French open: Seeds had easy Day 4, Last year Finalist crashes out

Last year runner-up & 3rd seed Simona Halep was shown the door in the second round of French open. She lost the match 7-5, 6-1 against the 70th seed M. Lucic-Baroni of Croatia. With this loss, she became the highest top seed to exit the French Open. Baroni hit 29 winners in the match & also finished it with an ace. It is not the first time she defeated Simona Halep, the Croatian had also beaten her at US open last year.

Maria Sharapova battled her cold & managed to beat her Federation Cup team partner Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3, 6-1. Now she would face the 2010 French open finalist, Samantha Stosur who beat Amanda Hesse 6-0, 6-1, in the 3rd round clash. Flavia Panetta, Lucie Safarova and Ana Ivanovic also registered wins in their matches.

In the Men’s section, the 16 times Grandslam Champion & 2nd seed Roger Federer had a light work as he beat Marcel Granollers 6-2, 7-6, 6-3. Now, in the 3rd round Federer faces Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur who won against Marcos Baghdatis 6-4,6-3,4-6,6-2. Faderer’s compatriot Stan Wawrinka also made it to the third round of French open by trouncing D Lajovic 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Japan’s K Nishikori also registered a win against Brazil’s Thomas Bellucci with a tally of  7-5, 6-4, 6-4. K. Nishikori is on a collision course against Roger Federer in the semifinals.

Thomas Berdych too won against Radek Stepanek in an all Czech affair. The 36 years old Radek Stepanek could have become oldest Man to reach the 3rd round of French open, but it was curtains for him when he lost 6-3, 6-7,6-3, 6-3 against Berdych.

Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, L Rasol also registered wins in their respective matches.

edited by Bhavna Rachuri