Roland Garros: ‘Sodal’, ‘Naderling’ – it’s ON people.

….a match for which Armageddon itself has sent in a sick note.

A lot will depend on how well Soderling has recovered from those five gruelling sets.

They say it’s a good thing to play one match before the final where you get through without playing your best tennis.

Robin certainly had his work cut out for him in a match where it was Tomas, for the most part, that was the better player. Nothing but sympathy for Tomas by the way: anyone that manages to push Big Rob to five and reduce him to tears in doing so has much to be proud of.

What it boils down to is this.

Big Rob plays the way he has been up until that rite of passage with Tomas. Big Rob wins. Dawn of Post-Modernity and stuff…

Big Rob has the lapse in concentration he did against Tomas. Rafa runs away with it very quickly. Five RG titles. Post-Modernity told to go to hell.

(Photos: AFP/Getty)

Read More...

Roland Garros: Hearts and Minds.

Your sweaty, clay-covered, yet-still-gleaming Roland Garros Champion for 2010. I defy you not to scream.

Ideologically unsound to root against anyone with as big a heart as that. In my heart-over-head world she’d already won.

Besides, what is the heart but another muscle? One that often trumps it’s distant cousins in the upper arm. Even when those arms belong to Sam Stosur?

Every sane entity on the planet, it seemed, had picked a win for Stosur in three if not two sets of hard fought tennis.

It seemed the rational choice, given that:

a) She had been (until this match) the best performing player of the event. I may have had some reservations over those back to back wins over Henin, Serena and JJ, yet a lesser player would have crumbled.

b) The matchup with Franny suited her to a tee. Sammy’s heavy kicking serve seemed custom built to hurtle over the shorter player who’d likely be reduced to countering it with a single handed backhand out wide…..and high. Right after that she was supposed to be reduced to rubble.

I can understand Franny out-grinding and out-hustling Sammy now and again.

I can even understand her out-foxing her at the net – not quite sure why the sight of Franny volleying immaculately should be the source of such bewilderment anyway.

What flummoxes me is how she managed to out-serve and to out-ace her. 6 to 3 on aces and 76 vs. 71 winning percentage on first serves.

That sort of sh*t’s not meant to happen.

She didn’t have the draw Sammy did, but also a little astounding, is it not, how she only dropped one set in the entire event – in round one on an outside court to Regina Kulikova (who?).

To those that say “choking” is a reductive explanation of what happened to Sammy out there I say this: It is. And I confess I don’t particularly like using that word as it seems to carry too many negative connotations and conjures up images of Dinara Safina double faulting on Championship Point.

Though it’s equally reductive to claim she was hit off court or “outplayed” (second time this week that words got up my nose) by “Fed Cup Franny”.

Besides, even if we agree to use another word, what precise conclusions are we meant to draw from the sight of a former world #1 doubles specialist, a four-time Slam Champion making an absolute hash of an easy putaway at the net?

Not every choke has Dinara Safina written all over it.

We can argue the semantics of choking till kingdom come, but the fact remains that Sammy “seized up”, let’s say, in the little ways on the biggest points: a double fault here, a sprayed forehand there, a drop shot that fades out before reaching the net. And here’s a more worrying one: over half of her first serves sat up comfortably in the middle of the service box.

A real shame - that’s not the Sam Stosur we saw in the last six matches. And none of this, at least, was forced by Franny.

If it sounds like I’m being too harsh on Sammy, it’s because I felt this match should have been “on her racquet” (another phrase I deplore, by the way). Her performances up until this match, indeed her leading win/loss record this season, suggested she should have won it - preferably in straights. In my head-over-heart world she already had.

Parting Shots:

-- Best Roland Garros final in almost a decade. (A)

-- That moment when Dementieva shook hands with Franny signalling her withdrawal. Tragic stuff. That look on Franny’s face? Priceless. (A+)

-- Sam Stosur’s voice quivering during her runners up speech. *sniff* Good news is Sam’s best placed to out-fox those pushers and bashers we love to, well, bash. On all surfaces. (A)

-- Anyone else bowled over by how well Franny and Sammy seem to get on with one another? (A)

-- Biggest disappointment of the tournament: JJ flaming out “at 20%”. What better chance will she have than four semi finalists without an Henin or a Williams Sister in sight? None. (E)

-- Franny’s disembowelling of CazWoz in the quarters. Best match of the event from the standpoint of witnessing the unequivocal truth and triumph of variety over push. (A)

-- Juju/Shaza: Strangely compelling match that suggests the best is yet to come from both. (B)

-- This seasons clay court winners: Henin, MJMS, Rezai and Franny. Henin only features once amongst them. Kimmie, Shaza and the Williamses don’t feature at all. Still think the WTA’s in a bad way? (A)

(Photos: AFP/Getty)

Read More...

