress.

Juan Martin Del Potro

Day one, Friday, May 27th.  The match started off as expected, with both guys knocking the fuzz off of the ball, Nole feeding off the pace that DelPo was feeding to him.  Serving at 2-2, Nole saves two break chances on his serve, then went on to break Juan Martin in his next service game to go up 4-2.  This proved to be the only break needed for Nole to take the set 6-3.  DelPo didn't play a bad set, but he gave Djokovic too much of what he likes - a lot of pace coming at him.  In the second set, Juan Martin realizing what mistakes he had made in the first, started taking some pace off the ball & putting more air under his shots, forcing Djokovic to create his own pace, thus making more errors. It was the fourth game of the second set in which Juan Martin broke serve, with the help of a Djokovic double fault, to go up 3-1.  Same as the first, one break was all that was needed for DelPo to take the set 6-3.  At this point, one hour 37 minutes after the match began, it's dark, and for whatever reason, the folks at Roland Garros have decided never to install lights on the courts.  Each player is sitting in the chairs, DelPo looks over to Nole, nods his head & says, "we stop, okay?".  Nole packs up his rackets, as does Juan Martin, and the tournament umpire comes out to confirm the obvious, play suspended until Saturday.

Novak Djokovic

Day two, Saturday, May 28th.  The match begins with Juan Martin firing missiles from the 'Tower of Tandil', but Nole's movement and defense skills fought each one of them off.  Forgetting what he had done to take the second set, and missing out on break chance opportunity with Nole serving at 2-2, Juan Martin in frustration, slammed his racket into his racket bag during the changeover.  With DelPo serving, Nole did what he does best, breaks serve to go up 4-2 in the second.  Both guys started taking the spin off the ball, hitting hard & flat, both holding serve, but the one break proved too much for Juan Martin to overcome.  Nole takes set number three 6-3.  First point of the forth set, DelPo comes out with the heavy artillery and hit a passing shot that froze the Djoker in his tracks.  For a moment it looked like it would be a replay of Friday's second set, but it wasn't meant to be.  Serving at 1-1, DelPo saved one break point against him, but then gave Nole the gift of a double fault - DelPo goes down 1-2 in the set.  He was able to break back, but so was Nole, two more times, to take the set and the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.  "Today he’s done much better than me and he took his opportunities and made the match very difficult," Del Potro said. "I had my chance in third set, 2-all, two break points, and I miss it. Against this player, if you don’t take your chance, you lose." 

Friends once again, Nole (front), DelPo (back)

Djokovic improves his season record to 40-0.  Next up for the Serb, will be France's own, Richard Gasquet on Sunday.  If he wasn't before, Nole is looking more & more like the clear favorite to win this year in Paris, especially with Rafa playing scratchy - scratchy for Rafa's standards anyway.