Roland Media Day 7: Dirt, Debuts and Drama (Oh My!)

Roland Media is your daily French Open wrap up of the most interesting, bizarre and fun moments in Paris.

The Bracket of Breakthroughs

After Eugenie Bouchard lost her opener and Francesca Schiavone wrestled down Svetlana Kuznetsova in the bullring, a fragile section of the draw broke wide open — and the last two ladies standing are Andreea Mitu and Alison Van Uytvanck.

The Belgian took out Kristina Mladenovic in — somewhat surprisingly — straightforward, 6-4, 6-1 fashion. In a fight for a quarterfinal spot, she’ll face the last Romanian standing…..

Andreea Mitu. The 23-year-old ended Schiavone’s tournament, rifling more than a handful of forehands through Court 2. Trust the French Open to come up with the unexpected stories.

Opportunity looms, and also knocks…

Mixed German Fortunes

Sara Errani avenged her quarterfinal loss from 2014 and defeated Andrea Petkovic in straight sets. On a frustrating day, the German’s performance was perfectly captured in one Vine:

The Italian will next face Petkovic’s compatriot Julia Goerges, who overcame a slow start against American Irina Falconi to progress to her second round of 16 in a slam this year. Down a double-break in the first set, Goerges won 10 out of 11 games — summed up in one GIF:

Once again — opportunity looms.

When you grunt but don’t even hit the ball

…Oh, Francesca. 

There’s effort, and then there’s….this.

Barbora Strycova and Michaella Krajicek were both rather bemused and confused by it, too. Krajicek’s forehand was long so, before you start, it wasn’t really a hindrance ‘per say.’

All of Schiavone’s effort went for naught as the No. 13 seeds advanced, 7-6(5), 6-1.

A Whole Cor-nation

After winning his third round match against Kevin Anderson today, Richard Gasquet’s celebration looked, well, quite a lot like one that one his very enigmatic compatriots would pull off.

Look familiar?

(N)ot (B)roadcasting (C)hatrier

The broadcasting confusion at the French Open has been one of the subplots of the tournament all week for North American tennis fans. NBC continued to pour salt into the already rather open wounds at the start of the marquee match of the day: Victoria Azarenka vs. Serena Williams.

I don’t necessarily have words, but I certainly have a GIF:

Code violation, inept broadcasting. Warning, NBC.

“Don’t give me the wave!”

About two hours later, Williams prevailed in a dramatic three-set match, but not without some controversy at crunch time. After losing a break lead in the second, the Belarusian smacked a forehand on the baseline on set point down that was ruled out by the line umpire — but turned out to have hit the tape. Chair umpire Kader Nouni ruled that the point should be replayed even though the call seemed fairly late. In the midst of the controversy, the American explained her version of events to her opponent but Azarenka wasn’t having any of it — and Williams wasn’t having any of Azarenka not having any of it.

But, there were plenty of other memorable moments, too:

On that note….

Twirl, over and out for today.