It’s time for the biggest clay championships apart from Houston and this year the organising committee have decided in all their infinite wisdom to start the tournament on a Sunday which is not a good thing and the main gripe I have with it, has already borne fruit.
Bimes and the stooges will say we are starting on Sunday cause we want the fans to see more tennis and other wonderfully hollow slogans, but in reality all it is whoring themselves for the money. If they gave a fuck about the fans, then the ticket prices would be lower than they are, but that won’t be happening. At the same time they have done some work on Roland Garros and they will need to get some of the money back and this is one of the ways they have decided.
The reality is that there are only a few matches and the players that win it will have to pull their dicks until Wednesday to play their second round matches at earliest. Here is another problem for example Diego Hartfield who qualified for his 1st Grand Slam event yesterday and has to back up today to play his main draw match, which he didn’t have to do in the qualies and yes there should be a day of rest in between the end of qualies and the start of the main draw. Yes, qualifiers are people too. Enough of the rants and at least it’s not as ludicrous as Super Saturday at the US Open.
Onto business at hand, the draw well I did say Nadal would need to suffer from bird flu not to make the final here, but strange things happen in pro sport, this is true. Though if Roddick wins RG I will dance nude on webcam.
Federer will have enough time to ease into the tournament. He will play Hartfield who is a lucky guy he got Federer in the first round and also that he has to back up from playing yesterday. I hope he can enjoy the moment and put up a good show and not get slaughtered in less than 90 minutes.
As for Federer I don’t think he will win it this year, though I would like to see Federer win RG once. His fitness levels if he can get tested are a question mark and also how will he play tactically when he is under pressure. His match against Nadal in Rome is the right way for him to play on clay as his volleys are better than most on tour and he can match most from the baseline, as they say under the most pressure is when the weaknesses must hold up.
Berdych, the man who is predictable for his unpredictability. Hopefully Jaro can get the talented and lazy enigma going and he had some good wins last week in Düsseldorf, though he does play well for the Czech Republic. He has LaLo in the first round and he should be made to walk home to Prostejov if he loses this match, though just hope LaLo doesn’t have one of those good serving days and just hope the Berdman decides to get his feet moving and if he can do that, then he has quite a good section as he has it over Volandri and Kiefer. At the same time trying to pick what’s happening with the inconsistent one is never easy.
Then there is the section with Acasuso and Boredo and I think that the quarter finalist will be one of those 2 players. Boredo is in good form and play his usual Boredo way and he won’t be losing to the likes of Zib or Pashanski. Usually Boredo is fairly good in taking out players he should be beating and then losing to the ones above him, though after his win in Hamburg, he is a top 10 player now and that brings extra challenges.
Chucho has an interesting match against Santoro. In theory Chucho should win this match easily as he is in good form and Fab hasn’t been and is not at his best on clay, but Santoro can easily pull out a big performance here and Chucho needs to guard against that. He has to be really patient as well and not let the little wizard throw him off with his little dinks and dropshots and slices and he will need to those big feet to be moving very well and have to impose himself on Santoro.
They have only played once and that was on hardcourt which Chucho won and it was close, just hope Chucho gets through this match and then the potential match with Boredo could be interesting, as they have never played on clay. Boredo hates playing big servers and has admitted this and Chucho beat him last time and has the weapons to put away the Boredo, just hope the match happens.
Next Argentine is Nalle who has a potentially difficult opponent Wawrinka. They met this year at the Aus Open and Stani got a set off him there and Stani is on his favourite surface and it’s not for Nalbandian. The thing Nalle has is that he has the game to exploit Stani’s movement which can be very poor as he has excellent groundstrokes, but gets sloppy with the footwork and this is the main reason in my view as to why he is not higher in the rankings than he is at the moment.
