Since I haven’t reported in the last few days, let’s start with John Isner.  With Mardy Fish’s heart problems causing him to leave the tour since March and Andy Roddick’s quick exit and Ryan Harrison not quite ready to make the leap, John Isner has become the beacon of men’s tennis.  Brian Baker might become the next older hope, but he couldn’t get past the steady Gilles Simon in the second round.

Isner found himself caught in a five set thriller against Paul-Henri Mathieu.  Haven’t heard about Mathieu in a while?  Me neither.  It seems players you haven’t heard in a while have had injuries.  It’s like Juan Carlos Ferrero who only seems to play in the Slams, but never anywhere else, except Mathieu really seems not to have played in quite some time, due to injury.  It took him five sets to beat Bjorn Phau in the opening round.

Isner had a tussle with a Frenchman two years ago, namely, Nicolas Mahut, in a marathon 5-setter.  And he found himself in another one against Mathieu.  Despite that 70-68 win in the fifth set, Isner’s record in five setters has not been that good since then.  In 2011, he lost to Marin Cilic in the Australian Open, Paul Capdeville in Davis Cup, Rafael Nadal in the opening round of the French Open (although that was seen as a positive since Nadal had never been pushed to five sets at Roland Garros).  He did beat David Nalbandian in 5 sets at the Australian Open, but lost to Feliciano Lopez in the following round in 5 sets.

The loss to Mathieu was 18-16 and set a record for a fifth set at the French Open.  These lengthy five sets combine two issues.  Despite working hard on return, Isner isn’t the best returner.  And Isner has a huge serve and fights well on his serve.  The combination of the two can sometimes lead to the perfect storm of very long matches. In particular, Isner saw very few break point chances on Mathieu’s serve and obviously didn’t take advantage when he did.  Mathieu was finally able to tame the kicker out wide and get himself into points while Isner had a tough time taming his big shots.

Mathieu would take the second round match.  He must have been relieved to play someone in Marcel Granollers, who also took 5 sets in his second round match, beating Tunisian player, Jaziri, in 5 sets.  Jaziri’s ranking is low enough that he’s almost always qualifying to get into a tournament, and yet, he generally does well enough to win a round or two.  He has to be Tunisia’s best player as Africa isn’t known (outside South Africa) as a hotbed of tennis.

The top seeds continue to roll.  No one is having as easy a time as defending champ, Rafael Nadal, who steamrolled Istomin dropping 4 games in the second round, and had an easy time over Argentine, Eduardo Schwank, dropping only 8 games today.  Novak Djokovic has also had a pretty smooth road.  Kavcic took 8 games in the second round and gave Djokovic a tough challenge, but he had a easier time with Devilder, a qualifier from France that beat Michael Berrer and Serb, Filip Krajinovic, in the previous two rounds.

Roger Federer has struggled a little against his opponents.  Adrian Ungur of Romania took a set off Federer in the tiebreak.  Marathon man Nicolas Mahut also took a set off Federer off some aggressive play and kept things interesting in the fourth set when he broke back after being down a break in the fourth.  Of the top 4, Federer probably has the toughest draw.  Still, he should have a good chance to get to the quarters when he faces David Goffin of Belgium.

Belgium seems to be the country of diminutive men.  The Rochus brothers, Olivier and Christophe, are among the shortest top pros in men’s tennis.  Olivier, in particular, has been ranked around 40, and is about 5’6″ which is short given that so many tall men now play top-flight tennis.  Back in the days of Borg and Connors, the best pros were just under 6 feet.  Now, the best pros are just a bit taller than that, and some significantly taller.

David Goffin would have felt more at home in that era where his height of 5’11” would have been comparable to Borg.  Goffin has been making his way up the ranks and may pass the bigger names of Harrison, Raonic, Tomic, and DiMitrov, other young players who have had bigger upside.  Goffin was a lucky loser, meaning he lost in the last round of qualifying, but because of players not entering the French Open (say, Gael Monfils) at the last minute, he got into the main draw.  He’s made the most of it, beating tour veterans Stepanek and Clement in the first and second rounds, then having an easy win over Lukas Kubot in 3 sets in the third round.  His ride is likely to end with Federer, but Federer has yet to show the kind of dominant play from last year’s French Open, where he didn’t drop a set until he played Djokovic in the semifinals, and played tougher opponents to boot.  Still, Federer has had an easier draw this year, so I’m sure he’ll just take the win, despite struggling some.