Roland Garros: Giants and Giant-Killers

Don’t tell Tomas. But these images aren’t to scale.

Big Rob and Tomas at 100%. Big Rob wins.

Big Rob and Tomas both at 65%. Big Rob wins.

Tomas at 90% with Big Rob at 60 odd. Tomas Wins. Maybe.

Don’t tell Jurgen or “Yoyo” even (coz that’s the name he goes by on tour apparently). But these images are to scale.

Yoyo doesn’t win.

Read More...

Roland Garros: Heads and Hearts

I love it when the bikers goggles come out. No prisoners, as they say.

Within the past week she’s beaten the undisputed best two players of the past decade. Now another former #1 and arguably the best defender in the game has succumbed to her charms.

A Slam final. Consider the possibilities. I’m sure most of you already have.

Having the slightest of difficulty, however, with the idea currently doing the rounds that she’s “unplayable” in this sort of form….other than that, she deserves all the success she’s getting for being able to execute under some very trying circumstances,...and it’s all good.

Both Serena and Venus can be, and very often are, unplayable. Roger and Rafa have been known to throw in the odd unplayable zinger en route to any one of their very many Slam victories – it’s not usually lost on any of us when they do. Big Rob, I’m sure most would agree, was nothing short of unplayable two nights back.

Sammy, however, is simply executing a wonderfully varied game-plan born of her very distinctive bag of tricks. No one in the women’s game has much experience of dealing with either the kick or pace she generates on serve, and to be honest, no one out there’s executing as well as her.

What she perhaps deserves more praise for is the way in which she seems to be closing out matches in moments she might previously have been relied upon to wilt. And for that I really do salute her.

Never underestimate the power of good execution. But it’s usually playable.

“…I just I don't know what happened, but I just you know, she was the better player.
I mean, she did what she had to do. You know, she played her game. I wasn't even 20% of my ability, so that shows. When we played in Indian Wells and I was, you know, on my game, I was playing aggressively, I returned well. I won in two easy sets.
Today I was just I wasn't like myself. I don't even know who that was on the court.”

That’s the look of a bored eight year old with their face pressed up against a steaming window pane anxious to get out and play. Or, as in this case, off court.

It’s not often I take her self berating, seemingly ungracious pressers that seriously. But I confess I didn’t know who that was either. And 20% is way too kind.

I had thought that with that win in IW, these performances were mostly behind us. A Slam Semi – with not an Henin or a Williams Sister in sight. That’s what you blew today.

She made a Slam final too. After playing only a set of tennis.

Franny played Sammy last year in round one of this very event. Now the two are what they call Slam Contenders.

My head says Sammy. My heart says Franny. Game, Set and Match Heart.

43 Slams without a single retirement. And suddenly she’s Medusa? Get real.

And whilst getting real, consider precisely whose interests would be served by her further tearing the calf muscles that were causing her “shooting pains” throughout the match.

Consider, also, whose interests would be served by her fighting her way to a Slam final (were that even possible) in which she’s either unable to give her all -- resulting in another one of those duff WTA finals -- or worse, forced to withdraw.

Still think she was wrong to retire when she did?

(Photos: AFP/Getty)

Read More...

Roland Garros: Barn Burner

So…a fine purveyor of the backhand dropshot, a lefty, with three WTA ex girlfriends and still sporting a backwards baseball cap at the age of 29.

A man of many talents, but certainly no Jurgen-Schmergen….

I only saw the closing moments. Melzer came back from 2 sets down for the first time in his career. He only converted four of a staggering twenty-four break points yet was still able to serve it out in five.

Not always the highest quality, but exactly the kind of barn burner the event needed.

