2015 French Open

Quiet Speed

Quiet Speed

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I predict the Americans will take Paris by storm this year. Not! I think there are two American men seeded this year, that’s it. In the best of times, Americans were never a force on the red stuff, but this is grim. The American women have four seeded in the top 32. The linebacker, her sister, and two other persons of black heritage. Btw, older Williams lost to Sloane Stephens today and decided to skip a mandatory press conference, nice. Enough gloom and doom, let’s see if we can have an interesting tournament and great play throughout the two weeks.
 
Good win for Nebraskan Jack Sock, maybe the biggest of his career, to 'Baby Fed' Grigor Dimitrov. Sock has a great first serve and forehand combo but with virtually no backhand he shouldn't be able to beat guys like Dimitrov.

Last year's semi-finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada has had a torrid clay court season. It continued today with her losing in the first round. She's been in meltdown mode since Montreal last August. Maybe spending too much time modelling and establishing her brand and not enough on tennis?
 
An AP report described Venus losing to "Sloane Stephens, a 22-year-old up-and-coming American player."

"Down and out" is much more accurate than "up and coming." Stephens has fallen from 11th ranked two years ago to 40th now. During that time she hasn't won a tournament or even reached the finals of one. But apparently she still has lots of dat magical upside to still be referred to as up and coming.

The same article mentions how Venus lost in the 2002 finals of the French Open. Only had to go back 13 years to mention her best showing. Reminds me of all the Tiger worshipping "journalists" who still bring up Woods' peak year of 2000, back when Jordan Spieth was 6 years old.

We are getting very close to a golden age in tennis and golf with no Williams sisters or Tiger to hog 99% of the media coverage. Of course the linebacker is still going strong, but it's rather incredible how fast Woods' body broke down the past few years. The same could happen to Serena, who always claims to be fighting various injuries anyway.
 
Well, the Linebacker is still in it. If you're a normal, slim tennis player, it must be somewhat intimidating to see this beast on the other side of the net: (from today's play)

2015-05-26T174308Z_1237942867_LR2EB5Q1D7LQ0_RTRMADP_3_TENNIS-OPEN.JPG
 
Shots of the day.

[video=youtube;P48WVDDS5oY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P48WVDDS5oY[/video]
 
Some day three highlights:

[video=youtube;96EU60a3P2Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96EU60a3P2Y[/video]
 
Don Wassall said:
An AP report described Venus losing to "Sloane Stephens, a 22-year-old up-and-coming American player."

"Down and out" is much more accurate than "up and coming." Stephens has fallen from 11th ranked two years ago to 40th now. During that time she hasn't won a tournament or even reached the finals of one. But apparently she still has lots of dat magical upside to still be referred to as up and coming.

The same article mentions how Venus lost in the 2002 finals of the French Open. Only had to go back 13 years to mention her best showing. Reminds me of all the Tiger worshipping "journalists" who still bring up Woods' peak year of 2000, back when Jordan Spieth was 6 years old.

We are getting very close to a golden age in tennis and golf with no Williams sisters or Tiger to hog 99% of the media coverage. Of course the linebacker is still going strong, but it's rather incredible how fast Woods' body broke down the past few years. The same could happen to Serena, who always claims to be fighting various injuries anyway.
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You are right about Sloane. She hasn't lived up to the promise she showed defeating Serena Williams at the Australian Open a few years ago. In an earlier tournament a commentator said she should pay less attention to how many Twitter followers she has and more to her tennis. IOW just like Eugenie Bouchard. Young women are very susceptible to the distractions of becoming a celebrity.

Serena Williams may not have long to go as you suggest but she had a good last year bringing her level with Helen Wills Moody with 19 major singles championships. So she's only three and five behind Steffi Graf and Margaret Court respectively. Since the French Open is her worst major (only two) and the one that's preventing her being #1 of all time I think victory here would make it very likely she'd catch Graf within the next year - possibly even this calendar year.:icon_cry:
 
Just watching the Monfils match at Roland Garros as the crowd go crazy and at times even sing reminds me that DWFs exist outside of the English-speaking world.
 
Azarenka playing Serena Williams right now. On set point for Serena a line clipper by Azarenka was dumped into the net by Serena. But Serena yelled that it was out as she hit it. The non-white umpire sided with Serena and so they replayed the point. Azarenka was fuming. The "hawk eye" replay on NBC showed Azarenka was correct. Serena told Azarenka that it was out but Azarenka indicated with her expression that she didn't believe her.:nono: Serena won the replayed point and took the second set.
 
Federer downs the Jimi Hendrix of the tennis courts, G. Monfils. He will take on Stan Wawrinka next. The winner will play the winner of the Tsonga - K. Nishikori match in a semi-final. Sharapova was beat by number 13 seed Lucie Safarova. Ana Ivanovic is the highest seed left in that side of the draw at number seven.

[video=youtube;21aXk575ZbU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21aXk575ZbU[/video]
 
Yes, the 'super athlete' Jimi Hendrix of tennis said later he was too tired to take on the 33 year old Roger Federer. Wawrinka easily beat Federer today and France's Tsonga went through against Japanese Nishikora. That means no matter who wins tomorrow's Nadal v Djokovic showdown to play either Murray or Ferrer will only be the opening act for Tsonga on Friday:icon_rolleyes: just like in 2013 when the epic Nadal/Djokovic 5 hour match was seen by few Europeans because it was played early afternoon - Tsonga/Ferrer got prime time billing.
 
I did not watch the final two sets of the Djokovic - Nadal match, but Djokovic won this thing convincingly, 7-5, 6-3, 6-1.
 
