It’s rare for this to happen.  Roger Federer was scheduled to meet the winner of two wildcards.  Normally, wildcards are ranked too low to get into the main draw.  If this were Wimbledon, the wildcards could easily be ranked 300 or worse since UK has a dearth of quality players.  However, France has a plethora of good players.  They have at least 20 players in the main draw.  Thus, a wildcard is ranked about 150 or so.

Even so, such wildcards struggle at the Challenger Level or even the Futures, trying to scratch together enough points to play an ATP 250 points.  Any wins and losses are kept track of, but are not considered part of their official ATP win-loss record.  This is, presumably, to avoid weak players who play primarily challengers from building up a great record even though they are rarely in the top 100.

Federer was slated to meet Maxime Teixeira.  For a while, Teixeira was keeping even, but then it fell apart as Federer figured out a strategy to play him.  He decided Teixeira could handle pace, so he added more spin, and then hit a bit shot to win the point.  Federer also drop shotted a great deal.  In such a match where the opponent has few ways to beat you, a player the caliber of Federer can try a bunch of different strategies.

Once upon a time, Roger showed a great deal of emotion on court.  These days, he keeps everything in check.  He plays more like Borg.  Even Nadal wears frustration on his face when he misses what he perceives to be an easy shot.  Roger no longer emotes very much except on the rare big win.

Give Teixeira credit. Despite lacking tools to beat Federer, he was scrapping along the entire time.  He lost the second set at love, but worked hard to earn the 2 game he had in the third set.  Federer complimented his opponent on his desire, even if he lacked the tools to beat the great one.

Federer’s next opponent is Janko Tipsarevic who has been exceedingly efficient in his first two rounds.  Tipsarevic has dropped 11 games in two rounds and has had two love sets.  To be fair, his opponents have been Brian Dabul (who Federer famously hit the tweener at last year’s US Open) and Pere Riba.  Not exactly world-beaters.  Tipsarevic once pushed Federer to five sets at the Australian Open.  Federer should get more of a tussle than his 2nd round opponent, but should sail through in 3 or 4 sets.

Novak Djokovic was expected to have a tougher battle with Victor Hanescu.  Hanescu is a tough player, but he played better a year ago or so.  He came into Paris having reached the finals of Nice and was expected to trouble Djokovic somewhat.  However, Djokovic is playing so well that even a hot player can look silly.  The first set was the closest.  He won that 6-4.  Djokovic then had an easy 6-1 second set.  Hanescu took a medical time out, and they played close in the third.  Hanescu then retired up 3-2 in the third.

This leads up to the most intriguing third round match.  Juan Martin del Potro in the third round.  del Potro handled Kavcic of Slovenia in straight sets.

Djokovic should be able to beat del Potro.  However, del Potro has mostly managed to avoid top players except Soderling who he’s had good success against.  This will be a good measure of both men’s games.  del Potro is seeded, but he wants to get back in the top ten.  Is he prepared to do that?  I see, 3, maybe 4 close sets.  He could be to Djokovic what Isner was to Nadal, a thorn in his side.  Certainly, there is the possibility of a huge upset.  I don’t think it will happen as Djokovic is still too good right now.  And realize that Djokovic beat del Potro back when Delpo was healthy.

Monfils needed four sets to get past countryman Rufin.  Commentators pointed out how athletically gifted Monfils is but how defensive a game he plays.  He exerts too much effort for a guy this talented.  Probably reminds some folks of Yannick Noah, another player with a lot of athleticism but not enough mental tenacity.

By contrast, Tsonga had a clean win in straight sets over Igor Andreev.  They are joined by Richard Gasquet, who beat Marcel Granollers of Spain in four sets.  Not all Frenchman made it to the third round.  Stephane Robert, who upset Berdych, lost easily to Fognini.  Fognini was the guy that had the marathon match against Monfils last year and eventually won despite protestations that their match was too dark to play.

David Ferrer, Stan Wawrinka, and Mikhail Youzhny had straight sets wins.  Montanes beat Ramirez-Hidalgo in four sets.  Ramirez-Hidalgo upset the erratic Marin Cilic in the opening round.

Steve Darcis had an easy victory over Philipp Petzschner of Germany.  Thomaz Bellucci had an easy win over Andreas Seppi of Italy.  Bellucci will play Gasquet in the next round.  The winner of that takes on the winner of Djokovic-del Potro.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez had to go the distance to beat Turk, Marsel Ilhan, 13-11 in the fifth set.

The rest of the top half should play tomorrow, including Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.