Fremen
Louie
Yinette PerezFrench Open Results
June 3rd 2006 22:45
Lleyton Hewitt steamrolls into round 4, defeating Mathieu Montcourt on Thursday and Dominik Hrbarty yesterday 7-6(2) 6-2 6-2 to face defending Champion Rafael Nadal in the next round.
The Spanish teenager dropped his first set of the tournament, with French hopeful Paul-Henri Mathieu taking the first set 7-5. The contest lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes, with Nadal finally surviving Mathieu 7-5, 6-4 6-4 6-4.
In the end, Mathieu couldn't punch through Nadal's steely defense, nor match his speed and unwillingness to give in.
"If it had been my best tennis, I would have won," Mathieu said.
The match included a bizarre interruption with Nadal serving for the third set at 5-4, 15-all. He ran to his seat and sat down, waved a banana peel at the chair umpire and pointed to his throat and seemed to be on the verge choking.
"I don't know what happened, but it suddenly stayed stuck halfway through," Nadal said.
"I didn't really notice it at the beginning. At 15 love, I started being a little bit frightened. But I didn't want to stop in the middle of the game. I didn't think it would look very good. I lost the next point. I was paying more attention to my throat than to tennis. It was an important game, so I started being nervous. It's not that I couldn't breathe, but I did feel a very strange sensation. I thought, I've got to stop because I don't want anything serious to happen. Never mind if I don't look good."
But after he took a few slugs of water and conferred with a trainer and a doctor, he resumed play and eventually wore Mathieu down.
Novak Djokovic beat the last German player to remain in the men's side of the Tournament, Tommy Haas, 7-5 6-1 7-6(4). He will face either Gael Monfils of France or James Blake, whose play was suspended with both players holding one set each, and will proceed today.
**Picture of Lleyton Hewitt from www.corbis.com, copyright, all rights reserved.**
**Quotes from Rafael Nadal Paul Henri Mathieu from www.rolandgarros.com, copyright, all rights reserved.**
Lleyton Hewitt into round 4
© Christophe Karaba/Corbis
The Spanish teenager dropped his first set of the tournament, with French hopeful Paul-Henri Mathieu taking the first set 7-5. The contest lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes, with Nadal finally surviving Mathieu 7-5, 6-4 6-4 6-4.
In the end, Mathieu couldn't punch through Nadal's steely defense, nor match his speed and unwillingness to give in.
"If it had been my best tennis, I would have won," Mathieu said.
The match included a bizarre interruption with Nadal serving for the third set at 5-4, 15-all. He ran to his seat and sat down, waved a banana peel at the chair umpire and pointed to his throat and seemed to be on the verge choking.
"I don't know what happened, but it suddenly stayed stuck halfway through," Nadal said.
"I didn't really notice it at the beginning. At 15 love, I started being a little bit frightened. But I didn't want to stop in the middle of the game. I didn't think it would look very good. I lost the next point. I was paying more attention to my throat than to tennis. It was an important game, so I started being nervous. It's not that I couldn't breathe, but I did feel a very strange sensation. I thought, I've got to stop because I don't want anything serious to happen. Never mind if I don't look good."
But after he took a few slugs of water and conferred with a trainer and a doctor, he resumed play and eventually wore Mathieu down.
Novak Djokovic beat the last German player to remain in the men's side of the Tournament, Tommy Haas, 7-5 6-1 7-6(4). He will face either Gael Monfils of France or James Blake, whose play was suspended with both players holding one set each, and will proceed today.
**Picture of Lleyton Hewitt from www.corbis.com, copyright, all rights reserved.**
**Quotes from Rafael Nadal Paul Henri Mathieu from www.rolandgarros.com, copyright, all rights reserved.**
| 62 |
| Vote |
