French Open Day 7 recap: Serena tops Azarenka

Serena Williams, shown en route to the title in the Bank of the
West Classic at Stanford last summer, rallied to beat Victoria
Azarenka on Saturday. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Match of the day -- Top-seeded Serena Williams staged another of her patented comebacks, defeating No. 27 Victoria "Station" Azarenka 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the third round.
   Williams, seeking her third French Open singles title, trailed 6-3, 4-2 but won the last four games of the second set and the last six games of the third set.
   Upset of the day -- Jeremy "Don't Be" Chardy of France knocked off his second consecutive seed, clobbering No. 17 David "Gerry" Goffin of Belgium 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Chardy, who also took out No. 16 John Isner, will face No. 3 Andy "Bill" Murray in the round of 16.
   Notable -- No. 17 seed Sara "No Runs, No Hits, No" Errani, the 2012 runner-up to Maria Sharapova, dispatched No. 10 Andrea Petkovic "Park," a 2014 semifinalist, 6-3, 6-3.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Murray, No. 6 Rafael Nadal (nine-time champion, including last five years), No. 7 David Ferrer, No. 9 Marin "County" Cilic, No. 20 Richard "Blow A" Gasquet.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 15 Kevin Anderson, No. 17 David Goffin, No. 23 Leonardo "Da Vinci" Mayer, No. 29 Nick Kyrgios.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 1 Williams, No. 4 Petra Kvitova, No. 17 Errani, No. 23 Timea Bacsinszky.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 10 Petkovic, No. 16 Madison "Avenue" Keys, No. 27 Azarenka, No. 30 Irina-Camelia "Ain't Too Proud To" Begu.
   Stars and stripes -- Sloane "Ranger" Stephens joined Williams in the round of 16, but Keys and Irina "Atlanta" Falconi lost.
   Jack Sock reached the fourth round of a major for the first time, dominating 18-year-old sensation Borna "Gain Christian" Coric of Croatia 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Coric owns victories over Nadal and Murray.
   Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, the seventh seeds in women's doubles and reigning Australian Open champions, advanced to the third round.
   Northern California connection -- Hao-Ching Chan of Taiwan and Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, a member of the Sacramento-based California Dream in World TeamTennis, reached the last 16 in women's doubles.
   Mattek-Sands and former Stanford star Mike Bryan, seeded second in mixed doubles, won in the second round, but Raquel "Welch" Kops-Jones, a San Jose resident and ex-Cal standout, and Robert Farah of Colombia lost.
   Fast facts -- Williams became the first woman in the Open era, which began in 1968, to win at least 50 singles matches in each Grand Slam tournament.
   A whopping five Frenchmen, including four seeds, reached the round of 16: No. 12 Gilles Simon, No. 13 Gael Monfils, No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 20 Gasquet and Chardy.
   A Romanian woman advanced to the last 16, but not Simona "I Need" Halep. Andreea Mitu eliminated 34-year-old Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 champion, 7-5, 6-4. Halep, the No. 3 seed and 2014 runner-up, lost to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round.
   Quote -- Azarenka on chair umpire Kader Nouni's decision to replay a key point: "That call was (bull----), and everybody knows it."
   Today's best match -- Second-seeded Roger Federer, the 2009 French Open champion, is scheduled to face Monfils, a 2008 semifinalist and a three-time quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, in the round of 16 (NBC, 9 a.m. PDT). However, rain is forecast.
   Monfils has won the last two meetings against Federer, both on clay. And this time, Monfils will be playing in his home country.