If Nalle gets through this match with Wawrinka he is in quite a good section in the draw with Tursunov, Grosjean and Nieminen as the seeds. Yes, I know Gasquet is in this section he won’t lose to Wang, but he isn’t going to go further as he is likely to lose to Nalle or Wawrinka. In this section there are some classic claycourt clowns Tursunov, Moodie and Carlsen for example. Could easily see a Nalbandian vs Nieminen 4th round match and these two don’t have easy matches at all.
Next we have the moody, unhappy, surly, depressed I am taking on the whole worlds problems and I can’t solve them Gaston Gaudio. Yes, he is going through something that is not good and has to take some steps to fix these problems. This is meant to be his event to be peaking at and showing the world his undoubted talents on clay, but the question is which Gaudio we will see and how long for.
It’s clearly bad when he even looks more dispirited than usual on the court and he is playing against Karanusic and that should be a good match for him to try and find some form, but Gaston is a strange one and there is the potential for anything as has been witnessed over the time.
In a way if he loses in the 2nd round I wouldn’t be so pissed off if Seppi was able to beat him, though the plays Evgeny Korolev who is a huge talent and along with del Potro among the best of the qualifiers. Seppi has been in poor form lately and Korolev could kill him, though Seppi will fight hard and thanks deivid for making this point, that if the match goes for some time then there are question marks about his endurance, but there aren’t about his abilities. Also the youngster del Potro is playing Ferrero and I wonder how much he has learnt from that defeat in Buenos Aires earlier this year, where he pushed JCF very hard.
Roddick and Ljubo quarter is a joke and Ferrer is the favourite to come through this section of the draw and make the semis. Baghdatis could easily lose to that piece of crap Portas if he is not on his game at all. Thunder Lips doesn’t have a great GS record and will more than likely lose in the 3rd round. The question is whether Roddick will play and if he does, he has a marshmallow soft section until the 3rd round at least. The Verdasco/Chela match is the pick of the 1st round matches in this section and maybe Juan Monaco can do something though I wouldn’t fancy him over either Chela or Verdasco. The future Wimbledon champ Oscar Hernandez is there as well and that is the true highlight of this part of the draw.
The bottom quarter and there are some players I am interested in how they go in this section. Superstar Almagro has plenty of possibilities to make the 4th round here as he can easily take out Arthurs, Blake or the Srich here.
In this part Yayo Massa has qualified after having so many injury problems it is good to see him back at RG and he has an excellent opportunity against big Dick Norman, then it’s a rematch of the rapper Monfils and Murray and maybe the French crowd can play their tricks and get under Murray’s skin and help Monfils get the revenge.
Vicente has a big chance of making the 3rd round as he should be able to wipe out Waske the dickhead and he has enough nous to defeat Schüttler or Haas in the next round. But the opponents in this section are either Gonzalez, Safin, Horna and Djokovic.
Gonzalez and Safin is the highlight match of the 1st round and Marat likes to play against the bigger players, so he won’t lack motivation for once and there could be a chance of some heavy hitting in this match.
Lucho and Djokovic is a match that personally I’d like to see and hopefully Horna’s back isn’t too bad, but I don’t think it will be and this could easily go the distance. Lucho and Nole aren’t in the greatest form, though Lucho made a semi and has won a title this year, but there have some downs in this one for sure.
Nadal well he won’t be pushed for some time in this tournament. The time for action is now.
32 comments:
Greetings from Roland Garros. I've been here a couple of days now - though ashamed to admit to my tennis mad friends here that there has been slighlty more drinking/ chattting/catching up with old friends than watching tennis!! RG is probably the one place where nearly ALL my friends congragate and we all get to see each other - so please forgive me if there are not so many reports as there should be.
Anyway - quallies on Friday provided some good entertainment. I was very impressed with del Potro who played a great match against the Frenchman Pellerin. His serve still needs some work and his concentration wavers at times - but he is a great prospect for the future. Pellerin made it easy for him in many places - he was nervous - probably the pressure of playing at home with a good chance of qualifying for his home Slam and with all the crowd cheering for him - well apart from myself and two friends who gave JMDP as much support as we could muster. Pellerin made a lot of unforced errors - Juan Martin was always going to be a straight sets winner.
