French Open 2015 Results: Friday Scores and Saturday Bracket Predictions
There was little in the way of an insurgency on Friday at the 2015 French Open, as both the men's and women's singles play saw the vast majority of top seeds vanquish their lower-ranked opposition at Roland Garros.
Women's singles saw but one notable upset on Friday, with No. 28 Flavia Pennetta defeating No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro. No. 7 Ana Ivanovic was particularly impressive in a 6-0, 6-3 win over unranked Donna Vekic.
The men's side was quite predictable as well. Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka cruised to easy wins, and the three highest-ranked Frenchmen on the ATP Tour—No. 13 Gilles Simon, No. 14 Gael Monfils and No. 15 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga—all move on to the next round.
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Here's a longer look at Friday's scores, followed by Saturday's bracket (with predictions) and a look at the top matchup to watch on Day 7.
| No. 2 Roger Federer def. Damir Dzumhur | 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 |
| No. 4 Tomas Berdych def. Benoit Paire | 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 |
| No. 8 Stan Wawrinka def. Steve Johnson | 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 |
| No. 12 Gilles Simon def. Nicolas Mahut | 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1 |
| No. 13 Gael Monfils def. No. 21 Pablo Cuevas | 4-6, 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
| No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Pablo Andujar | 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-3 |
| No. 20 Richard Gasquet def. Carlos Berlocq (Round 2) | 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 |
| Teymuraz Gabashvili def. Lukas Rosol | 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 |
| No. 2 Maria Sharapova def. No. 26 Samantha Stosur | 6-3, 6-4 |
| No. 7 Ana Ivanovic def. Donna Vekic | 6-0, 6-3 |
| No. 28 Flavia Pennetta def. No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro | 6-3, 6-4 |
| No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova def. Elena Vesnina | 6-2, 6-4 |
| No. 29 Alize Cornet def. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni | 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 |
| No. 13 Lucie Safarova def. No. 20 Sabine Lisicki | 6-3, 7-6 (2) |
Complete scores at RolandGarros.com.
Saturday's Bracket, Predictions
| Round | Court | Matchup | Prediction |
| 3 | Philippe-Chatrier Court | No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis | Djokovic in three |
| 3 | Philippe-Chatrier Court | No. 20 Richard Gasquet vs. No. 15 Kevin Anderson | Anderson in four |
| 3 | Suzanne-Lenglen Court | No. 3 Andy Murray vs. No. 29 Nick Kyrgios | Murray in four |
| 3 | Suzanne-Lenglen Court | Andrey Kuznetsov vs. No. 6 Rafael Nadal | Nadal in three |
| 3 | Court 1 | No. 17 David Goffin vs. Jeremy Chardy | Chardy in five |
| 3 | Court 1 | Simone Bolelli vs. No. 7 David Ferrer | Ferrer in four |
| 3 | Court 2 | Jack Sock vs. Borna Coric | Sock in four |
| 3 | Court 7 | No. 9 Marin Cilic vs. No. 23 Leonardo Mayer | Cilic in four |
| Round | Court | Matchup | Prediction |
| 3 | Philippe-Chatrier Court | No. 4 Petra Kvitova vs. No. 30 Irina-Camelia Begu | Kvitova in two |
| 3 | Philippe-Chatrier Court | No. 1 Serena Williams vs. No. 27 Victoria Azarenka | Williams in three |
| 3 | Suzanne-Lenglen Court | Alison Van Uytvanck vs. Kristina Mladenovic | Mladenovic in three |
| 3 | Suzanne-Lenglen Court | Tsvetana Pironkova vs. Sloane Stephens | Stephens in two |
| 3 | Court 1 | No. 10 Andrea Petkovic vs. No. 17 Sara Errani | Petkovic in three |
| 3 | Court 2 | Andreea Mitu vs. Francesca Schiavone | Mitu in two |
| 3 | Court 2 | No. 23 Timea Bacsinszky vs. No. 16 Madison Keys | Keys in three |
| 3 | Court 7 | Irina Falconi vs. Julia Goerges | Goerges in three |
Top Matchup to Watch: Andy Murray vs. Nick Kyrgios
If you have to pick just one match to watch on Saturday, Murray-Kyrgios is kind of a no-brainer selection. The Scottish star should be able to come away with victory yet again, and it may not even be the most competitive match of the day, but it's difficult to justify ignoring another potentially explosive meeting between these two fine players.
It pits the brilliant Murray, with his easily readable facial expressions and ready anguish, against the demonstrative, confident and wholly entertaining young star in Kyrgios.
It's also their second straight meeting at a tennis major. A resurgent Murray defeated Kyrgios 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January. The Guardian's Kevin Mitchell detailed just some of the gamesmanship and, um, passion, on display in that contest:
"Judicious deployment of the slow-towel wipe between points and a couple of challenges frustrated the fast-serving Kyrgios, who was warned for an audible obscenity in the eighth game, but he held, forcing Murray to serve out the set after 32 minutes, courtesy of a generous call on a second serve that looked a couple of inches long.
"
While it was on paper a routine three-set victory, Kyrgios made things quite difficult for Murray at times in that match, rallying the partisan crowd with big, risky shots and playing to the stands when things went well. Kyrgios could be his own worst enemy at times, a scene that might have been familiar to Murray, per Mitchell.
"It must have been slightly odd for Murray to see an opponent across the net behaving as he once did before he worked out how to channel his emotions," Mitchell wrote.
Kyrgios won't have that home-country advantage at Roland Garros, but he does have another development in his favor.
The budding Australian should be nice and rested on Saturday after Kyle Edmund withdrew from their second-round clash on Day 5 with a strained stomach muscle, according to Mike Dickson of the Daily Mail.
Kyrgios handily dispatched Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round, so he should have a full tank against Murray.
He also has supreme confidence in his abilities—a must in a lonely, isolating sport like tennis.
"The greatest people in every sport have an unbelievable amount of self-confidence,” he said this week to the Telegraph's Simon Briggs. “I think that’s one thing that makes me a good tennis player: I have a lot of belief in myself. You don’t see many 19-year-olds or 20-year-olds beating the greatest of all time.”
Briggs notes that comment is in reference to Kyrgios' win over Federer at the Mutua Madrid Open—one in which he saved two match points—but it could just as easily apply to his starmaking victory over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 2014. He's confident, but still not as polished as his rival on Saturday.
Murray dispatched Facundo Arguello in three sets to open his tournament, but it took an extra bit of effort to defeat Joao Sousa 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in Round 2.
The 28-year-old has also been in fantastic form on clay as of late, defeating the normally imperious Nadal in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open and capturing his first clay-tourney win by defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber at the BMW Open in Munich in April.
This version of Murray might be too much for Kyrgios to handle on Saturday, but the young Aussie should make it a tough, thrilling matchup.
Whoever wins this contest could have a relatively simple path to the quarterfinal. The winner will go on to play unranked Jeremy Chardy or No. 17 David Goffin in the round of 16, players whom both Murray and Kyrgios are quite capable of defeating.
Kyrgios' unfiltered play might not be everyone's cup of tea, but he's a young, hip star who seems quite capable of wrestling the sport of tennis away from a focus on Murray and his Big Four cohorts.
Whether that's through his on-court antics or consistently deep tournament runs remains to be seen, but he has a big chance for another famous win on Saturday—an opportunity both he and fans won't want to miss.
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