Roland Garros 2013 Day 7: Haas edges Isner

Haas won an amazing match against Isner on his 13th match point

Roland Garros 2013 Day 7: Haas edges Isner

Men's Singles

Nadal and Fognini treated the crowd to some amazing rallies

For the third match in a row seven-time champion Rafael Nadal was tested as the 3rd seed came through a thoroughly entertaining match against the mercurial Italian Fabio Fognini 7-6(7-5) 6-4 6-4. 

The 27th seeded Italian had led 4-2 in the opener and served for it at 6-5 but unlike Daniel Brands and Martin Klizan could not take the lead against the Spaniard.

Novak Djokovic dispatched an injured Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-2 6-3 after the top seed had his own shoulder niggle late on.

Richard Gasquet and Stanislas Wawrinka set up an exciting fourth round meeting with wins in round three over Nikolay Davydenko and Jerzy Jankowicz respectively.

Mikhail Youzhny saw off eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets while there were also third round victories for Kei Nishikori and Philipp Kohlschreiber who face off against Nadal and Djokovic next.

Women's Singles

Defending champion Maria Sharapova moved into the fourth round with a 6-1 7-5 win over Zheng Jie.  The No.2 seed had to recover from 1-4 in the second and broke when the Chinese player served for the second set at 5-4.

Third seed Victoria Azarenka was pushed even harder by 31st seed Alize Cornet but finished strongly in a 4-6 6-3 6-1 victory.

The Belarusian goes onto face 2010 champion Francesca Schaivone who swept past 13th seed Marion Bartoli in a repeat of their 2011 semi-final 6-2 6-1.

Jankovic avenged her 2010 semi-final loss to Stosur

Three time semi-finalist Jelena Jankovic hit back from a set down to take out 2010 finalist Sam Stosur. Having levelled the match the Serb moved ahead a 3-0 double break in the decider but saw the Aussie reel off four straight games. 

JJ remained calm though and broke for 5-4 with a trademark backhand down the line and served an ace on her fourth match point.

Jankovic will next face Jamie Hampton who became the 4th American woman into the last 16 as 7th seed Petra Kvitova committed 33 unforced errors and Hampton took her first top 10 win 6-1 7-6(9-7).

Also booking their places in the fourth round were Maria Kirilenko, Sloane Stephens and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Match of the day: Haas (12) vs Isner (19)

Tommy Haas and John Isner treated the Court 1 crowd to a thrilling third round battle which almost saw one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history.



Isner nearly pulled off a miraculous escape



As in second round meeting with Ryan Harrison a day earlier Isner lost the first two sets 7-5 7-6 but launched his fightback with an early break in the third before reducing the deficit to two sets to one.

The third set was nip and tuck before the American incredibly survived nine match points in the twelfth game before reaching a tie-break.  The veteran German held another three match points in the breaker but it was the giant American who took it 12-10 to level up.

When Isner jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the decider an amazing win looked possible but it was the 28 year-old's 10th set in two days and it began to show.

Haas broke back in the seventh game but the German faced a match point serving at 4-5 30-40 and survived with one forehand finding the sideline.

With Isner fading he had to rely on his thumping serve which kept him in the match. At 8-8 Haas broke through and converted match point No.13 a game later to score a memorable 7-5 7-6(7-4) 4-6 6-7(10-12) 10-8 victory after four hours and 37 minutes of drama.

The German is now one match away from a first French Open quarter final at the age of 35 and is very close to a top 10 return. Age is but a number.

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