French Open

[SeaJim]

Has anyone noticed the amount of asskissing of James Blake there has been on ESPN? He might be the best shot since Roddick is out, but James will never reach the level of Federer nor beat him. I think Blake is thinking too much about his white 'ho, and not the game. I don't think he'll amount to much.

 

[Don Wassall]

Maria Sharapova was up 5-1 in the third set but then lost 6 straight games and was knocked out by a fellow Russian.

Blake was defeated by a black "Frenchmen." I'm sure ESPN and the rest of the Caste System media will be rooting especially hard now for Venus Williams. The Americans almost always stink every year on the French Open's clay surface.


Hingis is tied at a set apiece in a match postponed by darkness till Monday. I'll be rooting for her to win the women's single title, and for a Nadal-Federerfinal on the men's side.

 

[Don Wassall]

Hingis loses to Clijsters in the quarterfinals, and Venus Williams loses to a possible new"Maria Sharapova," 17 year oldNicole Vaidisova from the Czech Republic. Nicole also knocked off number one ranked Amelie Mauresmo in the tournament and is now in the semis:

Edited by: Don Wassall

 

[sunshine]

Nice pics Don.She has been hyped for a while and has a big game similar to Maria. And she is sexy too. Not as open or as fun loving as Maria but could end up better in the long run. Good sign for Nicole is that she is winning on clay which isn't tailer made for the big power hitting gals.

 

[Quiet Speed]

Nadal wins. To hell with Rafael Nadal. LOL. I'm just kidding. It's ok, it's all good. Nadal brings something to the game. He's likeable, has flare. We still have the storyline of his win streak on clay.

Roger's game just was not there today. But it's onward to Wimbledon to see if he can hit Sampras's mark of four titles in a row.

 

[JD074]

That's five straight losses to Nadal. He's really got his number.

 

[Iron]

In all fairness to Fed,four of them five losses were on Clay,his worst surface with Clay being far and away Nadals best surface.It just goes to show what a great player Fed is that he keeps putting himself in the position to challenge Nadal in major finals on clay.We'll see what Nadal dose on the grass courts of Wimbledon as Fed making the final of the French on his least favourite surface is the equivalent to Nadal reaching the final at Wimbledon.Something many Tennis experts and commentators think will never happen.Federer like Sampras before him is a shotmaker rather than Clay court grinder.The fast low bouncing courts of Wimbledon and the US open suit their game to a tee as they can hit unreturnable winners from all over the court.Their serve also becomes more of a weapon on these surfaces.Had these Fed/Nadal encounters taken place on a grass or fast hard court them i'm sure the head to head between them would be reversed.I think he's a lock for the Wimbledon title and a strong favourite to retain his US open title.That would still be three of the four majors.

 

[Quiet Speed]

The 2007 French Open is coming up with Fed in a rut and Nadal mowing down everything in sight on clay. Nadal's record consecutive win streak on clay is now at 77. John "You Can't Be Serious" McEnroe had previously held the record for most consecutive wins on one surface with 75 on indoor carpet.


You can't hardly knock a rough patch by Roger, the man has such an intricate game it's only natural to be out of alignment at some point every three years or so.

I think both are playing in Hamburg this week. We'll see if Roger is anywhere near top form, he will have to be to make a run at the French.

 

[Poacher]

Venus just got dumped. Only Serena left.

 

[Angelcynn]

Wahoo! Justin Henin just wooped Serenas ass 6-4 6-3. What excuses will ESPN make up for this one? Please let me know as we don't have that caste channel here in the UK (thankgod).

 

[Guest]

As usual, Serena Williams gives her opponent no credit. In her world, nobody can beat her, she only loses when she plays bad.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/tennis/specials/french _open/2007/06/05/bc.ten.frenchopen.ap/index.html

 

[Colonel_Reb]

No surprise in hearing that from Steroid Serena. Anyone else see the pic of her in USA Today yesterday? Scary.

 

[surfsider]

What a spoiled jerk. From the article..

It didn't help that Henin determined the tempo of rallies, switching speeds and angles at will, something Williams referred to as "her little tactics."

I thought tennis was a game of tactics in large part. When Jimmy Connors said of losing to Arthur Ashe at Wimbledon that he felt he'd been steamrollered by a pillow he meant it as a compliment.Serena was just being a ass.

 

[Poacher]

Way to go Justine!

She's got Serena's number.

"Her little tactics" yeah, they're called TENNIS.

 

[Don Wassall]

What a spoiled jerk. From the article..

It didn't help that Henin determined the tempo of rallies, switching speeds and angles at will, something Williams referred to as "her little tactics."

I thought tennis was a game of tactics in large part. When Jimmy Connors said of losing to Arthur Ashe at Wimbledon that he felt he'd been steamrollered by a pillow he meant it as a compliment.Serena was just being a ass.

Yeh, that's about as idiotic as it gets. It's great that a normal looking girl like Henin can use her skills and brain to defeat a muscle-bound freak who outweighs her by 80 or so pounds.


BTW, DirecTV recently picked up The Tennis Network, which I wasn't even aware existed till I came across it channel surfing the other day. It has almost non-stop coverage of the French Open, pretty cool.

 

[Bart]

i'mglad Henin whipped Serena's derrier. Looks like Henin hs some moxie and doesn't take any BS from the sisters. And true to form, the sisty uglers are loathe to give credit to opponents for their losses. They seem always to beat themselves.


Quotes fromSerena: "I never play like that," she said. "Sometimes you've got to just step back and say, 'OK, try this, try that, or try Plan B.' But I think my Plan B was to make errors."


But facing an opponent who had won the French Open title in three of the past four years, Williams' game unraveled in spectacular style.