Andy Murray takes out David Ferrer in four sets to set up the Djokovic - Murray semi-final. Matra2, John Mcenroe was whining earlier in the tournament about how Tsonga was a victim of the scheduling in that 2013 match. I've heard it before too. Poor Tsonga had to play after the brilliant match. A good portion of the crowd had dwindled or was trying to recover from the emotions of the marathon and was flat, which made Tsonga less than himself, somehow.
 
Quiet Speed said:
Matra2, John Mcenroe was whining earlier in the tournament about how Tsonga was a victim of the scheduling in that 2013 match. I've heard it before too. Poor Tsonga had to play after the brilliant match. A good portion of the crowd had dwindled or was trying to recover from the emotions of the marathon and was flat, which made Tsonga less than himself, somehow.
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Interesting. I've only had a varying international feed (mostly British and Australian commentators) from different networks year so I only heard McEnroe once - commentating for Eurosport channel. But I remember McEnroe during that famous Djokovic/Nadal semi-final. At the time he complained about the scheduling, not for being unfair to Tsonga, but for relegating the two best players to a kind of opening act status.

Even if it were true that Tsonga was negatively impacted by a flat French crowd he still had them on his side! His opponent Ferrer will never have a home crowd on his side at a major because Spain doesn't have one! I mean, jeez, how much of an advantage is having a major in your own country supposed to be? If you can't make the most of it, especially when you've got at least three sets to get your game together, then you just don't deserve to win.

We'll probably get McEnroe's commentating for the semi-finals and final as he seems to be working for Eurosport this year, along with, I assume both Tennis Channel and NBC.:huh: Maybe even ESPN. (I didn't know there was such a commentator shortage). No doubt his usual hobbyhorses will come up:

Other majors should switch to fifth set tiebreak - I agree but does he need to bring it up every match?


The state of US tennis and the need to get more of "our best athletes":afro: interested in the sport.

The need for umpires not to inject themselves into the match - it's as if he doesn't want rules enforced.
 
I was watching a stream of the Serena Williams v Timea Bacsinszky semi-final but had to stop out of disgust for Serena's antics. For the second time this week on a set point against her she stopped play claiming it was out despite no call from the linesperson. And again the umpire checked the mark and believed her. I'm suspicious of this. A certain umpire is no longer doing Rafa Nadal's matches due the player's request so I wonder if Serena has used her influence similarly to ensure that umpires with a history of standing up to her - like the Greek Eva Asderaki - don't chair her matches.

Then she was a total drama queen regarding her alleged illness. It was like watching a six year old pretending to be sick so her mother wouldn't send her to school. Even worse was listening to French colour analyst Marion Bartoli drooling over Serena. Bartoli was even worse than the American commentators. Needless to say Serena won so the calendar year grand slam is on. I shudder at the thought of the Caste media fawning over her if it happens.
 
A comment at the Guardian:

A career on the stage of the Comedie Francaise awaits Serena Williams after she retires. Let's hope she never repeats the execrable melodrama of today's performance. It's a fever. No, a sore shoulder. Hang on, is she limping..? In the end, of course, it turned out that there was nothing wrong with her at all. Quite outrageous.
Click to expand...

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...nszky-french-open-semi-final#comment-53285877

She is the most unlikeable person in world sport.
 
Drama queen, pharma queen, juice master, whatever you want to call her, I refuse to watch. I can't watch a contest and pretend everything is on the up and up when intelligent people know otherwise. Just my $.02.
 
Pharma Queen. I like that.

Tsonga knocked out by Wawrinka. I didn't see it so I can't comment on it but I'm surprise Tsonga even won a set.

Djokovic had Murray on the ropes but then let him back into. The match resumes at 3-3 2 sets to 1 to Djoker at 7AM ET Saturday. Almost unbelievable that when our coverage went to NBC McEnroe was in mid-sentence talking about the need for fifth set tie breaks just like I said the other day. The guy is so predictable in his old age. He says the same things in every match.

If you've followed the Nadal story, including Uncle Toni, for years, you might find Spanish Laughing Guy funny on Wednesday's straight set victory. He even gets in a backhanded swipe (sort of) at McEnroe:

[video=youtube;hqnnhT-qj48]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqnnhT-qj48[/video]
 
on french TV roland garros is unwatchable, they are obsessed with french players
the spectators booed wawrinka when he won against tsonga
 
I watched most of the French open on replay on ESPN watch. They didn't have any commentor just had the cameras and sounds from the players and crowd. I can't tell you how pleasant it was to watch a sporting event without some annoying commentor telling me what is going on in the match. I think just about all sports should be televised without com mentors.
 
frederic38 said:
on french TV roland garros is unwatchable, they are obsessed with french players
the spectators booed wawrinka when he won against tsonga
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I think white people have to be the dumbest people on the planet with no sense of self pride. I would bet you if Serena Williams was playing a white French women tennis player the black french people watching the match would be openly routing for Serena.
 
Wawrinka defeats Djokovic in four sets to clinch his second major title. Wawrinka must hit the ball harder than any player on tour. It was shocking to me (and no doubt to the Djoker) how many times Wawrinka could hit winners at such a pace without the ball constantly going out. If he could play with that power and accuracy on a consistent basis he'd be almost impossible to beat.

Two Americans played in the youth final (both white) at Roland Garros so there is some hope for American tennis.
 
I didn't watch it, hopefully will find time to see a repeat on the Tennis Channel, but yeah Wawrinka is a beast when he has his A-game. I watched some of his beatdown of Federer and his power is off the charts.

So is there a "Big Four" in men's tennis any more? Djokovic is still in his peak years, but Federer may not win any more majors and Nadal was humbled on his best surface this year and is injury prone. Murray's won only two majors. Maybe Stan and Djokivic will be the Big Two now with Murray possibly making it a Big Three.
 
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