David Ferrer ousts Marinko Matosevic in opening round – Roland Garros 2013
Spanish veteran, David Ferrer, edged past the Australian challenger, Marinko Matosevic, in straight sets at the French Open 2013 on Sunday. He notched up a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory against the Aussie to power into the second round
at this second of the four Grand Slam events taking place in Paris, France.
Seeded fourth in this event, Ferrer stayed focused throughout the battle, eventually carving out the victory. With this success, the Spaniard maintained his first round winning record at the French Open for 11 straight years.
The 31-year-old reflected in a courtside interview after the match, “It is not easy to play with Matosevic because he has a very good serve, very good power with his shots, and sometimes, I can't play my game. In the final [part]
of the second and third sets, I played better. I [was] more consistent with my game and I happy because I'm in the second round.”
The Spanish number two, Ferrer made a convincing start and got the coveted break in the fourth game to take a 4-1 lead. Apart from losing his serve in the seventh game, the Spaniard remained focused and got the breakthrough in
the last game, consequently clicking the opener with a 6-4 win.
Ferrer lost his track towards the following set and after losing his serve twice, he fell at 0-3. However, the Spaniard went berserk after that and reeled off six games. As a result, Ferrer sealed the set by winning six games to
three.
The Spanish veteran drew the first blood in the opening game of the third set to take the initial lead. He lost his edge in the fourth game but broke his rival’s serve again to take a 4-3 lead. Despite losing his serve at 4-4,
Ferrer cashed another break chance in the following game to take the lead again. He held his serve once more and bagged the set with a 6-4 success.
The 14th seeded Canadian Milos Raonic, also stole the show later that day. He rallied past Belgium’s Xavier Malisse in a four-set thriller to set-up this match.
The Canadian star commented in a post match press conference, "I was playing really well [in the first two sets], taking advantage of the second serves. I was doing things I wanted to do, and I was dictating pretty much the whole
time. I can play well on clay, but I think I have changed a few things in my approach to it."
Raonic smashed 16 aces and required almost two hours to rule the match. He will square off against the local challenger, Michael Llodra, who battled past the Belgian qualifier, Steve Darcis, to set-up this meeting.
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