French Open Day 4 highlights: Murray survives again

Andy Murray survived a five-setter for the second straight
match in the French Open. 2015 photo by Paul Bauman

   Five highlights from Day 4 of the French Open:
   1. Second-seeded Andy Murray survived a five-setter for the second straight match, beating 22-year-old French wild card Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the second round.
   "He was excellent," Murray said after the 3-hour, 34-minute match. "He was the one dictating a lot of the points, making me run a lot right to the end, even when I had a big lead in the fifth set. He's going to have a fantastic future for sure."
   Murray won the first of his 36 tour-level titles in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose at 18 in 2006 and repeated in 2007. Those were his only appearances in the tournament.
   2. Ivo Karlovic, 37, of Croatia became the oldest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament since Jimmy Connors advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals 25 years ago.
   The 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Karlovic, seeded 27th, edged wild card Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 12-10 in 4 hours, 31 minutes.
   Karlovic will face Murray in the third round. If Karlovic pulls off an upset, he could play 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) John Isner, seeded 15th, in the round of 16.
   Karlovic leads Isner 3-2 in the head-to-head series, winning the last meeting 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the first round on a hardcourt in Acapulco in 2014.
   3. Gilles Simon's victory lasted one more minute than Karlovic's.
   Simon, a Frenchman seeded 16th, needed seven match points to outlast Guido Pella of Argentina 4-6, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-4. Pella, a 26-year-old left-hander, served for the match at 6-5 in the fourth set.
   4. Speaking of marathons, 25th-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania topped CoCo Vandeweghe of the United States 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 10-8 in 3 hours, 38 minutes. It was the longest WTA match this year.
   Vandeweghe reached the final of the 2012 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford as a lucky loser, falling to Serena Williams 7-5, 6-3. Vandeweghe held a set point in the first set.
   5. Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the defending champion, and second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska won in straight sets.

Northern California results

Men's doubles

First round  

   Brian Baker, United States, and Marcus Daniell, New Zealand, def. Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, and Dmitry Tursunov, Russia native who trains in Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, 6-3, 6-2.

Women's doubles

First round

   Raquel Atawo, San Jose resident and 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal, and Abigail Spears (8), United States, def. Johanna Konta, Great Britain, and Maria Sanchez, born and raised in Modesto, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4.

Djokovic prevails despite 100 unforced errors

Novak Djokovic
2015 photo by Paul Bauman

   Novak Djokovic committed 100 unforced errors.
   Agnieszka Radwanska trailed 5-2 in the final set.
   And Tomas Berdych was extended to a fifth set.
   All three high seeds, however, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   Djokovic, the top seed and defending champion seeking his sixth Australian Open title, subdued 14th-seeded Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 today (PST) in 4 hours, 32 minutes.
   Radwanska, seeded fourth, rallied to beat unseeded Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-7 (6), 6-1, 7-5. The 82nd-ranked Friedsam, who will turn 22 on Feb. 1, struggled with leg cramps in the last three games.
   Berdych, the No. 6 seed, outlasted No. 24 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals for the sixth straight year.
   Djokovic advanced to his 27th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, tying Jimmy Connors for second place in the Open era behind Roger Federer (36).
   Djokovic will face No. 7 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan in the quarters. Nishikori dismantled No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the runner-up to Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
   Berdych will meet No. 3 seed Federer, a four-time Australian Open champion who outclassed No. 15 David Goffin of Belgium 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.

Agnieszka Radwanska
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Radwanska, the runner-up in the 2013 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, will play No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro, who topped unseeded Daria Gavrilova of Australia 0-6, 6-3, 6-2.
   Both Gavrilova, a 21-year-old Moscow native, and Suarez Navarro, a 27-year-old Spaniard, have won doubles titles in Northern California.
   No. 1 seed Serena Williams, the defending and six-time champion, and No. 5 Maria Sharapova, the 2008 titlist, won in straight sets to set up a rematch of last year's final.
   Williams, a three-time Bank of the West champion, is 18-2 against Sharapova, the Stanford runner-up in 2010, with a 17-match winning streak.
   Meanwhile, Lleyton Hewitt's career ended with a loss in the third round of doubles. No. 9 seeds and 2014 Wimbledon champions Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Jack Sock of Kansas City, Mo., defeated Australia's Sam Groth and Hewitt 6-4, 6-2.
   Hewitt won the now-defunct San Jose stop on the ATP World Tour in 2002 and reached the final there in 2006.
   In the first round of mixed doubles, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden edged seventh-seeded Raquel Atawo (formerly Kops-Jones) of San Jose and Raven Klaasen of South Africa 6-7 (4), 6-2 [10-4].