Roland Garros Day 8: Highway Robbery

Curtain Call

Player: Albert Montanes
Age: 30
Nation: Spain
Current Ranking: 38
Notable Conquest: Mikhail Youzhny (12th seed, Russia)
Today's Result: lost to Fabio Fognini (Italy) in five sets


Photo via Tennis24seven

There's no doubt about it. Montanes was robbed today. Fognini shouldn't have been granted an injury timeout for his leg cramps late in the fifth set and thus should have been given a warning for delay of game. He also should have been given a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct for deliberately foot-faulting. Then again, Montanes probably should have put him away in the fourth set. Instead, Fognini moves on to the first Slam quarterfinal of his career and Montanes is sent packing.


Catching Up with Old Friends

Richard Gasquet (Curtain Call, US Open Day 8) - Even with today's straight-set loss to Djokovic (2nd, Serbia), this was Gasquet's career-best showing at his home Slam. Gasquet is turning 25 next month. Will he ever fulfill the promise he showed as a teenager or is this as good as it's going to get?

Yung-Jan Chan (Curtain Call, Australian Open Day 14) - The 21-year-old Chan had a great all-around tournament. She reached the singles main draw through qualifiers, then took out the 31st-seeded Klara Zakopalova (Czech Republic) in the first round. She made it to the third before falling to Maria Sharapova (7th, Russia): her best-ever Roland Garros result in singles. In women's doubles, she teamed with Monica Niculescu (Romania) as the 13th seed. They lost today in the third round to Vania King (USA)/Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) (3rd seed).

But we latched onto Chan in Melbourne for her performance in mixed doubles. In Paris, she teamed with Eric Butorac (USA). In the first round, they took out the 2nd-seeded team of Vania King (USA) and Daniel Nestor (Canada). No doubt, Chan and King have had their fill of each other this week. Chan and Butorac's run ended in the second round today as they fell to Casey Dellacqua (Australia) and Scott Lipsky (USA).