Although it’s been more than 25 years since Yannick Noah won Roland Garros for his country, the French have generally performed reasonably well. The two superpowers in tennis might boil down to France and Spain with Spain having fared a bit better than their Gaelic counterparts.

Gael Monfils had to be considered one of the most promising players to come out of France after, well, Richard Gasquet. The French love to put pressure on their favorites. In 2004, he won 3 of 4 junior Grand Slams. The only one missing from the list was the US Open which went to current world number 3, Andy Murray.

Monfils had a fantastic French Open run last year, making it all the way to the semis before he fell to Roger Federer, but injury has plagued the talented Frenchman. It was uncertain whether he’d play the French this year due to a knee injury. Monfils only played one major clay tournament (Monte Carlo) losing tamely to Serb, Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3, 6-1.

Nevertheless, he went out there to face American Bobby Reynolds. Reynolds is a solid player, currently ranked 83. He is one of several Americans that have played well but aren’t ready to carry the mantle of the best class of American tennis (that of Chang, Agassi, Courier, Sampras, and Martin). He, Robert Kendrick, Wayne Odesnik, Robby Ginepri, and Sam Querrey toil in the top 100 trying to break into the top 20 and respectability. On paper, Reynolds should have no chance against Monfils, but who knew if Monfils was healthy enough to beat Reynolds.

Indeed, he was. Monfils made easy work of the American: 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.

The French did fairly well on this third day of Roland Garros. Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. More surprisingly, Marc Giquel routined 27th seed Rainer Schuettler, 6-0, 6-0, 6-4. Giquel is ranked 46 while Schuettler is ranked 29, so the differences in ranking are negligible.

The top seed playing on day 3 was Novak Djokovic. If Murray had an easy match, Djokovic had an easier one. His opponent, Nicolas Lapentti, retired after a set and a half, down 6-3, 3-1.

The other top player of note, Juan Marin del Potro, also won handily beating Frenchman, Michael Llodra, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

Americans again continued to perform poorly as two of the higher ranked Americans, James Blake and his buddy, Mardy Fish, both lost today. Blake lost to qualifier, 93rd ranked, 22 year old Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 7-6(6), 7-5, 6-2. After playing pretty well on clay in recent weeks, this has to be a disappointing loss. An Argentinian also beat Mardy Fish. Maximo Gonzalez (age 25, rank 71), beat Fish in 4 sets, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(4).

Argentinian players continued to do well elsewhere. Upstart Juan Monaco handled Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

In the battle of the senior tour wannabes, 31 year old Tommy Haas of Germany beat 35 year old Romanian, Andrei Pavel, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Local Aussie, Bernard Tomic, proved ineffective against German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, losing 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, had an easy match over Adrian Mannarino (age 20, rank 126) 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. The upset of the day has to go to fellow Spaniard and former number 1 player, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat Ivan Ljubicic in five sets: 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Ferrero’s ranking had slipped to 103 while Ljubicic has had one of his better clay court seasons leading up to the French. Perhaps even more surprising, Ljubicic leads the head-to-head, 3-1, though they haven’t played one another since 2005.

Matches of interest on Day 4. Can Robert Kendrick, one of two Americans (the other being Andy Roddick) left in the draw, make an impression against Gilles Simon? Simon needed five sets to beat American, Wayne Odesnik. Can he go 2 for 2 against another American?

Radek Stepanek plays Mathieu Montcourt of France. OK, maybe the match itself isn’t interesting, but Montcourt is being penalized for gambling a number of years ago to the tune of a few hundred dollars. Many feel the fine and suspension are too harsh for the crime.

Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal play tomorrow as the two top seeds on schedule for Wednesday play.