Williams Marches On
Serena Williams' 2015 Roland Garros hasn't always been as pretty or as dominant as we're used to seeing. She's battled herself as much as her opponents and was stretched to three sets three matches in a row. Yesterday's quarterfinal against Errani was a bit less dramatic, though Serena's performance was still more gutsy than free-flowing. In the end, Errani simply didn't have enough weapons to hurt the number one seed and Serena Williams moved into the semifinals for the fourth time.
Bonus Trivia
The last time Serena Williams played three straight three-set matches at a Grand Slam was way back in 1999 at the US Open when she actually played four three-set matches in a row. She went on to win that tournament for her very first Grand Slam title.
The Dark Horse
At 25 years of age, Timea Bacsinszky's career has been decent, but hampered by injuries. Things finally started coming together for the Swiss last year when she had her first top 50 season. Now she's gone even farther and will be making her maiden appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal.
Birthday Blues
Rafael Nadal celebrated his 29th birthday yesterday, but unfortunately for the King of the Clay, there wasn't much of a party on the court. Novak Djokovic thoroughly dominated in straight sets, breaking Nadal seven times and hitting forty-five winners to Nadal's sixteen. Though a lot has been made of Nadal's vulnerability on clay this year, Djokovic deserves lots of credit for this win. Sure, Nadal wasn't at his best, but he looked stronger than he has during the past few months and Djokovic was able to sweep him aside more easily than I would've predicted.
More Birthday Blues
Not only did Rafael Nadal lose for just the second time in eleven years at Roland Garros, but as a result of this loss, his world ranking will drop to ten or eleven, depending on Tsonga's result. The positive flipside is that Nadal has very few points to defend through the rest of the year. If he can play well on the hard courts, he should be able to make up some ground.
Meanwhile, on Court Suzanne Lenglen
With Nadal and Djokovic hogging up the spotlight during their highly anticipated quarterfinal, Andy Murray and David Ferrer were relegated to something of an "undercard" status. Despite that, they quietly put together a solid and very entertaining match as well. Murray was in control throughout—except for a slight lapse near the end of the third that cost him the set—and extended his 2015 clay court record to 15-0. Next up, though, is Novak Djokovic who's on a 28-match win streak, including his own 15-0 record on the clay.