Day 6 recap: Sharapova, seeds advance, Monfils mounts comeback
PARIS – Catch up on the news and results from Day 6 at the French Open in Paris.
Maria Sharapova fights through the wind to beat Sam Stosur: You rarely see Sharapova get emotional after early round wins, regardless of whether it's a Slam or not. But playing while under the weather, in tough conditions, with a tough draw, the Russian has looked more relieved than happy after her first three wins. On Friday she came through what could have been a very difficult match against No. 26 seed Sam Stosur, winning 6–3, 6–4. After finally sealing the match on her third match point, Sharapova pumped her fists and took a long look at her coaching box. Is she dealing with more than just a cold? Her reactions have been one of a woman who is winning matches she's not sure she's supposed to win.
French Open 2015 Fashion Hits and Misses
MISS: Lucas Pouille, Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Mahesh Bhupathi
HIT: Alize Cornet
HIT: Madison Keys
Ana Ivanovic
HIT: Kei Nishikori
HIT: Eugenie Bouchard
MISS: Rafael Nadal
HIT: Ana Ivanovic
HIT: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
HIT: Tomas Berdych
HIT: Novak Djokovic
HIT: Richard Gasquet
HIT: David Goffin
HIT: Jack Sock
MISS: Teresa Torro Flor
MISS: Stan Wawrinka
HIT: Marin Cilic
MISS: Fabio Fognini
HIT: Gael Monfils
HIT: Roger Federer
HIT: Roger Federer
HIT: Maria Sharapova
HIT: Caroline Wozniacki
MISS: Victoria Azarenka
HIT: Julia Goerges
HIT: Elina Svitolina
HIT: Carla Suarez Navarro
HIT: Garbine Muguruza
HIT: Angelique Kerber
HIT: Serena Williams
Serena Williams
HIT: Petra Kvitova
HIT: Kristina Mladenovic
HIT: Simona Halep
Fabio Fognini
HIT: Alize Lim
MISS: Sloane Stephens
Borna Coric
Nick Kyrgios
Bernard Tomic
HIT: Simone Bolelli
HIT: Andy Murray
HIT: Venus Williams
MISS: Kaia Kanepi
HIT: Heather Watson
HIT: Dominic Thiem
MISS: Agnieszka Radwanska
MISS: Taro Daniel
HIT: Roberta Vinci
MISS: Karin Knapp
HIT: Sam Stosur
HIT: Luca Vanni
HIT: Yanina Wickmayer
HIT: Amandine Hesse
MISS: Diego Schwartzman
HIT: Ajla Tomljanovic
Gael Monfils breathes life into the men's tournament as three Frenchmen advance: Monfils looked like he was going to be the odd man out after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moved through in three sets over Pablo Andujar and Gilles Simon advanced with a five-set win over Nicolas Mahut. Monfils found himself two-sets to one down to No. 21 Pablo Cuevas and trailing by a double-break at 1-4 down in the fourth. But as Cuevas got nervous closing out the match, the partisan crowd out on Court Suzanne Lenglen woke up. So did Monfils. He went on to win five straight games to force a fifth set. As the crowd broke out into a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise, you knew you were witnessing something special. Monfils rode the wave of energy to the finish line, winning 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Incroyable!
Minimal carnage as the seeds make it through: The higher seeds won nearly all the matches. The only upsets of the day came when No. 28 Flavia Pennetta routined No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-4, No. 21 Garbine Muguruza, a quarterfinalist last year, upended No. 11 Angelique Kerber 4–6, 6–2, 6–2 and No. 74 Teymuraz Gabashvili beat No. 43 Lukas Rosol in straight sets to advance to the fourth round. He'll play Kei Nishikori next.
No. 2 Roger Federer, No. 4 Tomas Berdych, and No. 8 Stan Wawrinka advanced for the men. No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 13 Lucie Safarova, No. 19 Elina Svitolina, and No. 29 Alize Cornet all advanced into the second week.
Here's how the bottom half of the women's draw shapes up Sunday: Ivanovic vs. Makarova, Svitolina vs. Cornet, Muguruza vs. Pennetta, and Sharapova vs. Safarova.
For the men's bottom half it will be Nishikori vs. Gabashvili, Tsonga vs. Berdych, Wawrinka vs. Simon, and Monfils vs. Federer.
Alize Cornet puts on a show and advances to week two: The Frenchwoman is into the fourth round of her home Slam for the first time in her career after beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4–6, 6–3, 7–5. It was an...emotional affair. We'll let the GIFs do the talking:
Security has been stepped up around Federer: Probably won't get a selfie amongst that pack of guards, kids.
#https://vine.co/v/ebxUDxZvl6Z
(h/t For The Win)
The Best Headline You Will Read All Day: It's not even close.