First of all time to get some serves out of the way. Yes, call me a traditionalist, but there is something wrong with starting a Slam on a Sunday, it's almost as bad as giving the women equal prizemoney and they didn't make the mistake of putting Federer on Sunday this time. It didn't work cause of the weather and it's a battle Mother Nature will win most of the time.
Vicente was comedic against Safin in the rain, the highlight for him was serving at a 100 percent of first serves in the second set and he lost 6-1 6-3 6-1 to Safin. Safin shouldn't lose his next match to Gattuso Tipsarevic, but anything can happen with him and usually does, but enough of Marat for now.
It seems the likable American Mike Russell has pissed someone off to draw Federer in the 1st round, but the last time he was on centre court in Paris, he played a wonderful and entertaining match against Guga and had the match point, but couldn't pull it off. He will give Federer a good workout, but not much more than that sadly and big Fed likes the heavy conditions. Roger is fortunate that many of the players he likes to beat up are in his section of the draw, but strange things happen for sure.
El Fashionista plays Chris "the gimp" Rochus, the perfect match for him really and just hope he doesn't blow it and he can have one of his good matches with Ferrero in the next round and it would be great for tennis to see the Koubek in the 3rd round.
The big Greek Economidis finally qualified for a Slam and he has a big show to take out Ronald McDonald Guccione, never know Aussie TV might actually find a camera on court 33 to show the match point or something.
Nalle the talented singer and owner of a rally team is back playing and one can expect anything with him, he could lose in Round 2 or make the semis, but I expect him to have eaten many empanadas. Chela and Santoro is a match up of Mr. Consistency and a lack of flair against a player who is all flair, but Fab isn't doing as well on clay as usual, but might be able to pull the upset.
Acasuso with the heavy conditions and not being the seeded player he should take out Melzer in the first round and that would mean a meeting with Pico Monaco who has been some very good tennis as of late, just hope he can carry his form over from Austria to the one that counts.
Before I go to the bottom half there is the Canas and Gasquet match up, well Canas has gone a bit flat at the moment and that is understandable, but he has a kind draw to the 3rd round and if he plays Gasquet, when it comes down to it, Willy will be too tough as usual.
The bottom half will be spoken about and the order is in the order of the draw. Zabaleta has fought hard and made it back to the top 100 and was a Lucky Loser, but was unlucky to draw Calleri. El Gordo hasn't done well in Slams and he has a very poor 5 set record, as does Zabala, but Mariano's is better, whoever wins this should make the 3rd round.
Hartfield got the Bye, cause he plays claycourt clown Ginepri and I wish Gaudio got him instead, but Gaston drew the ball bashing smoking Gicquel, just hope he can win a match here and it would be interesting to see him play his friend Hewitt.
Berdman can do very well here, just hope he isn't focused too much on the Prostejov Challenger and we know that event means a lot to him, but to me this is the event where he needs to make a Slam QF and in his section he is very capable of that.
Onto the other players now the charismatic ones. Luczak got the WC and he is fortunate that he got Bjorkman who can only play on clay when it's doubles and then he'd player the winner out of Blake and Karlovic, good chances for Peter to make the 3rd round and just hope big Karlovic beats Blake, but Blake he either hits them on the line or he thinks he is playing baseball and missing the court.
Lucho and Massu, well Lucho can take him if he thinks to play like he did in Vina and not get pissed off with Massu's antics and the next round well Roddick the only reason he is around so long is cause of the rain and as long as Andreev stays sober, then he should win.
Seppi has a tough one against Moya, well maybe Andy can get inspiration from AC Milan's victory in the Champs League, but it might take more than that for him to get the W here. Last of all then there is the King Oscar Hernandez and we hope that someone can see this fine specimen play and Guzman is just a victim and if Kohlschreiber gets past dropshot Dlouhy, he will be running off to hide in the Bavarian Alps and get rash from the lederhosen after the beatdown he is going to get.
Well the one of this was too serious and I will be in here most of the time during the event, too many delusional clowns who have no understanding of clay tennis.
Will Nadal defend, I hope not, but somehow I don't think I will be wrong.
11 comments:
Good preview, as usual. I'd say that the element which might bring the most surprise is the rain. Or mother nature as you called it. The forecast is really really bad for that 1st week. The only day with almost no rain should be Tuesday. So, good luck to the players and also good luck to those who will struggle those dreadfull weather conditions to watch some good clay tennis. Or at least, get a tiny chance to!! Needless to say it's gotten very cold out there in Paris....
GW,
Are you in Paris or watching on cable?
Remember Safin would know all about Vicente's bag of tricks in advance and Ferdie would know that Marat knows and ...
In other words, Ferdie could still have a chance against Roddick on clay!
Oh, I think 3 top spin backhands in a match was all that I could easily manage.
I made it once to RG, the year Medvedev came from behind to beat Perez Roldan in 5. The year that Champion got triple bagelled. The year that the Jensen brothers should have lost in the first round but went on to win the doubs!
I arrived in first class on TWA, but with only $100 to my name. Somehow, I managed to get in free the first 4 days (thanks in part to Pato Clavet), found a cheap hotel spitting distance from Notre Dame and went on a baguette and water diet.
And I had a blast!
Which is a long winded way of saying I feel badly for those who are suffering through the rain delays at RG this week. It may be a once in a lifetime trip for some ...
GW, as I mentioned elsewhere, it looks like no Europe for me this summer as I am booked to Thailand. I will have to catch up with you somewhere else on the globe.
