French Open - Men: Djokovic walks through

Eurosport - Wed, 27 May 20:13:00 2009

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic progressed to the second round of the French Open after opponent Nicolas Lapentti retired injured trailing 6-3 3-1.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti during their first round match of the French Open AP - 0

Ecuador's Lapentti went over on his already heavily strapped left ankle in the eighth game of the first set and called the trainer on.

He continued for another half an hour, wincing occasionally between points, before quitting while trailing 6-3 3-1.

"I would probably love to hit ... more points and to stay a little bit more time on the court," the 22-year-old world number four said.

"But on the other side we didn't get a lot of rallies today because of the conditions. I think everybody could see the power the wind was creating, and you couldn't really judge which side the wind is going to blow."

Djokovic, who has reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the last two years, had taken early control of the match with a break in the fourth game and dished up some sizzling crosscourt backhands to stay in front.

His occasional misjudged lobs and drop shots went unpunished by 32-year-old Lapentti, whose best Grand Slam appearance was reaching the Australian Open semi-finals 10 years ago.

With black clouds hovering over the court ominously at the start of the second set and his opponent treading increasingly gingerly, Djokovic took an early break that left Lapentti with an uphill task if he had decided to continue.

"I talked to him, and he says there is no use in playing if you can't move," said Djokovic, who himself retired in the quarter-finals of this year's Australian Open.

Fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro appeared to be in a hurry to finish his match before the return of rain, stamping all over French hopes in a 6-3 6-3 6-1 win over Michael Llodra.

Former Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler, however, wished the rain had never stopped.

Four days after being walloped 6-0 6-0 in the World Team Cup by Sweden's Robin Soderling, the German had to digest more bagels.

He was heading for the status of first man since 1993 to suffer the ignominy of losing a Grand Slam match without winning a game before suddenly waking up to register his name on the scoreboard. He lost 6-0 6-0 6-4 to France's Marc Gicquel.

Asked if he felt sorry for his opponent, Gicquel replied: "I wanted to try to give him three times 6-0.

"I didn't come here to sympathise. If I can give him three times 6-0, I will."

Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, runner-up in Melbourne in 2008, registered his first win at his home Slam with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory over fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

French 11th seed Gael Monfils also progressed, taking a 6-2 6-3 6-1 win over American Bobby Reynolds.

French Open: Watch the whole tournament LIVE with coverage from 10am every day on British Eurosport and Eurosport HD (Sky 410/412, Virgin Media 521). Or watch your choice of seven courts on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe.

Reuters

Comment 10 - 29 of 29

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  1. NOVAK DJOKOVIC IS SIMPLY THE BEST..!!!
    I HOPE YOU WILL­ WIN RG

    From Paulina, on Fri 29 May 10:38AM

  2. i love u novak!! i hope u win RG!!!
    trinidad and tobago­ loves u

    From gilakaka77, on Wed 27 May 11:24PM

  3. new pleasant melodies here?

    From Iri, on Wed 27 May 8:22PM

  4. well, i'm glad my comment was so well taken :) ...­ keep up the good job all of u posting here ... and­ rememebr what Igor K said : if you see a comments that­ is gonna offend you, try not to answer but ignore it ..­ i might as well come from a different person that the­ one usualy displaying a certain nickname, so don't­ believe everything u see :D

    From Ionut M, on Wed 27 May 8:08PM

  5. Re post 23 aleksicn.........
    Great post agree with­ everything written, and maybe with more goodwill­ Santos.sanchez will join in the "new" good­ spitit.

    From tennis_forhealth, on Wed 27 May 5:27PM

  6. Hi Igor I can confirm I'am now solely using­ tennis_forhealth not rc_alcock­ anymore.
    tennis_for_health has already been cloned but­ it is NOT me.cheers Igor

    From tennis_forhealth, on Wed 27 May 5:23PM

  7. catalina_does_not_wear_knickers
    aphrodita_the_serbian_s­ ­­ lapper
    djokovic
    novak_djokovic
    andy_will_whip_novaks_ar­ ­­ se_again
    novak.djokovic_cheats_so_much
    andy.murray_just­ ­ _more_talented
    rc_allcock – and now seems stolen also­ rc_alcock
    .. and some other nicks is­ only one person­ with multiple nick`s
    people please pay­ attention and­ don’t react immediately to this morron who only starts­ figthing here and provoke !

    From Igor K, on Wed 27 May 5:18PM

  8. Bravo Ionut M, and than you :-)
    Aleksic my friend,­ negative votes because, you know.. there is one sick­ guy who have multiple accounts.. I named him here many­ times, also reported, and nothing... I think this guy­ is from Eurosport.. otherwise seems impossible to do­ such damage without being kicked ! .. for almost three­ weeks he was thumbing down all Novak`s fans no meter­ what they write, just in order to hide them !
    I think­ the same person also is stealing others nicks.. such as­ Janekralj and rc_alcock (hopefully I think real­ rc_alcock is now tennis_forhealth) ..
    also very sick:­ using Serbian names to start fighting where with Murray­ or Nadal fans !
    People please have this in mind: don’t­ judge to quick or react to some provocations here...­ most of the provocations are planed to black one side­ and don’t reflect real feelings of tennis supporters­ from Sebis I can say that Novak` s fans mostly has­ respect for other players, and rarely starts a fight­ here ...
    I’m looking forward some good discussions here­ with respect to opposition !
    cherers :-)

