A predictable bombshell

When is a shock result not all that much of a shock ? When it involves Andy Roddick at Roland Garros, perhaps. Clay is definitely not the American’s favourite surface and it doesn’t help your chances at the French Open if you miss most of the clay court season.

Reuters

As the sixth seed told RFI last week, not much is expected of him in Paris anyway. The world number eight’s seeding for the competition is also deceptive – it’s hardly based on his poor enough record at Roland Garros.

 
All of which means that Roddick’s third round defeat to the unseeded Teimuraz Gabashvili on Saturday wasn’t as much of as a surprise as it was made out to be.

Granted, Gabashvili is ranked 114^th in the world and had to come through the qualifiers. But the Russian has spent the past seven years living in Barcelona, where he’s had ample time to practise on the slower surface that didn’t suit his opponent’s natural game.

Seeing the way he played on Saturday – he hit 58 winners to win in straight sets – you have to wonder why Gabashvili hasn’t enjoyed more success. He had some trouble with his serve against Roddick, which could be a factor, but Gabashvili also told us he has a reputation as being “crazy”.

This isn’t because of his behaviour off the court but rather because he’s prone to losing concentration. He could be leading 3-1 in a set, he said, and end up losing easily because he’d beat himself up over one misplaced shot.

The 25-year-old said this attitude had its roots in the “aggressive blood” he inherited from being born in Georgia and moving north to Moscow.

Gabashvili is certainly an exuberant character on court – he gleefully autographed a television camera after his memorable victory against Roddick – and tennis needs players like that.

As for Roddick, he’ll now move on to the more comfortable surroundings of Wimbledon. The same can’t be said of clay court specialists like 2003 French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero and David Ferrer, who lost to Robby Ginepri and Jurgen Melzer respectively. Now that’s what I call surprise results.

Maybe the two Spaniards were suffering from a bug that’s apparently going around among the players. Serena Williams almost succumbed to it against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, requiring a couple of pills before coming through in three sets.

The world number one says she felt dizzy throughout and that she’ll be stocking up on vitamins ahead of her last-16 match against Shahar Peer of Israel.