Sad to see Charpentier go out in the last round of quallies with a tough 3-sets defeat to Dick Norman which ended 7-5 in the 3rd set to Norman. Charpentier is a character - and tennis needs those - he ran and chased after everything - he really left his heart out on the court - the crowd were firmly behind him - but sadly the giant Belgian's huge serve saw him through.
The battle of the Argentines (Juanqueira against Roitman) was not really a battle. Juanqueira tried hard but he was no match for the taller, stronger and more experienced Roitman who bagelled him in the 2nd set. He's very cute though - LOL - had to be a frivolous female somewhere in this report.
Saturday was Benny Berthet Charity Day - I'm not one for exhibitions normally but as Sr. Mónaco was playing a set against Nadal I had to go and watch!!!! Pico was inctedibly nervous at first - don't think he has ever played on such a big court in front of a capacity crowd before - especially considering Rafa is the reigning champion. He went a break down very quickly - and you could see Rafa trying to "give" him a few points to try and make the match more competetive. But after a while, the nerves subsided, and although Rafa won 6-3 it was close with some great baseline rallies and clever points. Also watched a great set of tennis between Federer and Blake, with Federer coming out the eventual winner 7-6 (6). Blake is making a great effort to play better on clay - he is really trying hard and putting in hours of work on the practice court - and good for him.
Practice at RG is always worth watching - and seen too many players to catalogue here. Gastón is definately not in the best of form - trudging around the court looking miserable and snapping at poor Franco. David Ferrer is working hard as usual - putting in extremely long and intense practice sessions. Tommy Robredo is a great hit - taking endless time to chat to fans, sign autographs and be sweet to all the kids - he obviously feels happy with himself and his game after Hamburg - and it shows in his persona. Marat is Marat - pursued by hordes of screaming girls and enjoying every minute of it. Rainer Schuetler is another hard worker - always out there working hard and Feli Lopez is every present on the courts too.
As for Sunday starts - I actually enjoyed today. The atmosphere was nice and relaxed, and I think it's good for people who work or go to school to have an extra chance to watch live tennis without having to take time off to do so.
Anyway - time for me to go as Internet time is running out. Tomorrow will attempt to get up early enough to watch del Potro against Ferrero (first on court - how inconsiderate).
Bye for now from Paris.
I went to qualies on Friday as I wanted to see that kid Korolev again and I also wanted to witness the game of Del Potro, who has been praised a lot in recent times. Evgeny was his usual agressive self just in patches, he fell asleep to conceed five games in a row in 2nd set but managed to get the W, which was the most important thing. I finally was able to see JMDP in action yesterday against Pellerin. Big guy, he moves quite well for a boy of his size, his serve is good but I think he can do better, bc he served at a nice percentage but I felt he could hit it much harder than he did, anyway it worked well against this rival. His backhand is very solid, his fh is more erratic but it´s not bad, he was good at the net the few times he decided to come into it. Good prospect, but he didn´t leave in me the same impresion once left the likes of Berdych, Nole, Korolev...
On Sunday, I had tickets for all courts as I didn´t want to spend a single minute on WTA matches. First of all I saw Robredo vs Zib (first two sets and simply bc there were no more matches around and training courts were not interesting at that time). Nothing worth a comment here, Robredo is in quite decent form and handled Zib easily.
Could see two first sets of Federer vs Hartfield. Argie had Fed on the ropes and could have easily grasped at least one of those two sets, but his unexperience killed him. Roger with a well below-par performance.
Went to see the most atractive match in paper, Wawrinka vs Nalbandian. As G said in his preview, David exposes Stan´s weaknesses, Wawrinka definetely needs to get those feet on the move with more regularity, and of course, you can´t beat Nalbandian without hitting 1st serves and commiting 2 ues per game. David played well apart from a couple of games where he got broken bc his typical lapsus.
