French Open 2012 Scores: Most Spectacular Performances from Today's Matches

At the 2012 French Open, the first half of the third-round matches have been played.

Today displayed many great matches with players in fine form and others in obvious slumps.

The French crowd was overall hurt but had many tennis players representing their nation in good ways.

The top players, including Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, took to the court and attempted to move a step further in the tournament.

Some of the athletes truly dazzled us today, and here are the top performances of the bunch.

Federer Def. Mahut 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5

The great performance came from the losing Frenchman, who put forth some inspired play for the home crowd.

He was electrified playing on centre court and took his chances against a sub-par Federer, though it seemed hard to believe Mahut's 0-3 head-to-head record and inabilities to capture even one set prior to this encounter would propel him into the fourth round.

Del Potro Def. Cilic 6-3, 7-6 (7), 6-1

Considering the man from Argentina has had a bad knee injury this week, this match was an absolute demolition derby.

His matches against Marin Cilic have been very tough in the past, but today's match was one-sided and ended fairly quickly.

Del Potro now faces Tomas Berdych, which will present an uncertainty for fans of the ninth seed in the draw.

Seppi Def. Verdasco 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2

FeVer got off to a slow start as usual but clawed his way back into the match for a decisive fifth set. However, he did not show up in the end at all and struck too many unforced errors against the Italian.

It is good to see Seppi's results carrying over from his tremendous run in the Rome Masters (the warm-up tournament just before Roland Garros), and it will be interesting to see how he plays in his next match.

Berdych Def. Anderson 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4

Kevin Anderson played one of the best matches of the tournament and still lost. He gifted the Czech the decisive break in the fifth set, but other than double faulting on that gutsy second serve, not much separated the two players.

Berdych gave credit where it was due and stated that the fellow giant on tour played well enough to secure a victory—but it just wasn't his day.

Both players played well and scrambled to get to balls on the clay that seemed unreachable.

Wawrinka Def. Simon 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2

The Swiss men were successful in taking out the Frenchmen on their home turf (and on the big stages as well) today.

Gilles Simon put himself in position to take this match in straight sets but continued to find his serve broken in crucial moments.

Stan the Man kept hanging in there, and there was no looking back after he took command of the fourth set. Kudos to both players for giving commendable efforts.

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