Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Tomas Berdych have advanced to the round of 32 at the Stade Roland Garros on Day 4 of the French Open 2015 and they were joined by five Frenchmen – Jo Wilfred Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Nicholas Mahut and Benoit Paire. Monfils defeated the Argentine Diego Schwartzman in an entertaining five set match on Court Phillipe Chatrier rallying from 1-2 deficit in sets. Mahut accounted for the hapless Latvian Ernest Gulbis in four sets while Paire upset the Italian Fabio Fognini in straight sets.

The 2009 champion Federer had to battle back from a break down in both the second and third set against the Spaniard Marcel Granollers before winning 6-2,7-6(1), 6-3 and next faces Damir Dmuzhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina who prevented a re-match of the 2006 Australian Open final as he eliminated the enigmatic Marcos Baghdatis in four sets. Wawrinka too needed four sets to beat the Serbian Davis Cup player Dusan Lajovic as did the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych who beat his team mate Radek Stepanek. Kei Nishikori proved his credentials as a title contender by beating the Brazilian left hander Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets.

The Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili followed up his upset win over the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez with a straight set demolition of Argentine Juan Monaco while the German Benjamin Becker took five sets to upset the veteran Spanish left hander Fernndo Verdasco winning 10-8 in the decider. Another Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut was also upset by Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic while the American Steve Johnson continued his march by beating the Russian Sergiy Stakhovsky. The Uruguyan Pablo Cuevas won a closely contested four set match against the recent winner in Nice, Dominic Thiem of Austria who won his maiden title on Saturday.

The top half matches to be played on Day 5 in the men’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Gilles Muller
Bernard Tomic (27) v. Thanasi Kokkinakis
Kevin Anderson (15) v. Yen Hsun Lu
Richard Gasquet (20) v. Carlos Berlocq
Jack Sock v. Pablo Carreno Busta
Tommy Robredo (18) v. Borna Coric
Rafael Nadal (6) v. Nicolas Almagro
Juergen Melzer v. Andey Kuznetsov
Andy Murray (3) v. Joao Sousa
John Isner (16) v. Jeremy Chardy
David Goffin (17) v. Santiago Giraldo
Marin Cillic (9) v. Andrea Arnaboldi
Leonardo Mayer (23) v. Jerzy Janowicz
David Ferrer (7) v. Daniel Gimeno-Traver
Victor Troicki (31) v. Simone Bolleli

Last year’s runner-up in the women’s singles Simona Halep, the third seeded Romanian has crashed out of the tournament loosing to the unseeded Croatian Mirjana Lucic Baroni 7-5,6-1. There were no such surprises for the defending champion Maria Sharapova that set up a fascinating encounter against the 2010 runner up Samantha Stosur. There were wins also for Spanishwomen Garbine Murguza and Carla Suarez Navarro. The local favourite Alize Cornet also advanced.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]