Two men stood out on Thursday at the French Open, one of them a man who lost 6-2 6-2 6-3. Dominic Thiem impressed everyone with his performance against Rafael Nadal, not a match that anyone could have expected him to win. Thiem clearly needs more experience and to learn his limits, for most of his errors came from going for too much, but the way he was able to hit Rafa around the court was astonishing. His backhand never broke down and was a lethal weapon, a rarity for a one-hander against Nadal. He will be something special within a few years.

Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet has been struggling with a physical issue that visibly affected his backhand. This one-hander, which is one of the best in tennis, did absolutely nothing today. Gasquet was forced to play closer to the baseline than usual and attack with the forehand a lot more. This worked for him as he hit 53 winners during his 7-6 6-4 6-4 victory over Carlos Berlocq, almost all of them from the forehand wing. Gasquet’s counterpunching game and backhand have put him in the top 10, but adjusting a little and attacking more could push his game up another notch. After all, he showed us today that his forehand is hardly a weakness.

Honor Roll:

Ivo Karlovic:  He has competed in nine French Opens over the past 12 years. But Karlovic had won exactly two matches at Roland Garros before this tournament and had never advanced past the second round. He is in some of the best form of his career right now, though, and reached the third round this year. What was most impressive about Karlovic’s victory today was that he broke Andreas Haider-Maurer’s serve three times in his 7-5 6-3 6-4 win. He has a match against Kevin Anderson next, who plays a similar style to him. And Karlovic might be the better player of the two at the moment.

Donald Young: We also need to give kudos to this American, who was 0-2 at Roland Garros before this year. Young drew two players who are not great on clay, but it’s not his best surface either. Today’s match was not the prettiest, but Young got it done 6-3 7-6 6-3 against a much higher-ranked opponent in Feliciano Lopez. He outlasted the Spaniard mentally and played the big points better, which should be a very good sign for Young moving forward.

David Ferrer:  Ferrer didn’t do anything special in his routine 6-2 6-3 6-2 win over Simone Bolelli. But being himself is more than enough to take care of nearly every player in the world on clay. He has not lost a step at all, and each impressive performance he turns in makes his potential quarterfinal against Nadal that much more intriguing.

Lost Their Homework:

Fernando Verdasco:  He made a good comeback, but Verdasco was blitzed by Pablo Cuevas to begin this match. He came out flat and let his opponent dictate for far too long. Verdasco has been up and down in level of play in recent years, but someone with his talent should beat Pablo Cuevas with relative ease rather than struggling through a 4-6 6-7 7-5 6-4 6-3 rollercoaster.

Denis Istomin:  Istomin had lost only one of five meetings with Kohlschreiber before, including a victory in a Challenger final. Today, however, he could not replicate his form against a player he should match up well against. Kohlschreiber played very well, granted, but Istomin’s game felt a little too passive at times. He was broken six times by the German, which is too many for someone of Istomin’s talent. This 6-3 7-6 6-2 setback was not a poor performance per se, but it was very disappointing by the end.

Match of the Day:

With only one five-setter on the day, this spot probably belongs to Verdasco vs. Cuevas. There was plenty of good tennis today, but none of the matches had any of the over-the-top excitement that makes the Grand Slams what they are. The first two sets of the match saw lots of poor play from Verdasco. And, even though the second set went to a tiebreak, the match never felt tense. Even once the fifth set rolled around, you still didn’t feel the nerves and tension early on.

Verdasco turned things up another notch halfway through the fifth set, though, and really produced some beautiful tennis to win the match. He took the break at 3-3 and won from there, breaking Cuevas for a second time to finish the match off. It also helped that Cuevas got tired towards the end, but this match really should have been on Verdasco’s racket from the start. Still, it was compelling tennis and was both the day’s longest and latest-finishing match.