Went to court 1 later (Charly vs Marín), just to see a set of Moyá, as Marín can make me fall asleep in less than 2 backhands and a fh. Nothing significant to tell, Moyá did just what it was necessary, far from impressive display from Charly, to be honest, but it´s also fair to say he also knew he didn´t need anything else.
Saw 2nd set of Chucho vs Santoro but it was too one-sided and we decided to go back to the hotel, good call from me lol.
See u tomorrow.
Deivid
Thanks Rose and Deivid for your reports so far.
Thanks for the reports Rose and Deivid. Well, Chucho is up a break in the fifth, he should close Fabrice out tomorrow but of course with Chucho one can never know. Tomas should win comfortably against Lalo, Ferrero is the favourite against JMDP because of his experience but i can see an upset there. Malisse-Massu and Seppi-Korolev look like very interesting matches.
Thanks very much for the reports Rosie and deivid and it is always better to read things from the viewer perspective as watching matches on TV, just is not the same and sadly this is what I need to do for these 2 weeks.
Acasuso seems like he fell asleep, but fortunately for him he is up 4-2 in the 5th and hope he closes it out.
Federer made an interesting comment I can go home to Switzerland for a few days and come back for my 2nd round.
Already thanks in advance to our 2 reporters who will hopefully inform and entertain us for some time.
Looks like Nalle did exactly what I thought he would do to Wawrinka. Sure Nalbandian can get lazy in normal tour events, but in the Slams he turns up to play and if Stani is playing like this, then the result makes perfect sense.
Chucho had this match easily and then he loses 2 sets from nowhere and he has to wait to finish the match. Just hope he gets through it as he has a chance to do well in this event.
Seems to be raining today and hopefully the heavy courts will help Seppi in his match today, and there will be a few good ones on today.
But wait we will just get shit matches as always.
Went to see first set of JMDP vs Ferrero. JCF is no longer the player he once was. His fh has become a real weakness. Every time he wants to flatten it a bit and hit hard&deep it goes out. Anyway he returned well those slow serves of JMDP and was solid enough to grab that 1st set. After this I decided I had seen enough of these two and went to see Korolev-Seppi,
which was an entertaining match, Seppi served well and played well overall and Korolev decreased his level and made more errors during 2nd and 3rd set, Seppi won them quite handily. In 4th set, Evgeny raised a notch his level and apart
from an awful first service game (2 df and 2 ue where he was broken to love I think) he was the better player, but Seppi hang on relying on his first serve and had two match-points at 5-4 40-15, but served two second serves and Evgeny did very well here and took his only chance. At 5-5 it was all about Korolev, he missed just a few shots and dominated big time
to win 10 of the last 11 games of the match. What a player this kid is!
Then went to see that funny character, Olivier Marach, I wish I could understand what he said, as many people around me laughed their asses at his comments and complaints during the match. Kohlschreiber played quite well for his standards and was too solid in the end for Marach.
Also saw first two sets of another funny guy, Mayer. He played a brilliant first set with that orthodox tennis of his and suddenly he dissapeared and was served a bagel. Went to see first set of Nadal as I had a bad feeling about Berdych LaLo (still fresh in my memory that madman serving by LaLo in DC) and I didn´t want to risk getting angry at Tomas. Luckily he took LaLo to school and won him that match in a hurry. It was enough fun for me for the day and decided to come back to the hotel
See u tomorrow
Deivid
Deivid, what would be your opinion of a Gaudio and Ferrero match up in the 3rd round? I am assuming Gaudio gets through his match with Korolev and I have heard and read a lot of good things about him and it would be good if they show any of this match.
Saretta comes back from 2 sets to love to knock off Starace. It would be good if he could beat the PMK, but not very likely.
Acasuso took the long way around, but he managed to win and Dlouhy should be a lot easier.
There are some classic matches today especially Kindlman vs Sabau and yesterday there was Kim and Silva. The disappointing this is guys like Safin, Gonzalez, Horna, Djokovic, Verdasco or Chela, from these three they will be out in the 1st round, and the mentioned jokers will be in the 2nd round.
