Ivan Ljubicic celebrates his win over Nikolay Davydenko. Photograph: Matthew Stockman/Getty

It was a long day of clay-court action in the men’s singles at the French Open on Saturday. A series of five-set matches provided plenty of time to enjoy the drawn-out rallies that are a feature of tennis’s slowest stage. Or is ”enjoy” the right word? Do you prefer the short, sharp, reflex rallies on grass that will dominate Wimbledon in just over three weeks’ time?

There could hardly have been a better advertisement for clay than the five-setter between the two bald heads, Russia’s No4 seed Nicolay Davydenko of Russia and the No28 seed from Croatia, Ivan Ljubicic. Neither may look the dashing entertainer but each played his part in an engrossing contest in which Davydenko won the first two sets and Ljubicic somehow found a way to win the next three and the match.

This hardly seemed possible during Davydenko’s dominant start. The Russian’s parsimony in giving out easy points is legendary and it seemed he was going to squeeze the life out of Ljubicic’s resistance. Quite the contrary. What he did was provoke Ljubicic into the sort of rich form that saw him ranked five in the world at the end of 2006. Having hardly threatened Davydenko’s serve in the first two sets, Ljubicic started picking it off with increasing confidence and the lovely, long swing of his one-handed backhand became the dominant stroke of the match. Both contributed handsomely in constructing rallies of intricate excellence. By the end, Ljubicic’s mastery was overwhelming.

Fittingly, it was the Ljubicic backhand that set up the coup de grace after nearly three and a quarter hours of absorbing action. Davydenko could only throw up a desperate lob in return and Ljubicic swept the ball back past him with a high forehand volley.

There was not quite as much to savour in the other long matches but it was still a good day for clay-court tennis with each of the five-set winners coming back from being at least a set behind. Like Ljubicic, Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez lost the first two before his big hitting took over to see off Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Gael Monfils of France and David Ferrer of Spain both trailed by two sets to one before rallying to beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, respectively.

Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic bucked the day’s trend by sweeping aside Spanish No12 seed Tommy Robredo in a mere hour and three quarters. The American Robby Ginepri also won in straight sets, disposing of Florent Serra of France, to become the last survivor from an English-speaking country in either singles.

In any language, though, this was a superb day for tennis - and a particularly admirable one for the red dust surface Roland Garros.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Sunday June 01 2008. It was last updated at 12:22 on June 01 2008.

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