No Andy Murray cannot win – cause he has just been knocked out.

We are now in the tenth day of the French Open with all half of the quarter final matches completed. The 2009 French Open was blown wide open after the events on sunday Rafael Nadal Losing in the French Open.

Andy Murray entered the French Open as the fourth favourite to win the title and one of the only few realistic choices of upsetting world number 1 and FOUR time champion Rafael Nadal. He’s out, Nadal’s out, Fed is still in.

Bookmakers have slashed their odds Federer winning the title. The average has dropped to 11/10 (2.1) across the bookmakers (was 5/1 (6.0)  prior to Nadal exit).

After dispatching Murray today Gonzalez is the new second favorite to win in Paris.

French player Gael Monfils has the crowd support and looking to end the drought of a Frenchmen winning in Paris. Monfils look like a reasonable contender and seems to be dealing with the home crowd pressure better than any other previous French players. I’m betting he makes the final, bold statement considering that means Roger Federer would not  as these two now meet in the quarters.

Robin Soderling, Nadals conqueror is average odds of 5/1 if you fancy the Swedish maestro to continue his way to the title.

Andy Murray limped out of the 2009 French Open losing to Fernando Gonzalez in 4 sets, 6-3 3-6, 6-0 6-4.

Murray uncharacteristically through away the match in the third set when his solid approach of simply don’t miss broke down and Murray started spraying unforced errors on both forehand and backhand.

His form picked up slightly in the 4th set, but after breaking back in the 9th game he cheaply allowed Gonzalez to race to 0-40  on the Murray serve and the world number 12 Gonzalez only needed one chance to reach the semi-final at Roland Garros for the first time in 9 attempts.

Gonzalez will now face Robin Soderling after the Swede destroyed Davydenko 6-1 6-3 6-1.

The quarter final matches have all now been finalised.

We have so far lost the first and third favorites, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic . Who will be eliminated in the quarter finals?

Britain’s Andy Murray will take on 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez on Tuesday – See a preview of Andy Murray v Fernando Gonzalez.

The other quarter final to be played on Tuesday will be between 10th seed Nikolay and Rafael Nadal’s conqueror 23rd seed Robin Soderling. Soderling holds a 3-2 advantage over Davydenko which includes wins in their last two meetings and their two meetings on clay.

On Wednesday 5th seed Juan Martin Del Potro takes on the last remaining Spaniard 16th seed Tommy Robredo. Del Potro was the winner in their only other encounter.

The last match to be played is surely the most intriguing - home favorite Frenchman 11th seed Gael Monfils takes the world number 2, Roger Federer in a repeat of last years semi final. Monfils has never beaten Roger Federer in 4 attempts though he pushed the 13 time grand slam champion close in their last meeting 12 months ago Monfils eventually losing 6-2 5-7 6-3 7-5. Fed’s form has been shaky so far, will he step up his game in the second week.

The tennis world is in shocked tonight.

Rafael Nadal has been sent packing from the 2009 French Open!

Robin Soderling produced his best ever tennis to inflict defeat on the World number one for the first time ever at Roland Garros.

Nadal had not dropped a set since the final in 2007 and before today Rafa Nadal had not drop 2 sets in one match at the French Open, never mind lose a match. He had only dropped 7 sets in his 4 and half years of playing at the French Open.

That is until Super Robin Soderling stepped up, a player that only 4 weeks ago in Rome Nadal dismissed 6-0 6-1.

Soderling from point 1 went after Nadal and if not for poor tie break played in the second set, this would have been a straight sets win for Swede who is currently ranked 25 in the world and has never been in a grand slam quarter final.

Soderling had never beaten Nadal in their 3 meetings, though they did have a memorable meeting at Wimbledon in 2007 where Soderling mocked Nadal’s short tucking. The then world number 2 did not appreciate. Soderling lost that close match 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5. That match and the drubbing in Rome 4 weeks ago may just have been the inspiration that Soderling drawed on to post this most famous win.

At Nadal’s after match press conference he spoke on his loss

He didn’t surprise me because I know how he plays and how dangerous he can be. I didn’t play my best. I played very short and I couldn’t attack. I made it easy for him to play at his level. But I lost. It’s not a tragedy, I had to lose one day. I must accept my defeats with the same level of calm that I accept my victories.

The enormity of this win has so many consequences, Roger Federer will never have better chance than now to win the French Open title, that he so desperately seeks. He must improve substantially on his performances so far if he is to make history, he still has a number of hugely talented potential opponents to play.

Of all the places that Andy Murray could win his maiden grand slam title, Roland Garros was very much the bottom of every ones list, but the Scot is now the second favorite to lift the French Open Crown. See the updated Andy Murray French Open Odds.

The French crowd did show a lot of love for Nadal, but perhaps this is now the year for Tsonga or Monfils to take the roof of Roland Garros, Federer may potentially have to beat both these French players or they could even both meet in what would surely be a dream semi-final.

See the updated 2009 French Open Odds now Nadal is out!

World number 3 Andy Murray produced his best tennis of the French Open so far to sweep past 13th seed Marin Cilic with an impressive straight sets victory 7-5 7-6(7-3) 6-1.

The Scot is playing in only his third French Open and is the first Brit into the quarter-finals at Roland Garros since Tim Henman made the semi-finals in 2004.

Murray will be looking to emulate Henman in reaching the semi-finals when he takes on Fernando Gonzalez, the 12 seed from Chile on Tuesday 2nd June 2009.

Murray’s win against Cilic, the 13 seed who was yet to drop a set all tournament and had lost the least amount of games all tournament, will give the Scot great confidence that the he can progress further in Paris and chalange for the title.

Cilic had only seen his serve broken three times all tournament – Murray broke in the first game and would go on to break Cilic’s serve 6 times in total.

Murray was immeadiatly broken back after taking that initial game and the first set went with serve until 11th game, with Cilic serving at 5-5 the Croats serve broke down as Murray stepped up the pressure to secure his second break of serve. Murray would serve out the set comfortably claim the set with a big service winner.

Murray secured his third break of serve early in the second set to lead 3-1, but Cilic would once again break back to level at 4-4. Gotta stop Andy Murray story just now Rafa’s in trouble.