Photo: Paul ZimmerRoger Federer (SUI)
DAY 4: Roger Federer overcame a resistant Adrian Ungur in his second round match at Roland Garros on Wednesday to record his 234th Grand Slam victory, overtaking the previous mark set by Jimmy Connors.
The world No.3 seemed on course for a comfortable victory over the Romanian ranked some 89 places below him when hurrying through the opening two sets. A moment’s lapse in concentration during the third set tiebreak, however, cost the Swiss player the set and the chance for an early lunch.
The fourth set returned to the pattern of the first two with Ungur, who overcame David Nalbandian in his first ever main draw match at a Grand Slam in the opening round, struggling to match the mastery of Federer who wrapped up a 63 62 67(6) 63 victory in just shy of two and a half hours.
“Instead of being aggressive, I let him show me what he could do. He played two beautiful shots, and then I started not playing very well,” said Federer of the third set. “We came to the fourth set. I made some decisions which were probably not the best ones, but at the end of the day, I had some margin. I did not really lose many of my serve games.”
Another record has also fallen to Federer this week as he becomes the first man to notch 50 wins at all four of the Grand Slams, a feat he achieved after his first round win against Tobias Kamke. Next up for the 16-time Grand Slam champion will be home favourite Nicolas Mahut who got the better of Martin Klizan also for the loss of just one set.
Mahut will be making his first appearance in the third round at Roland Garros but knows it is a tough task if he is to progress any further.
“I have very few chances of winning it,” remarked the world No.89. “I don't have a lot of room for victory, but I'm going to try to use my weapons. I need to play the best match of my life, and he just needs to play an average match. But as long as the match has not been played, there is a possibility of winning it.”
Elsewhere in the men’s draw all the seeds came through unscathed with Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin Del Potro progressing to the third round while Gilles Simon gave the French crowd a scare as he gave up a two set advantage over American Brian Baker before winning the fifth 6-0.
There was less to cheer for the seeded women as Marion Bartoli was the biggest name to fall on the fourth day. She was joined in defeat by Venus Williams who was brushed off court by world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska, while Lucie Safarova, Petra Cetkovska and Jie Zheng also experienced losses.
There was better news for Victoria Azarenka who, after struggling in her opener on Monday, was much more impressive scoring a 61 61 triumph against Dinah Pfizenmaier. US Open champion Sam Stosur and former Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic also stormed through in straight sets.
Follow all action from Paris on the official tournament website: RolandGarros.com