For the second year in a row, Andy Murray has had a freak injury that nearly derailed his French Open run.  Last year, he twisted an ankle.  He was lucky that Michael Berrer, his third round opponent, is a nice guy.  Berrer had been drop shotting Murray to good effect.  However, once Murray twisted his ankle and was clearly hampered, Berrer, inexplicably, decided to just play deep shots.  Berrer is a big fellow himself and doesn’t move that well.  Murray started blasting the ball trying to keep points very short, and it worked.  With a lot of drugs, Murray would work his way to the semis, losing to ultimate champ, Rafael Nadal.

Andy Murray’s maladies didn’t stop there.  In a bizarre turn of events, Murray took a wildcard into Basel, hoping to widen the gap between him and Federer and end the year at number 3.  Instead, he woke up the morning before with a pain in his backside, and it was severe enough to prevent him from playing Basel altogether.

It was that kind of injury that affected Murray in the second round where he woke up and had some issue with his back.  He had been working through some back issues all year long calling it a “niggle”, but apparently, this was not quite the same.  The result was a severely hampered serve.  Jarkko Nieminen, tour veteran, was also not feeling that great, but he was gifted the first set, saying he pretty much just had to keep the ball in play to win.

Murray’s agony was profound enough that his box was telling him to retire, perhaps to preserve his Wimbledon chances.  However, after some medical timeouts, Murray seemed to move and hit a lot better, and he took the next three sets comfortably, at least, in terms of play.  Murray was taken to task by countrywoman, Virginia Wade, who thought he was a faker.  Murray has played many a Slam where he appears injured and makes a show of it, only to win the match.  Wade felt it was crying wolf one too many times.  Certainly, American commentators have voiced similar concerns.  You rarely see any other player so visibly dealing with injuries so often.

Murray blamed that injury on waking up wrong.  Today, he woke up fine and practiced well.  Despite Santiago Giraldo’s proficiency with clay, Murray had a solid straight set win.

With the top players mostly playing solid tennis, the intrigue is potentially at the lower ranks, but the next group of players continue to do well.  Number 5 seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moves quietly through the draw.  He dropped a set in the first two rounds, but had a nice straight set win over Fabio Fognini, who finally made it through a French Open without drama.  Last year, he won a match over Montanes in the fourth round, 11-9, in the fifth, despite struggling with injury.  He had to withdraw in the next round against Djokovic who might have been helped with some hitting prior to playing Federer.

Tsonga now plays Stan Wawrinka, who beat fellow Frenchman, Gilles Simon, in 5 sets in the third round.  This could make for an interesting match, but Tsonga is likely the fresher of the two, and seems likely to face Djokovic in the quarters.

The other big match coming up is Juan Martin del Potro and Tomas Berdych.  The two recently met in Madrid where Berdych won in two tiebreaks.  Berdych struggled to get past tall Kevin Anderson and needed 5 sets to secure the victory.  del Potro had a more comfortable straight set win over hapless Marin Cilic who continues to struggle with getting back to the form that made him a threat to be a top ten player.

David Ferrer, despite falling to number 6 behind Tsonga, feels like the best number 5 in the world.  Ferrer has always been a good player, but he’s played his best tennis the past few years.  Lacking the big weapons of players ranked above him, Ferrer nonetheless, plays tough tennis.  He is a steady player who plays his patterns and never seems to give less than his best.

Ferrer dropped only 4 games to Mikhail Youzhny who has seen better days on clay.  Youzhny’s play was so bad by his standards that when he finally won a game, he scrawled “Sorri(sic)” in the clay to apologize for his play.  Ferrer was so zoned in that he didn’t notice it happen.

Ferrer will play countryman, Marcel Granollers, who needed a five setter to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu.  Mathieu seems to have run out of gas having played his second consecutive five-setter, and dropped the fifth set, 6-1.  Ferrer looks pretty good to the quarterfinals.

Murray, by contrast, will have potentially two tough tests in a row.  First up is Richard Gasquet.  Gasquet has historically given Murray problems.  Murray needed a 5-setter back in 2008 Wimbledon to get past the Frenchman.  Gasquet then had his own issues, accused of using cocaine, before being found not guilty because he claimed it was due to kissing a woman of ill-repute.  Gasquet has faced Murray in the French Open before.  Back in 2010, they met in the first round which Murray won in 5 sets.

However, they’ve met more recently in the third round of Rome which Gasquet won in 3 sets.  Arguably, Murray didn’t play such a good match despite having some chances to take control of the match.  In particular, Gasquet saved 15 of 17 break points.  If Murray is feeling solid, he’s got to believe that he can convert more often.

Even if Murray beats Gasquet, he’d likely play Ferrer.  Murray has never beaten Ferrer on clay, although the two have not faced each other on clay since 2010.

Tomorrow, Djokovic and Federer are scheduled to play.