I set my bar for “breakthrough” performances very high these days. You have Robin to thank for that. What I suspect we’ve seen here is a long time talent getting a grip on all of his working parts (of which there are many), rather than any kind of breakaway bid for top ten entry.

I still find myself wincing every time I see Djoko serve nowadays. I hadn’t seen a single one of his matches here this year. The one I did see turned out to be his last.

Not a poor clay court season by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly no 2009 (or 2008 for that matter).

…and still the run goes on.

That opening set was full of the kind of crisp ball striking and point construction that makes her such a joy to watch – so inspired in fact that I was a little disappointed she wasn’t able to close it out in two.

You’d think that anyone that beats Henin and Serena back to back in a Slam ought to win the title.

And yet, Serena hasn’t been past the quarters of Roland Garros since 2003 and Henin-isn’t-as-Henin-was (nor does she seem to want to be).

There are those that are deterministically inclined to think of every match Serena plays as being “on her racquet”. It’s an appraisal I find it difficult not to agree with most of the time. Folly, surely, to argue with a record as enduring as hers at Melbourne, Wimby or Flushing.

Her results here, however, speak for themselves too. The surface very evidently inhibits her movement – and I’m not convinced she gets quite the pace she seems to generate so freely everywhere else.

The match may be “on her racquet” elsewhere, but at RG you’ll only see it spend part of it’s time there before jilting her in favour of someone else in the ballroom.

It’s why I feel she wasn’t able to convert on that single match point: you can bet your bottom dollar that wouldn’t have happened at Melbourne.

***

That leaves four ladies in contention (Jakovic closed out Shvedova in straights) – neither of whom have won a Slam.

Frankly, I’m having a little trouble deciding.

Dementieva – So near and yet so far once too often. Continues to be held back by that poor excuse for a serve. “Davydenko of the WTA” or just another consummate choker”? You decide. Few would doubt she’s put in the mileage.

Schiavone – Heart. Variety. Thy name is Franny. You’d be hard pressed to find a more likeable player on tour, or one with as diverse a set of talents.

Jankovic – This time last year she was my pick for the title. It seemed a necessary consequence of her impressive record at Rome. Then muscles happened, Ricardo Sanchez happened and she seemed to lose her way. Good news is that both those things have “unhappened” now and she seems to have reacquired something of her standing as the best mover/defender in the game.

Stosur – To be honest, treated as a package of many working parts, Sammy seems to be executing better than anyone else. I still have my concerns for her over JJ though.

(Photos: AFP/Getty)

Read More...

Roland Garros: “Pulling a Soderling”. Again

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this at some point.

And I’m quite sure I was intolerable on twitter today. Apologies for that.

We don’t all always have the luxury of backing the greatest player that ever lived. Some of us back Big Rob. And, well, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to win 23 Grand Slam SFs anytime soon, so we take our victories as they come. And then we bask in them for a very long time.

For now, I’m still reeling in the fact that we got to see the smash-lob again (countered this time), and that Robin managed to win more than a couple of sets.

Hoping for him to execute continuously for three, seemed like folie de grandeur.

The streak had to be broken sometime. It got a deserved moment’s silence in the twittersphere within hours of the result. Perhaps the greatest ever streak in modern sport that, as Matts Wilander put it, will (almost certainly) never be matched.

“No one beats Robin Soderling 13 times in a row”. Bet that’s something you were sure you’d be sick of hearing before you’d even heard it.

Read More...

Roland Garros: It’s ON People

So things that are on the line tomorrow.

1. Federer’s shot at the ‘weeks at #1’ record (he must make at least the semis if Nadal takes the title).

2. Federer’s 23 Slam SF streak.

3. Sod’s claim to laying waste to the two top dogs…goats of the last decade - at the same event.

4. Sod’s own credibility in the senior common room should he fail to increase upon the zeros sets he took from Federer in last year’s final. I reserve the right to punch your lights out. And to call you a Scandi-minion

5. Fed’s credibility as a container of pace. Juan Marteen and Big Rob pace. All in the space of nine months. Won’t look good.

6. Youzhny’s more plausible shot at making a Slam final. I know.

7. Rafa and Robin going at it head to head in a Slam final. Armageddon itself goes AWOL.

8. Robin Soderling winning it. The final I mean. Grand Slam Champion. Post Bloody Modernity.

Have I said too much?

(Photo: Getty)

Read More...