Roland Garros Day 7: Hooray, It's Saturday!

Curtain Call

Player: Anastasia Pivovarova
Nation: Russia
Age: 19
Current Ranking: 187
Notable Conquest: Jie Zheng (25th seed, China)
Tour Page
Today's Result: loss to Samantha Stosur (7th, Australia) in straight sets

Pivovarova is another qualifier in her first Roland Garros. At 19, one expects she'll be around for a while. She was, however, no match for Stosur: 6-3 6-2.

Oh Mix Channel, how I have missed you this week! How wonderful it has been today to channel surf. It is such fun to pop around the grounds and the lower-key commentary is nice, too.

How about Robby Ginepri, the last American man standing? Minnie Driver's one-time boy toy took out a former champ in Juan Carlos Ferrero (16th, Spain) to boot. He draws Novak Djokovic (3rd, Serbia) next: a tall order.

A tangentially related side note: to me, Minnie Driver has always seemed a dead ringer for the woman in Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Earring. I thought it unfortunate that Scarlett Johansson was cast for the part in the film, though Driver was probably too old at that point.

The line of the day goes to Mary Carillo who, in response to the assertion that television makes the light of an early evening match appear brighter than it really is, asked "Why can't it make us appear brighter than we are?" Self-deprecation is the highest form of humor, to my mind.


Catching Up with Old Friends

Alberta Brianti (Curtain Call, Aussie Open Day 6) - Brianti lost her first round match to Vera Zvonareva (21st, Russia) but, as she didn't play the event at all last year, it still counts as an improvement. She had a slightly better showing in doubles, teaming with Alexandra Dulgheru (Romania) to make it to the second round. She didn't play Wimbledon or the US Open last year either so there are plenty of opportunities for her to build up some points this summer.


All Part of My Fantasy

David Ferrer (9th, Spain) went down today. I had him in the semis. For the moment, all of my finalists are still alive, though Henin's in a fight with Maria Sharapova (12th, Russia) at present. The third set of their match will be played tomorrow.