Instant Replay: Best highlights as reigning French Open champions fall

Instant Replay recaps the best highlights, GIFs and photos as we move into the business end of this week's tournaments, in Barcelona, Stuttgart and Bucharest.

Courtney Nguyen | Apr 23, 2015

Instant Replay: Best highlights as reigning French Open champions fall /

Welcome to Instant Replay, a recap of the best highlights, GIFs and photos as we move into the business end of this week's tournaments.

Rafael Nadallost 6–4, 7–6 (6) to Fabio Fognini in the third round of the Barcelona Open. That's the bad news for Nadal. The good news is he played a top-notch match to beat Nicolas Almagro in the second round, avenging the loss to his compatriot here last year. The Forehand was a disaster against Fognini—Nadal described it as "vulgar"—but it was en fuego against Almagro:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/aeAmaIBgi0c]

Here's a sweet shot of 17-year-old Andrey Rublev, who stunned Fernando Verdasco in Barcelona:

Maria Sharapovalost 2–6, 7–5, 6–1 to Angelique Kerber in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. In the battle between "Claypova" and "Cow on Ice," the latter won this round:

[tweet=https://twitter.com/roobynVC/status/591307797339500544]

At least she could laugh about it:

[tweet=https://twitter.com/Renestance/status/591339186323611650]

[tweet=https://twitter.com/angelikf/status/591335503921831936]

How about this hot shot from Teymuraz Gabashvili against Kei Nishikori?Nishikori couldn't have built that point any better but you can't defend against that zinger:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/caCjtll3gNA]

Simona Halep will be No. 2 in the rankings on Monday afterSharapova's early loss. She looked very good in her three-set win over Garbine Muguruza on Wednesday:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCWdYeBZ7oM]

Perfect lob from Caroline Garcia to beat Ana Ivanovic for the third time this season:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aPWNDDRcBk]

Just for fun, here's a video of Sharapova parallel parking a Porsche.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT3INW9u990]

And speaking of Porsches (the Stuttgart winner gets one) Andrea Petkovic picked Angelique Kerber to win the tournament before it started:

[tweet=https://twitter.com/andreapetkovic/status/591330834063306756]

Shot of the week? Fabio Fognini guesses right and burns Nadal with a forehand winner. Flavia Pennetta approves:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRMSpQ_37S4]

Gael Monfils is into the quarterfinals and doing his thing at the Bucharest Open.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oil0dKGR7ww]

Published Apr 23, 2015

COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.