"All she had to do was show up ... I don't think I've ever played so bad in the quarter-finals of a grand slam," the eighth seed said after the 6-4 6-3 defeat by the world number one.


"Everything was going wrong. Usually I don't hit in the net, like I did so many times today. It was very frustrating.


"I was just making all the errors and just playing like a maniac.


"I am always saying I want to peak at the right times but I didn't have any peaks today. I've never played so hideous and horrendous, and all those other words I can use to describe my play today."


Venus after her defeat: The third set went a little bit faster than what I expected. But am I discouraged? No, not at all," said 26th seed Williams, who hit 52 unforced errors.


"I don't feel like she came out there and really beat me. I just feel like at times she was a little more patient than I was."

 

[sunshine]

Tennis players in general like boxers are prone to self absorbtion. The W sisters are masters at it. Glad they are out of it.
The women's semis offer an interesting contrast. You have the two jocks -Jankovic-Henin in one semi and the two babes Maria-Ivanovic in the other.

 

[Quiet Speed]

Not that sunshine needs any backup, Ana Ivanovic looking very well here:

[url]http://www.juiceplus.ch/anaivanovic/index.php?gid=media/gall ery/findomestic_banka_photoshoot_2006&pic=1 [/url]Edited by: Quiet Speed

 

[surfsider]

I've had the Tennis Channel for several months. Get ready to enjoy the commentary of Katrina Adams, Thomas Blake and Chanda Rubin. For the French Open they've brought in Roshumba Williams to do filler segments. But for Adams they aren't any better or worse than many other commentators but the Tennis Channel seems hell bent on conveying the impression that blacks are a large segment of the fan and player base.

Edited by: surfsider

 

[Poacher]

Federer and Nadal in the men's final.

I really hope Federer wins this so the media will stop hounding him about not having won the French. Not to mention, I really don't like Nadal that much. I've always thought that being overly emotional is disrespectful to your opponent. Nadal is constantly jumping and whooping and yelling and fist-pumping as if he were at a rock concert or something...give it a rest.

 

[Don Wassall]

I'll be rooting for Federer, too. It's too bad he isn't American, because then the striking difference between how black and white athletes are publicized would be perfectly evident to anyone, given the parallels between the domination of Federer and Tiger Woods in their respective sports. Of course then the excuse would be that, like hockey, tennis is just a "niche" sport. Or that "blacks aren't interested" in it, blah, blah. . .

 

[Poacher]

Justine won again. Three in a row!

Just for fun: Justine's height and weight are 5'5" 3/4 and 126 lbs

I looked for the height and weight of Serena Williams and all I could find was that she is 5'10" and 145 lbs. Some sites even had her at 135! PFFFT. Uhhh, no...I'd say she's at least 160-170 at this point. Probably more.

Oughta be called the WIlliams BROTHERS.Edited by: Poacher

 

[Poacher]

Well Roger got stymied again by the Spaniard. Nadal took it in four sets.

Unforced error after unforced error doomed Federer. That is in part due to Nadal's tenacity. He doesn't give you anything, you have to take it from him. In rally after rally Federer's forehand sailed long. It was frustrating for me to watch.

It looked as if Roger had found his game after a beautifully played second set but Nadal broke him early and that was pretty much it. Federer had his chances; he let several break points slip away. Nadal is a tough nut to crack on clay. I may have judged him too harshly in my last post. Except for what seemed to me to be angry glowering he comported himself well as did Federer.

I don't know why Roger can't get by this guy on clay. I'm not sure if it's mental or physical. Either way, soon it will be Wimbledon time and more than likely it will be these two great athletes playing for that title as well.

 

[Quiet Speed]

Last year I was confident Roger could win, this year I was worried. I had caught some of the earlier round action the past couple of weeks and Nadal looked like he was in a place that few have reached. He was so dialed in it looked like every ball was poppin' right off the sweet spot of the racquet for long stretches of time without even a hiccup. It was reminiscent of Borg.

I've read that Roger has switched racquets. If he has, I don't like it.

It sure has not helped with ball control. That's the only thing I'll say negative about today. Who am I to critique a man who has reached eight consecutive grand slam finals? Edited by: Quiet Speed

 

[Iron]

Very,very disapointing.I turned it off midway through the third set as the writing was on the wall after Federer dropped serve in one of the early games.It was a case of deja vu as Federer was beaten by Nadal at Roland Garos in two previous years in similar circumstances not being able to establish any sort of rythm,consistency and going down to a slew of unforced errors.Federer made 60 unforced errors which is huge for a slam final and pretty much explains why he lost.You dont beat Nadal giving away that many points,but when a player makes that many errors,the usual consensus would be to put it down to a bad performance but it was a similar story last year and the year before.Nadal with his sprinter like speed,left handed high top spin shots,tenacity and mental strengh draws the errors out of Fed.

Federer in many rallies is forced to retrieve sometimes over a dozen shots on the backhand side at shoulder and even head height,way out of the hitting comfort zone for most players,especially against one as accomplished as Nadal on the dirt so its easy to see why his game breaks down.Nadal is a phenominal clay court player added to the fact that Federer cant play his smooth natural variety induced game.Clay is a spoilers surface.its suits players of a certain mentality,the slow bounce makes it harder for Fed to deploy his weapons,therefore the shotmaking genious who's able to hit winners from crazy angles and dominate on serve and pretty much end points when he wants is replaced by a shadow of himself forced into a grindout against a player who thrives in such circumstances.

The dynamics of Tennis,with the different court surfaces makes it interesting.Nadals playing and hitting style makes him vulnerable on hardcourts against the leading players.Many dont feel he'll ever win the US open especially if he's given a tough draw.If Fed recovers mentally from this huge disapointment,stay free from injury,he should defend his Wimbledon title and go on to dominate the US hardcourt season.