Fucking hell Seppi having 2 mps and couldn't finish the match. Well I'd like for him to have played Gaston, but that is not to happen for now.
Massu what a warrior, he was at his annoying, grunting, combative, fighting and hiding his backhand best. Played well and then Malisse turns it around and wants a Kit Kat at a change of end and Lasse Graff told him off.
Then what a fightback from 1-4 and 2 breaks down in the 5th and good show man.
Acasuso got the W and the match was played in good spirit and the crowd was respectful for sure.
Vicente blew his chance today and Massa well he got thumped for sure.
I was also at the Seppi v Korolev match and can't add anything to what deivid has said. Korolev is a great young prospect - I enjoy watching him. Have to say I haven't found many matches to grab my attention this RG so far - maybe it's because it's too cold here and I don't do cold and damp watching tennis! And way too crowded too - moving from court to court is a nightmare and you queue for hours everywhere!! Mónaco was adequate against van Gemerden today - van Gemerden is not a clay court player (not much of a player at all to be honest despite the support of many orange-clad, horn blaring Dutch fans) - and this really was no contest. Chubby Chela was woeful against Verdasco - I was disappointed - he is not the player he was last year at all - way too many stupid unforced errors. I may not be staying that much longer at RG - not unless the weather brightens up considerably. I will be heading home to my nice centrally heated house!!!
Thanks for all the reports.
Watched Gaudio's 1st round match yesterday and was not very impressed. May be he'll play better vs a better opponent.
The only time I could watch tennis today and ESPN had Murray vs Monfils in 3rd set. Good that I taped earlier matches and watched a little bit of Baghdatis vs Portas. Not very exciting but 100 times better than the 2 teenagers.
Went to see the first set of Baghdatis vs Portas as I was curious to see if Marcos kept up that awful display he showed against Roddick a few weeks ago. It was good to see him playing ok, Marcos was definetely the better player out there as he managed to cut down those ugly errors and showed he´s at least a class above Portas, even on clay.
Then changed to court number 6 to see some tennis of both Verdasco-Chela and Vicente-Waske (behind us). Waske played well for his standards, serving v well and he was quite sharp on net, it was a very close match that was probably decided on 3rd set TB. Verdasco played a great match (long time ago I didn´t see such a high-quality performance by him) as he
decided to move his feet and only go for the winner after he worked the point. That resulted in a very good display from his overall. It´s also fair to say Chela wasn´t at a good level but if Verdasco plays like this, I believe there´s not much more he could do against. Of course, a Verdasco´s match without drama is not possible, he stopped playing at that high level at 6-1 6-3 5-3, then served a double fault and that made Chela go for his shots as a last and desperate resource and took that set in the TB.
I feared Fer could do it again (a la Soderling last year), but it was just an illusion and surprisingly he kept focused and broke Chela in 3rd game. I left court at that moment bc I thought he was safe and if I was wrong, I perfectly know the way Verdasco presses self-destruction button, I´ve seen that so many times it wouldn´t be nothing new, so that match was over to my eyes.
Went to see Roitman-Hrbaty at the beginning of the 3rd set. I always though Roitman should have done better with his career as the guy has a good game and I was looking forward to seeing him in action again. Sergio looked quite solid and sharp to lose in straights and he broke Dominator in the 6th game to take the set 6-3. He kept up that momentum and broke Hrbaty in first game of the 4th, Dominik managed to break back, but
Roitman has hitting some good length, moving very well and opening good angles and that resulted in two more breaks and 4 games in a row by Sergio to take the match into the decider. Roitman lost his chance in first game of the 5th set when he missed 3 returns in a row to blow a bp
and let Hrbaty hold. After that, Hrbaty gained his lost confidence and was rock solid on own serve the next 3 service games. He played a very good game to break Roitman in the 8th game and although Sergio had a 15-40 to break back, Dominator was experienced enough to save that situation and win the match.
