Roland Garros Day 6: Order of Play + Preview + Predictions

After a pretty standard day in Paris - except for the marathon match between Mathieu and Isner - there are a good number of popcorn matches for us to look forward to tomorrow.

The order of play for Day 6 can be found here.

First of all lets cover the big names.

Federer vs. Mahut
The world number three comes up against Wimbledon marathon man; Nicolas Mahut. A man with a big serve who likes to rush to the net and keep the rallies short. I don't see this being effective against Federer - and especially not on a clay court. Federer has a very accurate passing shot and will have even more time on a clay court. Mahut won't have much look in on Federer's service games as it will be difficult for him to get to the net where he likes to win his points. He does have a handy serve though so maybe a couple of sets could be reasonably tight. I'd predict a fairly straight forward three-set win for the Swiss.

Djokovic vs. Devilder
Djokovic comes up against Frenchman Nicolas Devilder. He's a lefty but he's rather short so the lefty serve won't do much harm to a top returner like Novak. Devilder is a clay court specialist - in the sense that all his tournament victories on the Challenger court were on clay - but I doubt he's enough of a specialist to do the Serb any harm. Three simple sets for Djokovic.

Simon vs. Wawrinka

A battle between a defensive and an offensive player - these types of matches are always good. Wawrinka will always look to take the upper hand in a rally while Simon will be happy to sit back and keep the rally going, extracting the error. Both men have played five set matches in their Roland Garros campaign thus far, but Simon's one was more recent against the resurgent Brian Baker who made the Frenchman seem pretty ordinary for two sets. Wawrinka looked very convincing in the last two sets of his match against Andujar and I think he'll continue his good form in this match. I think this one could be very close indeed, but I think Wawrinka will manage it in four sets.

Del Potro vs. Cilic

This is the match of the day. Cilic seems to have worked himself back into some type of form - I thought he'd have cracked the top ten by now, two years ago. Both players have dangerous serves and love to attack with their follow up. Del Potro has been very pumped in his last couple of matches but has had some difficulty sustaining a good level of tennis in his matches. Cilic on the other hand breezed past former champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero but his forehand still has a tendency to disappear unexpectedly in a match. This is going to be a close one and I can see it going either way but I'm going to go for Del Potro in four - if it were to go to a fifth though, I think Cilic will steal it.

Enjoy!

Monte Carlo Day 3: Order of Play + Popcorn Matches

• • You can find the order of play for tomorrow here.
  • Here are my thoughts on the popcorn matches of the day.
  • Andy Murray vs Viktor Troicki
  • Although this is not the most exciting fixture of the day, it is still a difficult first match on the clay for the Scot. It's always interesting to see how Murray fares against a player with the power that Troicki possesses - but this is clay court tennis now, power is not as overwhelming and as much of a weapon as it is on the other court surfaces. For this reason I think Troicki will find it difficult to keep the rallies short - especially against a mover like Murray. I think Murray will be victor (pun intended) in two reasonably comfortable sets.
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  • Kohlschreiber vs Tsonga
  • This is probably the most watchable match of the day as Kohlschreiber is accomplished on a clay court and Tsonga is a threat on all surfaces. What makes this match especially watchable is that both players are all court players which is nice to see as a lot of what we see is intense baseline rallying - especially on clay. I can see this match going either way but Tsonga is the safer bet as the German can be up and down in terms of his standard of play. I'm not going to be risky, I'll go with Tsonga to win this one in two, possibly three.
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  • Stanislas Wawrinka vs Feliciano Lopez
  • A similar case to the Kohlschreiber-Tsonga match in the sense that both players are all court players - although one could argue that Lopez is more accomplished at the net compared to the baseline. Lopez made the semifinals last week in Houston, only to lose in a very close match with John Isner, and so you could say Lopez is in-form. Whereas Wawrinka has been up and down this year - as he often is - but is a very accomplished clay court player and is more of a threat from the back of the court and so for this reason I don't think Lopez will pose much of a threat on Wawrinka's service games. The sets could be close due to Lopez's majestic serve - he may even manage to sneak a set - but I'd favour Wawrinka in this match.
  • Happy watching!