Henk Abbink Reports From Monte Carlo: Fabio Leads Day Of Upsets

Text and Photos by Henk Abbink

Italy’s Fabio Fognini was responsible for the first upset of the day. On “Court des Princes” he stunned Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-2. Everything seemed to work for the handsome crowd-pleaser. He will face France’s Richard Gasquet next. It is such a pleasure to watch how spontaneously Gasquet mingles with his fans. I have run into him several times on my way to the Player Lounge and it is great to see how warmly he poses with this admirers. Most players avoid the ‘public route’ to the practice courts but Richard has no problems being close to his fans without bodyguards around him.

Stanislav Wawrinka faced a lackluster Andy Murray. Or maybe it was just that the Swiss was way too good for Murray today. I was sitting right next to a very quiet Ivan Lendl who watched in pain how his player was blasted (6-1, 6-2) off the court by Wawrinka. The others on the Murray bench were trying very hard (in vain) to shout and inject some aggression into their player. The Swiss no. 2 will find a very motivated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ready and waiting.

During the first set of the Djokovic-Monaco match, I thought the Argentine would cause another upset. However, like yesterday, the clever Serb found his way back into the match and was in full control of the second and third set. It will be interesting to see if the World No. 1 is slowly finding his groove on clay tomorrow when he will face a red-hot Jarkki Nieminen. The super fit 31-year-old caused a gigantic upset by edging Juan Martin del Potro in a third set tiebreak 7-6 (4).

Nieminen’s experience has come in very handy against youngster Milos Raonic in the second round and it helped him again against the no. 5 seed. It is obvious that the “Flying Finn” is having the time of his life here at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters. This is his first quarter final at at Masters 1000 level tournament. My bet is he will have a blast on “Court Central” tomorrow against Novak and fully enjoy his center court appearance. Jarkko has this great air of confidence around him. The air that comes with feeling totally comfortable with his veteran position on the tour, not to mention, knocking off two ATP World Tour titans in successive days. He seems to make all the right decisions and may well cause another giant upset.

Seeing Ivan Lendl just centimeters away from my vantage point, watching Murray and then Bjorn Borg were some of my highlights today. Later in the afternoon Borg came to the famous Café de Paris, where your Tennis Prose crew likes to hang out too after the matches. The living legend leisurely walked in, seemingly unaware of all those gazing. He sat down with company, so I decided to leave him alone and engage with him at another opportunity.

One thing is sure. The final eight will make for a really great day of quality tennis once again on Friday. First up Tsonga vs Wawrinka, then young and promising Dimitrov against Rafa, Fognini vs Gasquet and finally Novak versus Jarkko.
On “Court des Princes” spectators will be thrilled tomorrow with the line up in Doubles play too. The Bryans will be on last against Melzer and still-going-strong Leander Paes.

Bjorn Borg's presence adds to the scene

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