Then went to Nole vs Horna match. The only funny thing is that I sat behind Nole´s family (parents and younger brothers) as Horna was woeful and had to retire with a back injury in 2nd set. Funny to see how Nole´s father cheered for his son with a perfect Latin expression "¡Bravo Maestro!"
Went to see last 5 games of the first set at Lenglen (Beto vs A Rod) and after that decided to go back to hotel as I was a bit tired of the crazy weather in Paris (yesterday quite hot at many times, today cold most of the day), and wanted to take some rest
Deivid
ghuI saw some matches and Baghdatis had it under control and had a lapse in the 3rd set, but recovered well enough to take it in 4 and should have enough guns for Benneteau.
Horna well he had to be injured to be play like that, he was woeful and hope his back is Ok and Massa as well.
Verdasco and Monaco, well this could be a tight one, but one can never tell and good to hear Nando played well.
Moya gave Youzhny a lesson and good to see the Berdman give that shithead Volandri a lesson.
Thanks for the great reports Rosie and Deivid. Keep them coming.
An awesome display by Djokovic, he overpowered Gonzo, no small achievement. Now he is again in the 3rd round of a slam and he stands good chances against Haas. Monfils won his second consecutive 5-setter, a very ugly match against Norman. He seems to lack any sense of strategy on court at this moment. Verdasco and Monaco split the first two sets, somehow i think Nando will win here. Almagro won a very close 1st set against Blake, i doubt that James can retain the same level throughout the entire match when they resume, so Almagro should go through.
Tomas faces Kiefer next and these two always have close matches. I hope the match goes through tomorrow and Tomas prevails. In the battle of the RG champions, the bookies give Gaudio as the favourite, i think it more like a 50-50 match. Davydenko-Moya will also be interesting, Carlos has the game to disrupt PMK's rhythm the question is whether he can execute well enough. I doubt it but i would love to be proven wrong.
Vassallo Arguello good win for him and I like to see that a qualifier has made the 3rd round, sure he got to play the gimp Goldstein and even if Seb is past his best it was still a good win and he will get some good points for this week and he showed Chucho how to do it.
Passive Monfils got through again and the highlight was he doing the wave for sure and Thierry does have a lot to work with.
great reports, Rosie & Deivid!
:)
Djokovic was very impressive for sure and after Gonzo came back from 2 sets down I thought he would run through the 5th set. Credit to Djokovic he played very well, aggressive and tactically very smart, he needs to follow up against Haas.
Berdych needs to beat up on Kiefer as I want to see dickhead out of the tournament and also because I want to see his match up with Fed. Hope Massu gives Federer a bit of a workover as well.
Gaudio and JCF, just hope the proper Gaudio can show up and not captain negative.
Disappointed in Almagro and happy for Gaudio. Will Gaston continue to show up?
With the way Blake and Monfils playing, I am looking forward to Blake/Djorkovic in round of 16.
Been 1 year I was waiting to come back to Roland Garros. Last year, for those who remember, I had missed Gaston. He was scheduled to play but his opponent, Tursunov had pulled out. Though I was pretty disappointed, I was wishing I'd see him play on another event I'd attend. Had only seen him train in Stuttgart. But yesterday, when I returned to RG, not only was he scheduled to play, but he was 1st match on the Chatrier, playing winner of 2003 edition, JC Ferrero. That was interesting for sure. I mean, Nadal was to play too, but organizers chose to keep those 2 on the Chatrier. They obviously were expecting a great fight. Which they finally obtained. Both players have been going through some serious doubts concerning their game level and various performances, for some time already. Hence why I was pretty nervous when I sat in the stands. As much as I was eager to finally see Gaston play live, I also wanted to avoid seeing him throwing the match. He isn't known for his mental abilities and even more so for some time now. Both players entered the court and received the same ovation. The public was shared. Not very surprising.
