The first round of the competition in the ladies half of the draw saw a lot seeds lose and looked to pave the way for a Sharapova vs. Williams final. The men's half, however, was going as you would expect. The big names all dismissing the lower ranking players.
The women's draw then became very interesting as Safarova beat Sharapova, punching a huge hole in the women's tournament. Further still it appeared that Serena may also go out when she appeared to almost lose her 4th round game against Stephens. Meanwhile on the men's the French contingents were keeping the French crowd engaged.
Into the quarter finals and there were some huge match ups in the men's game. Federer played fellow countryman Stan Wawrinka and lost, possibly signalling a changing of the Swiss guard. Murray eventually put away the ever challenging David Ferrera in four sets. Tsong kept French dreams alive by beating Micheal Chang's, Nishikori. Then there was the match that for most should have been the final, Rafa Nadal vs.
Novak Djokovic. It wasn't the final but it was an epic game and Djokovic became only the second player in ten years to beat Nadal on the clay, in Paris.
The women's semi final gave 3 women the opportunity to do something none of them had ever done, win the French Open; and for Serena a chance to win it for the 3rd time. Ivanovic played brilliantly in her quarter final but Lucie Safarova overpowered her beating the 7th seed, in two straight sets.
Williams played Bacsinszky in her semi, and after looking back to her best in the straight sets quarter final win over Errani, looked to be struggling again in the heat. Williams dropped the first set but came back to take the next two sets 6-3 6-0. The fantastic run of the French men carried Tsonga into the blistering heat of the semi-finals where he met Stan Wawrinka.
The typically fair weather French crowds loyalty went across the net almost as many times as the ball. Eventually Tsonga was beaten by a determined Wawrink. Meanwhile, Murray was facing Djokovic, who for the first two sets seemed to have everything under control. Murray then won the 3rd and 4th sets to take the match in to an overnight 5th set which Djokovic won and headed to the final.
Serena, who was still looking lethargic, took the first set in her final against Safarova in just 28 minutes 6-3. Both players broke serve in the second; and one hour later they were at a tie break. Going in to this match Safarova was 5/5 in tie breaks and she took an early 4-1 lead in this one eventually winning it 7-2 and taking the match to a third set.
Despite Safarova growing into the match in the second set, Williams took the third set 6-2 coming out the eventual winner 6-3 6-7 6-2. Serena won her third French Open title and 20th Grand Slam, now only 3 behind record holder, Steffi Graf.
Djokovic and Wawrinka started their match with a 39 shot rally, the longest of the 580 games played in the French Open. Djokovic was playing to become the 8th player in history to win all the Grand Slams. Novak took the first set 6-4 but the Stan The Man went on to take the next two sets 6-4 6-3. Djokovic came out fighting in the fourth and took an early break to go 3-0 up. Wawrinka seemingly confident of his ability went on to win the fourth and the championship, denying Novak of his French Open dreams.