Keep these reports coming!
The big Greek?
You must be confusing Konnie with Niko Karagiannis.
Economidis is more on the lithe side, looking and playing a similar game to John van Lottum, but a lot nicer guy!
Robbie,
I am stuck here and not in Paris watching the tennis, though the times I was there, I never had to deal with this much rain.
Vicente was just woeful, but he has done well for himself.
Niko Karagiannis is the golden Greek and legend, so Kon is the Big Greek and just hope he turns around the match against the Gooch.
Mike played poorly and just hope he can show some of what he is capable of.
Seems there will be some tennis today, hope for some good results.
Finally we got to see some action today.
Nice to see Ulihrach winning a GS match after all this time, also nice to see Hajek winning after all the health problems he had this year, even though he was facing a clay clown in ToJo.
Speaking of claycourt clowns, Bjorkman coming back from two sets down against Luczak, well Looch is a frustrating one for sure.
Gonzalez losing in straights to Stepanek was a shocker. Not so shocking was the Americans going 0-8, hehehe.
Economidis turned the match around, winning without much trouble against Guccione. The key was that he had less trouble against the Gucc serve than yesterday. The Americans go 0-8 today, the only guy remaining is the clay legend Ginepri, tied at 1-1 against Hartfield. Igor won quite easily after carelessly dropping the first set, but that was a match where there was really no doubt at all about the outcome. Blake was standing on the baseline, trying to hit return winners of Ivo's rerves. Typically, he got broken three times when he was trying to stay in the set. The true upset though was Vince losing to Simon, I honestly thought Vince could win that match.
Zabaleta won a tight 4-set match against Calleri, a pity one of them had to lose here but now Zab has a good chance against Patience next round. Gaston fought well to win against Gicquel in the 5th, for a minute when Gicquel came back to 3-3 from 3-0 down in the 5th I saw ghosts of Ferrer-Gaudio 2 years ago, but Gaston won the next 3 games to close out the deal.
The King was unlucky to have his match interrupted due to darkness, he is up 2 sets and a break and hopefully he will complete the deal tomorrow. On the other hand, Tomas was lucky to have his match suspended due to darkness, moreover he saved a break point in the 3rd. He has to find his game with no margin for error tomorrow, I will be disappointed if he loses in the 1st round here.
Stan won in 5 against RRH, that was an excellent result for him but he faces Ivan now. The biggest upset of the round was Gonzalez going down to Stepanek, a very disappointing result for Fernando. Marcos won a surprisingly easy match against Seb, Pless is next. Lets hope to see some more tennis tomorrow, the weather forecast seems to be dire. I hope they can at least finish the 1st round matches.
Berdych what a poor performance this was from him, though GGL is a tough opponent.
Gaudio big surprise that he fought hard and won, just hope he can beat Hewitt.
Chela was very good against a tricky Santoro and the 3rd round match up with Nalbandian should be interesting.
Zabaleta has a huge chance for the 3rd round and won a tough one with Calleri.
Safin, well he got outplayed again.
Monfils has performed heroics again at Roland Garros and he took out the very solid Chela and will have to play even better against Nalbandian.
Vliegen took out the much hyped Gasquet, who seemed to shit his pants again in front of the big crowd.
Llodra defeated Almagro and "Superstar" is becoming like Acasuso and Calleri not being able to perform well at the Slams and this is not a tag that you want to have.
I know I'm a bit late.....sorry guys.
Ok, I was in Paris on Wednesday. The weather has been nice to us, compared to how much it rained over the first days. Actually, it's been raining every now and then, but no play had been suspended due to it, at least, until the evening.
The courts were very heavy for sure. I saw few matches in fact, as I spent a long time wandering around training courts. But, I saw Cañas vs Bolleli. Great match to see. Big battle from the baseline, long rallies and some subtility in the game on Bolleli's part....given how many times his dropshots trapped Willy. The forces in presence were more balanced than what their respective rankings could announce. I'd say that Willy simply was better on the important points, and didn't miss his chances on breakpoints, and could also erase the very few ones Bolleli could have had. Big support for Willy in the crowd, which was nice to see, after his suspension.
I then saw Monfils vs Chela. The atmosphere from the stands was pretty close to what you can find in DC ties. All those kids -it was Kids Day- screaming and supporting Gael. He can thank them, deeply, as well as the rain that stopped the match for about 1 hour, as he was really in a bad position after the 1st set he lost. Chela was very strong and wasn't hesitating at all, creating opportunities, coming to the net pretty often. To be honest, I doubt Gael would have won if there had been no rain delay....he didn't seem to have the keys to stop or at least bother Chela. But, when they both came back on court, everything's been totally different. Gael was far more aggressive and confident. Chela got a bit annoyed, and finally missed his opportunities.
The best GS of all and I have only been able to watch highlights...
I'm hoping I'll get to see the rest of the tournament.
Nice preview.
I'm very happy for Monaco and his good run.
Cañas said he doesn't remember having played better tennis. And thats saying a lot. He has a good chance against Davydenko.
Nice tournament for the Russians with two players in quarters.
I'm also happy for Moya. And I'm hoping he will give Nadal some serious fight.
oh, and thanks Choupi, I like your reports a lot.
Thanks for the reports Choupi and glad that you had fun while there.
The RG review should be interesting, though I only see a Nadal win, it would be good to be wrong.
Andreev had an excellent event and the PMK played some excellent tennis against Cañas, but good to see Willy back at a high level.
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