The 1st set began pretty easy but soon, both players showed aggressivity in their game, obviously eager to show the other one that each of them wanted to win that match, badly. Big and long rallies. Dropshots, lobs, passing shots....it was a true show from both. The first to get broken was Gaston. I started thinking, ouch. Gaston, please, keep fighting. He kept cool. Went on playing his game and finally broke back, ending up taking JC's serve a 2nd time to win the set 7/5.
Ferrero started to play even more aggressive in the 2nd set. His pride had been touched by this loss of the 1st set. Gaston, as expected, made some errors. Not many, but enough on wrong points at wrong times to end up with a double break against him. There, I was REALLY worried. The image of the Gaston I know, and the one who had been badly performing lately was haunting me. I have to admit I wanted him to fight and come back, but I sincerely confess I really didn't think he would. I was wrong and I am so happy I was. When Ferrero served for the set for the 1st time, Gaston just played brilliantly and easily broke back. He confirmed his return with a love game. Encouraging. Faith was coming back in my mind too. I was thinking that if he could do it once, he could do it twice. Same scenario happened when Ferrero served for the set a second time. Gaston showed Grand Gaston and strenghtened by his powerfull return into the set, he even took JC's serve a 3rd time, putting the 2nd set in his pocket. 7/5. I was overjoyed. From that moment on, the outcome of the match didn't matter for me. I had seen that Gaston's confidence and mental strength were back. So long I hadn't seen him encouraging himself that way that I really was satisfied with what I had seen.
3rd set was epic. Take all the great rallies and shots of the previous 2 sets, take off all the errors, add Ferrero's frustration of having lost the 2nd set, after leading with a double break, and you obtain another match. Both players were on fire, the crowd too. You could hear as many "Vamos Gaston" than "Vamos Juan Carlos". Of course, such a set couldn't end other way than with a tiebreak. Just to keep the suspens alive. Gosh, it was tense. In the stands, on the court. Everywhere. When the umpire finally said the magic 3 words before Gaudio's name, I screamed my lungs out. Waving my Argentine flag in the air. The handshake was warm. Both players knew they had nothing to be blamed for. One had to win that match. Both respect each other a lot, it's obvious. Gaston got a true and warm ovation when he greeted the crowd. He was back for sure. Just hope it wasn't temporary.
After witnessing a great but very long match from one of my fave Arggies, I decided to watch another one I had only seen play against Grosjean. It's Martin Vassallo Arguello. I had been impressed by him on tv. I haven't been disapointed by the live performance.
First time he could enter the main draw in RG, and he was in the 2nd round, playing Sluiter, after defeating Frenchy Grosjean. On the paper, he absolutely wasn't favourite. And I have to admit that the game he played during the 1st set reflected this, big time. Some others would have told themselves, ok. I have seen enough of this. That guy was just a joke when he played Grosjean. Must have been blessed or something but today, all the magic is gone. And the fact that the stands were packed with Dutch supporters, dressed in orange, shouting, dancing, jumping aroung could have discouraged a lot. But not me, I stood brave and strong. Kept seated on my step. Yes, there was no other free space. I have been rewarded. Because what I saw next really was worth being seen. Vassallo, totally outside the match, suddenly woke up, started playing aggressive, running a lot, returning Sluiter's serve with far more efficiency, helping him getting less outplayed during the play. Tactics which led him to win 2nd and 3rd set. I wouldn't say easily, as that would be lying and not respectful of how good Sluiter's game has been. But, it seemed to be more fluid. The Dutch in the crowd really got hot. You would have thought it was some soccer match. Security guys kept an eye on them, as both players complained about some deviant behaviours during the play. True that jumping while players are simply playing isn't really what tennis fans are supposed to do, and certainly not the best example of sportsmanship in tennis.
