A day after World No. 2 Rafa Nadal went out in a shocking second-round exit, third-ranked Roger Federer nearly joined him in defeat on Friday. The six-time  Wimbledon champion overcame a two-set deficit to edge Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-1 in the third round.

                                    “It's always one of the best feelings coming back from two sets to love in a Grand Slam, and in particular here at Wimbledon where I have been able to do it before,” said Federer. Benneteau was within two points of victory on six occasions in the fourth set, including twice in the tie-break at 5-5 and 6-6. He went for his shots on each point, but was outdueled by Federer.

 The first three days of  action at Wimbledon 2012 had had a few upsets and shocking come-backs with some of the big names like Serena Williams exitting tournament early. But no such upsets were being expected from day-4 as both of the big names on the men's side ,Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray, were scheduled to face relatively easy opponents.But what actually happened was beyond everyone's expectation and even imagination.

                                          First up on Centre Court, it was the half Brit-half Scot Andy Murray against the 6foot-11 giant "Ace-Machine" Ivo Karlovic. Murray didn't face much resistance in the first set and bagged it 7-5. In the second set, Ivo's raquet started firing aces, like it usually does, forcing a tie-breaker whic Karlovic eventually won 7-6(7-5). The third set saw Ivo run out of gas and Murray fully capitalised on it . Andy took away the third set 6-2. Karlovic again found his touch in the fourth set and forced a tie-breaker but this time, Karlovic didn't have luck on his side and his rare double-fault gave Murray that narrow window of opportunity that he needed to close out the set and the match.Murray didn't waste any chance o availing the opportunity and sealed his victory in four sets 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2 7-6(4).After the match, Ivo blasted out on the tourament authorities saying that he doubted their credibility and that he felt "cheated".Karlovic was foot-faulted eleven times during the match.

Roger Federer gave Prince Charles a bow, then gave

Fabio Fognini a royal thumping. With the Prince of

Wales visiting Wimbledon for the first time since

1970, Federer was at his best Wednesday and

beat Fognini 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. "They do brief you

 beforehand,'' Federer said. "I guess you don't

do anything stupid. You behave. Obviously we

were asked to bow, which is obviously no

problem to do. We're thrilled for the tennis family

that they came to watch Wimbledon today.''

Defending champion Djokovic gave American Ryan

Harrison a lesson in control as he booked his

third-round place. Djokovic was never expected

to lose to the 20-year-old but a stern examination

was always on the cards and so it proved, even

though the Serbian was a comfortable 6-4

6-4 6-4 winner. It was a straight-sets win but

much more difficult than the scoreline shows,"

he said. "It was a great match but I was in trouble

in the second set and it could have gone either way.

It is difficult to adjust under the

roof, and Ryan was serving fantastically."

                                        Day-2 at the All England Tennis Championships saw top seeds Rafa Nadal, Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga move through to the next round unchallenged. In the first match on Centre Court, it was the seven-time Roland Garros Champion Rafael Nadal who faced off against the brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. Nadal got off to the worst possible start and got broken twice to hand over a 4-0 lead to Bellucci. But then Bellucci failed to stay in the driving seat and lost the first set to Rafa on tie-break 7-6(7-0). Nadal then raced away with the next two sets 6-2 and 6-3 to book his place in the second round.

                                                                                   Andy Murray took the famed Centre Court in the second match of day-2 against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. Although the match seemed to be a competetive affair on papers , but actually it was much more simple than that. The 30-year old Russian proved out to be no match for Murray, who destroyed him in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 to cruise into the second round.

                 The King of Clay Rafa Nadal verified his title at the Roland Garros 2012 when he won his seventh Roland Garros title and achieved a feat that had never ever been imagined before by becoming the only player in the history of tennis to have seven French Open titles to his name.Nadal won the 11th Grandslam of his career and is now tied with greats like Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver for the number of  grandslam titles won on all time list. Rafa, who looked in imperial form throughout the clay-court season, show-cased the exact same performance in the final of Roland Garros 2012 and absolutely tore Djokovic apart in a rather strange match that was twice suspended  because of rain and had quite exciting momentum shifts.But ultimately, it was the Spanish Matador who came out on top in deserving fashion to seal his victory and wrote his name in the history books as the greatest player ever to step foot on clay-court. 