    From Igor K, on Wed 27 May 5:13PM

  9. i would like to see a Muarry versus Djoko final ,and­ before that both of them winning their semifinal­ clashes against Nadal and Federer

    From kirovrtanoski, on Wed 27 May 4:42PM

  10. Ionut, BRAVO, man. Thank you for saying what I think­ for me. you're 100% right

    From Mia, on Wed 27 May 4:41PM

  11. comment 20 tennis_forhealth
    i agree 110% with your­ ideology. i support both Andy and Novak, and don't­ see why people have to immediately turn to insulting­ nationalities. i, like many Serbs on here, used to be a­ very hateful person. but i have changed. however, what­ saddens me is sanchez.santos, who can post great­ comments, but cannot get over his prejudice. what more­ does it take to make a good name for ourselves? and why­ in the world did my comment 3 get 13 thumb downs?
    peace­ my friend. i hope we can look over our bad vibes from­ the past.

    From aleksicn93, on Wed 27 May 3:58PM

  12. it's so nice to see people like tennis_forhealth,­ Igor K, jane or ivanja coming here and politely writing­ their comments, supoprting their idols, be them Nole or­ Andy :) ... there has been a lot of bad speaking in the­ past between Nole's supporters and Andy's ones,­ but this seems to be past now :) ... i am a Rafa fan­ and i hope to see this attitude on Rafa/Roger articles,­ as it seems there are a lot of negative people (i­ don't want to mention their names) who keep writing­ trash about the other idol, instead of supporting their­ own :(
    .. i wish Rafa to win every much he enters but­ i very much understand that it's always possible­ for Roger, Nole, Andy, Nando, or other players to­ defeat him ... this means to respect the other players­ and the other fans :) .. hope others can do the same ;)

    From Ionut M, on Wed 27 May 3:35PM

  13. ivanajaa,
    My advice would be to chill out, enjoy­ watching all the matches and don't take it all so­ seriously. After all we are not at war with each other,­ on the contrary we all share a real, deep love of­ tennis, don't let patriotism get in the way and­ spoil it!

    From tennis_forhealth, on Wed 27 May 7:46AM

  14. i dont hate Andy,although i cant say that i love to­ watch him(he took Novaks place for God sake),and you­ know who i do hate(not realy hate,i dont hate­ anybody)?-your shameless reporters since i heard what­ had they wrote after last years Wimbledon about­ Novak..and honestly before that i even had loved to­ watch him and it was funny to see him going creasy(in­ positive meaning)

    From ivanajaa, on Wed 27 May 7:08AM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    janekralju ko j...e englese imaju kopleks sto su toliko­ ruzni i pegavi pa zavide jbg... Nole ce sigurno biti­ ispred ovog skota.. nole kralju!

    From FEI, on Wed 27 May 7:06AM
  16. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Hey jane, why not become an honorary member of Nadals­ Kingdom? You being a Serb will be treated fairly. I­ will handle you very well promise. Guys like Igor K,­ Djordje, Aleksicn, Vlada V and the rest underwent­ baptismal pains but they started loving Nadal­ afterwards.

    From Ray V, on Wed 27 May 7:05AM

  17. janekralj,
    There you go again, Andy Murray dosen't­ play ugly tennis he plays interesting tennis using­ great skill and imagination he has all the shots in the­ book plus a few more!
    If he was Serbian let me assure­ you he would be celebrated just like Novak and rightly­ so. They are both brilliant players of different type.

    From tennis_forhealth, on Wed 27 May 7:03AM

  18. ye , but i dont say british are awful coz i dont like­ andy... u kno. and they like hate all serbs by­ default,.. i admitt ..am not proud of novak's­ family as a serbian ( they are worse than u think) but­ novak is a nice guy..and we are nice ppl,.. propaganda­ is the one who is burrowing us.... So if i say i dont­ like andy murray,,, all of em gonna @#$% on serbia..­ whats up with that.. I didnt say GB sux,.. i just think­ murray plays ugly tennis.. Just as when i say Federer­ plays AMAZING tennis , i dont think the whole­ Switzerland is amazing,.. If novak played awful­ tennis u kno,.. like pusher and stuff i'd say­ that,.. no problem,. i can say rite now am not a fan of­ tipsarevic at all (though he is serb and we have a same­ name) But i dont get ppl who are not immature to act­ like this,... i mean..whats up with that.... It's­ like Serbia is some 3rd world country.. PPl here are­ the bomb!!

    From Jane, on Wed 27 May 6:52AM

  19. In my opinion you bring all this hatred upon yourselves­ with nasty comments about Andy Murray which gets­ peoples backs up.
    There is nothing about Novak himself­ to upset anybody he's a great guy and entertaining­ to watch as well.

    From tennis_forhealth, on Wed 27 May 6:30AM

  20. THOSEONE WHO HATE NOVAK DJOKOVIC HAVE SOME PROBLEM WITH­ THEMSELVES!!!
    ONLY THE SKY IS NOVAK`S LIMIT!!!!

    From dumbarajko27, on Wed 27 May 5:35AM
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