The 4th set has corresponded with Vassallo starting to pay for all the physical efforts he had made to win the 2nd and 3rd sets. He's not really a physical beast, full of muscle and some real not nice ppl could say he'd break under some strong wind....And Sluiter, pumped up by his fans, and certainly by some strong pride, wanted to come back. As expected, all this led to a 5th set. That was the beginning of a new match. Picture the scene. A small court, packed with 2/3 of orange fans, on fire. 2 players who had been fighting for 4 sets. Obliged to start everything from anew. That's where some of the French spectators, who had come to see the match that was scheduled after this one (Llodra playing doubles with O. Rochus) came into action. They weren't supporters of either of the players at first, but the behaviour of some of the orange guys became slowly unbearable, so they started encouraging Martin, screaming as loud as the Dutchies, "allez Martin". Which I had been doing from the start.....Martin seemed to appreciate all this sudden support. That simply showed that those French fellows weren't pouting that he kicked one of their fave Frenchies out. Martin felt like pumped up and started playing great and amazing shots again. When he was making great points, he was just pumping his fist and screaming "allez!!!" (not Vamos). That was his way to show he appreciated the support and also to counterbalance all the Dutch barking. He finally won that match, breaking Sluiter's serve 3 times in that last set. His joy when the umpire said Game Set & Match was the one of a kid learning he's passed a very difficult exam. He ran to his team, hugged them, and came back on the middle of the court, jumping, waving....and I guess that's exactly what made him realize what he had just accomplished. He fell down on his knees, took his head in his hands and started sobbing. Very emotional. For him for sure. But also for his team and all those who had been there to support him from the start. When he stood up, he went back to his team, and they all started to sing a song I totally ignore what it was, but that was just great to hear. He had trouble leaving the court, as many journalists wanted to interview him, because of the exploit he had accomplished. For all this time, I just kept on waving my Argentine flag, like I had done sooner for Gaston. Was just not expecting that cameramen would immortalize it....
And for your information, the Llodra match never took place, the opponent team having pulled out.
Later in the evening, when I was having dinner on the Place des Mousquetaires, before leaving RG, I could attend the recording of ESPN review of the day. And though I don't get much in Spanish, I can tell that the guy spoke about that match, full of tension, joy and emotions. I couldn't but agree with that.
I suppose you would all have corrected it yourself. It was 3rd round...
Thanks for the report, Choupi!
I only watched a little bit of PHM/Nadal match. I think it was 30/30 when Nadal serving for the match. He was preparing to serve and I could see he mentally pulled himself together and then won the next 2 points. I was really in awe of the kind of maturity he showed for a just-turned-20 years old guy.
Thanks for the report Choupi, in deatil and good to read.
Someone seeing the Gaston match and funny there was no antics from him in concern to the yelling, he must have known Choupi would be there.
Great to see Vassallo make the 4th round and also Djokovic taking out the arsehole Haas, always fun to see.
Hope Berdman can do the miracle and Gaston can show the PMK what tennis is about.
Thanks for the great reports Choupi. Next year, you and I will just have to make sure we're at Roland Garros on the same days!!!
Thank you for your reports!! I'm glad you did have a good time and I'm sure next year will be even better!
Good win by Nalbandian and he needs to step it up to get past his semifinalitis he seems to have at Slams. Hope he turns up to play against Federer, but he will more than likely come up short.
Well, it seems the expected and so long awaited struggle will take place on Sunday. Too sad Nalle had to pull out and give up his chance on an injury. Really don't know who I wanna cheer for.
I will be cheering for Roger every step of the way. If he can win the French Open he will have completed his own Grand Slam (not the calendar year of course, but holding all 4 trophies at the same time), and that is a truly great moment in tennis history. Roger is such a classy guy and winning RG mans so much to him. HOPPE ROGER:-))
Well it was disappointing that Nalle had to withdraw from his match against Federer.
Yes, we have another Fed vs Nadal chapter and more is on the line with this one and whatever happens I will make sure to avoid MTF. I just can't handle it at the moment.
Not to worry I will do some stuff during the grass season, but it will be some other things as they will be more interesting.
Everything is more interesting than the grass season - except probably the World Cup! LOL!
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