 After the very exciting  action that took  place at the stadia of Roland Garros on day-10, everyone was expecting day-11 to host some thrilling encounters as well and guess what ; it did exactly the same.With some big matches scheduled for day-11 ,it was being thought of as an action-packed day even before it had begun.

                            First up on Court Philippe Chatrier, it was Rafa Nadal's turn to face off against his fellow country-man Nicolas Almagro. Both men hadn't dropped a single set en route the quarter-finals.But heading into the match, it was Rafa who clearly had the edge because of having a perfect 7-0 record against Nicolas in their previous meetings.So , here's how the match unfolded. In the first set , both men had to dig it out deep and the set went to a tie-break, where Rafa once again stuck to his usual way of denying his opponents to win a set against him and thus clinched the first set 7-6. The second set saw a rather one-sided effort as Nadal was the one who clearly toyed with him and wrapped up the 2nd set  in 45 minutes 6-2.In the third set, Nico once again found that fighting-till-the-end spirit and it seemed clear that he was definitely not going down without a fight. But Nadal, who is eyeing a record 7th Roland Garros crown, closed all doors for Alamgro's come back and secured his berth in the semi-final of Roland Garros 2012 by sealing victory in three sets 7-6(4) 6-2 6-3.

                  Much was being expected from the day-9 of the French Open because of the big matches on card for the day and it equally didn't disappoint the tennis fans.

                 The World No.2 King of Clay Rafael Nadal was set to face the clay-court specialist Juan Monaco of Argentina on Court Suzanne Lenglen late in the day. The match was highly hyped about and it was being said that it was Rafa's first real test in the Open so far. In the beginning of the match, Juan Monaco displayed some great tennis but it was overshadowed by Rafa's destructive form. Nadal overwhelmed Monaco in the first set 6-2.In the next two sets , it was a totally one-sided affair as Rafa then won 12 straight games  thrashing  Monaco 6-2 6-0 6-0 in 1 hour and 44 minutes. Nadal has not yet dropped a set in the entire red clay court season and has just lost 19 games in the tournament by far (which is a record for Nadal as well at the Roland Garros).

                            Day-8 at the French Open 2012 was much awaited for, as the road to the main stages of the tournament started off from the fourth round matches scheduled for Sunday.

                  The Prince of Pakistan Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi alongwith his dutch partner Rojer Jean Julien also claimed an easy victory against Dominic Inglot and Treat Conrad Huey in straight sets 6-1 6-4 to cruise into the quarter-finals of Roland Garros 2012. Aisam just has to win two more matches to make his way into the final of French Open 2012 and qualify for the London Olympics 2012.

Day 3 of the French Open 2012 and everything was going just

the way we all anticipated it to be until the late night drama

at Philippe Chatrier where  Serena Williams lost in the first

round of a major tournament for the first time in her career,

falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 .The

fifth-seeded Williams was two points from victory nine times

in the second set, including leading 5-1 in the tiebreaker. But

Razzano won six straight points to force a third set, and then

took control of the match. "I made so many errors today, which

isn’t the game I was playing in the past," Williams said. "That’s

life." Razzano saved all five, and then converted her eighth

match point to eliminate one of the tournament favorites.

"I had to dig deep against a great champion and you could see

until the end that she gave away nothing," Razzano said. "I had

to go and get the victory. I had to be mentally strong, and I

gave my everything."

                                  Much like the Day-1 of the French Open, Day-2 saw top ranked players comfortably moving through to the next round with none of the players making the early exit.

                                         World No.1 player Novak Djokovic was up against the Italian Potito Starace in the first men's match of Day-2 on Court Philippe Chartier. The Serb had to face some early trouble but managed to get through the first set 7-6. From there onwards , it was an easy way for Novak to the second round and he completely dominated the Italian player in the second and third sets to clinch victory in straight sets 7-6, 6-3 , 6-1. “He’s a clay-court specialist and he has given a lot of trouble to the top players on this surface,”.“But maybe it was good for me to have the tough first set and try to find the good control and rhythm and movement on the court.”Djokovic said afterwards.