STILL More Bracket Busters
The upsets just keep coming. The defending women's champion and the tournament's top seed Serena Williams bowed out in straight sets to hard-hitting Garbine Muguruza. Make no mistake, Muguruza was not an easy second round match. Ranked #35 in the world, she just missed getting seeded and made the 4th round at the Australian Open earlier this year. Still, Serena's loss had more to do with how poorly Serena played than anything specific that her opponent did. The 6-2, 6-2 defeat was Serena's worst loss ever at a Major. Serena's sister Venus also fell in three sets to Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia. The absence of both Williams sisters in that quarter of the draw now leaves a gaping hole in the draw big enough for Sharapova to drive a truck all the way into the semifinals.
Taylor Townsend
American wildcard Taylor Townsend—competing for the first time ever in the main draw of a Major—pulled off an excellent upset of Alize Cornet, the 20th seed. Things looked dicey when Townsend lost the second set after leading 4-1 but she bounced back and rattled off three straight games to open the third set. After building a 5-1 lead in the decisive third set, Townsend almost let the match slip away again as Cornet battled back all the way to 5-4 before Townsend finally converted on her 5th match point. She'll next face the 14th seed, Carla Suarez-Navarro. Townsend is the youngest woman from the United States to make it to the third round since 2003.
60
Roger Federer advanced to the third round and recorded his 60th win on the red clay of Roland Garros yesterday when he topped Diego Sebastian Schwartzman 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. With that win, Federer became the first man in the history of tennis to have won at least 60 matches at every one of the Grand Slams. Federer's third round opponent will be Russian Dmitry Tursunov. Federer is 4-0 against the Russian, including a meeting at Indian Wells earlier this year.
Dodging Rain Drops
Players have been forced to contend with rain and delays a few times so far during this year's French Open. Rain interfered again yesterday, forcing play to be suspended early, though John Isner was able to finish with a win before the stoppage. Two of the scheduled women's singles matches didn't finish. France's Pauline Parmentier is now scheduled to finish her match against Yaroslava Shvedova tomorrow on Court 7 following the Axel Michon vs Kevin Anderson match. Monica Niculescu and Paula Ormaechea are also scheduled to finish tomorrow on Court 2 following the conclusion of Camila Giorgi vs Svetlana Kuznetsova.
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