2015 French Open: 10 Things You Might Have Missed

PARIS—In the first week of the French Open, controversy touched Serena Williams’ win over Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard fell victim to upsets, and Rafa and Novak cruised. That, I’m sure, you knew already.

But with so much happening, you might have missed some other happenings. Here are 10 of them.

When it comes to British men at the majors—or at least outside Wimbledon—Andy Murray usually flies solo. But the Scot had company at Roland Garros, joined by qualifier Kyle Edmund and Aljaz Bedene. (Note that Edmund, like Bedene, Laura Robson, Johanna Konta and the late Elena Baltacha, was born outside the UK.)

Anyway, Murray, instead of heading back to the hotel, stayed around to root for the 20-year-old Edmund in his five-set win over Stephane Robert. Robert’s take on Murray turning cheerleader?

“The Brits, they’re right in supporting their players,” the veteran Frenchman told reporters. “They don’t have that many players so they have to encourage them.”

No, he wasn’t being sarcastic.

Pablo Cuevas’ capitulation against Gael Monfils in the third round Friday wouldn’t have drawn much sympathy if you were a French fan. But the Uruguayan deserved better. Here’s someone who missed almost exactly two years, consecutively, with major knee issues, only returning in 2013.

Summing up his state of mind as the match turned and the atmosphere on Suzanne Lenglen shifted from flat to fervour in a heartbeat in the fourth set, Cuevas gave us one of the quotes of the year: “I started listening to the crowd when I started listening to the noises in my head,” he told ESPN Deportes. “Until the fourth set there was silence. From then on it was the Rio carnival.”

If you suspect that Monfils plays a heck of a lot of fifth sets at the French Open, you’d be right. His tilt with Cuevas pushed him up to 13, an Open era record at Roland Garros. His record in those matches? 10-3.

Monfils is one of two men to win 10 deciding sets at the tournament in the Open era, joining Harold Solomon.

“I’m lucky, I guess,” said Monfils. “As I say, if I could win in three sets, it would be much better.”

Indeed, Monfils was lucky he was in Paris on Friday. Anywhere else—or at least outside France—and Cuevas probably would have finished him off.

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Yen-Hsun ‘Rendy’ Lu is a hard man to stop when he’s on his game. Just ask Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and David Nalbandian. They’ve all been on the receiving end of Lu’s brilliant shot-making on the big stage.

Lu was at it again in the first round. Check out these numbers against Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic in his 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 win: 72 winners, 26 unforced errors.

(And remember, we’re on clay, the conditions were heavy, and Lu doesn’t really enjoy playing on the dirt—he played just one warmup event prior to Paris.)

He wasn’t bad in his four-set loss to Kevin Anderson, either, finishing at plus-eight in the winners to unforced.

What does Zhang Shuai need to do to end her Grand Slam skid? The Chinese baseliner is now 0-for-14 in the first round at majors, her slump persisting when she lost to Karolina Pliskova, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

How about facing a British wildcard at Wimbledon? That would surely help.

In actuality, Zhang may not get into the main draw at Wimbledon. With her ranking well outside the mid-May cut-off, she’ll have to enter qualifying. Down at No. 122, Zhang faces a further tumble if she can’t defend her semifinal points at Birmingham.

Armed with a booming serve and flat groundstrokes, Benjamin Becker prefers grass and indoor courts. He also opts for quicker points.

Entering this French Open, then, it wasn’t a surprise that the German held a 8-29 record on clay—and was 0-6 at Roland Garros, claiming just two sets total (both last year against Thomaz Bellucci). But he turned it around this year, beginning with a comeback, five-set win against Belgian Ruben Bemelmans.

That was nothing, through, compared to his second-rounder against Fernando Verdasco, who has played in 12 clay finals. (‘That’s Verdasco for you,’ I can hear many saying.) Becker did the same thing, winning the fifth set 10-8.

Becker, 33, is no stranger to making waves at majors. Besides being the last man to beat Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open, Becker rallied from two sets down to upset Lleyton Hewitt in Melbourne in January.

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Hey, it wasn’t 71 shots (see below), but heading into the second Sunday Gilles Simon—not surprisingly—won the longest rally of the tournament at 38 strokes. But what was surprising was that his opponent wasn’t a defender/counterpuncher like Monfils or Murray. Rather it was a player known for not lingering in points, Nicolas Mahut.

Rounding out the top three were Tommy Robredo (36 shots), Richard Gasquet and Borna Coric (tied on 31).

In the women’s draw, Alison Riske managed to outlast Sara Errani in a 32-shot rally. Few would have called that.

Recent birthday girl Alexandra Dulgheru (30 shots), quarterfinalist Elina Svitolina and Yulia Putintseva (29) completed the women’s top three. Three of the top five rallies stemmed from Svitolina’s win (9-7 in the third) over Putintseva in the second round.

He’s yo-yoed between the ATP World Tour and Challengers for most of his career, but Teymuraz Gabashvili adores playing at Roland Garros. The Russian reached the fourth round for the second time, backing up his performance in 2010 when he upset Roddick.

A pure ball striker who hits with venom off both wings, Gabashvili is no grinder. The quirky, likable 30-year-old—a smile is never too far away, even on court—pulled off three good wins over Feliciano Lopez, Juan Monaco, and Lukas Rosol, and all in straight sets.

One of the keys to his success? Saving break points. Lopez, Monaco, and Rosol went a combined 1-for-20 against Gabashvili.

David Ferrer has flown under the radar in Paris. Hey, that’s nothing new.

But his peers have the greatest of respect for the Spaniard; he’s well liked. And you can see why when the Spanish No. 2 spared a thought for the still absent Juan Martin del Potro (after thumping Lukas Lacko). “I would like to pay tribute to Juan Martin del Potro,” Ferrer said. “He’s mentally tough. He’s been off the court for the past two years and that’s really hard for the spectators. It’s even tougher for him because he’s a great sportsman. He’s a great athlete.

“He’s a player we desperately need, so I would like to encourage him.”

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If the shrieks of Maria Sharapova and Azarenka aren’t to your liking, get some tickets the next time Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina tangle. They’re good friends and doubles partners.

As is the case in such situations, showing—or vocalizing—emotions is rare. Makarova, too, rarely grunts or shrieks when striking the ball.

“You cannot scream because we are really good friends and we don’t like to scream to each other, ‘Come on,’ or something,” said Makarova. “It’s a really quiet match. I don’t like this feeling.”

Clay isn’t Makarova’s surface, so making the fourth round should provide the Russian with momentum heading into the grass-court swing—which she does enjoy.

Ravi Ubha (@RaviUbha) is a freelance journalist and broadcaster who has written for ESPN, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.