The 2009 French Open at Roland Garros kicked off today with a slew of quality matches. Third-ranked Andy Murray and defending women’s champion Ana Ivanovic both got off to sluggish starts but managed to pull through. In other notable matches, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Nadia Petrova, and Victoria Azarenka all advanced.
Murray, who has reached only one clay-court semifinal in his career, was broken in the first game of the match, but he then dominated Chela with 55 winners and 10 aces to advance to the second round.
“After that, I was very happy with the way I played,” Murray said of the early break. “I wasn’t expecting to play that well in the first match.”
Defending champion Ana Ivanovic struggled on the important points in the opening match on center court before beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the women’s draw.
The eighth-seeded Serb converted only five of the 20 break points she earned against her opponent. Errani broke three times and even served for the first set at 5-4.
“I knew I had to work hard for my points today, and I’m very happy I did that,” Ivanovic said. “And I kept my composure.”
Murray looked rusty early in his match, but he soon began to hit some hard groundstrokes and move Chela around the court. While Murray only had four fewer unforced errors — 19 to Chela’s 23 — the Briton had 41 more winners.
I think people often forget about the dramatic weight in the women’s competition amidst all the Federer vs. Nadal speculation. Ana Ivanovic, who has taken a complete nosedive since winning this tournament last year, is going to have a rough road ahead of her if she wants regain her position as one of the best players in women’s tennis. Serena Williams and Dinara Safina have both been playing great tennis and I would put my money on either of them over Ivanovic.
As for the men’s draw, don’t count on Murray making it to the finals. He’s not a great clay-court player and both Nadal and Federer know Roland Garros better than any player on the tour. Anything less than a Nadal/Federer final would be an injustice to all of tennis.
