Gael Monfils- Getty Images

Frenchmen Thriving at Roland Garros

May 30, 2008

As the first dry day finished at the French Open on Friday, six native Frenchmen were left standing in the men’s main singles draw. Paul-Henri Mathieu, the only seeded player among the six, secured his spot in the fourth round by defeating Argentinean qualifier Eduardo Schwank 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(9).

Mathieu, the No. 18 seed, is carrying the most hometown pressure right now as both No. 9 Richard Gasquet and No. 11 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to pull out of the Grand Slam event with knee injuries. However, the 26 year-old is handling it all in stride as he matched his best Roland Garros performance by reaching the final 16. The last time he made it to the fourth round was in 2002 where he was defeated by Andre Agassi in a five-set thriller. Mathieu will now face No. 3 Novak Djokovic for a spot in the quarter-finals. With all eyes on rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the Serbian has quietly sailed into the fourth round with a couple of easy victories.

Also representing France in the round of 16 are Michael Llodra and wildcard entry Jeremy Chardy. Both have managed to create significant upsets to get to this point with Llodra taking out No. 11 Thomas Berdych and Chardy pushing No. 6 David Nalbandian out in five sets in the second round. Chardy also eliminated No. 30 Dmitry Tursunov in his third round match. Chardy will next face Spain’s Nicolas Almagro while Llodra will be up against Lativa’s Ernests Gulbis.

All three of those French players are in the same half of the draw as No. 2 Nadal who has continued his clay mastery by reaching the fourth round without dropping a set … or breaking a sweat. Most are anticipating a Nadal-Federer re-match in the final as the No. 1 player is also still alive in the top half of the draw. Federer plays his third round match on Saturday against Croatia’s Mario Ancic.

Federer may also encounter a couple of Frenchmen on his way as Gael Monfils, Julien Benneteau and Florent Serra will play their third round matches in Paris on Saturday as well. Benneteau needed two five-set matches to defeat Vincent Spadea and Alejandro Falla, while Serra also needed to go the distance against Victor Hanescu to get to this point. Monfils, on the other hand, has had no problem reaching the third round in straight sets. Monfils will now play Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, Benneteau will be up against Sweden’s Robin Soderling and Serra will play American Robby Ginepri.

The other Top 10 players left in the draw are No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko who will play Ivan Ljubicic in the third round, No. 5 David Ferrer who will face Australian Lleyton Hewitt and No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) who is up against Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.