54 posts categorized "May 2009"
 by Pete Bodo
Well, Roger Federer's life just got a whole lot more interesting, and y'all know why: Robin Soderling, not Rafael Nadal, is on track to meet him in the French Open final.
Somehow, it just doesn't have the same ring. And of course, any of three other able men - more able, on paper, than the 6-3 pale-skinned Swede - might have a say in that, for Fernando Gonzalez, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko (who's manhandling Fernando Verdasco as I write this) all are in the hunt now. The first thing that struck me when Nadal half-chopped, half-pushed a forehand volley wide, cross-court, to end the match is that two enormous stories exploded in Paris today, with the one-two count that you can actually verbalize to mark the cock-and-fire beauty of a Nadal forehand on a day when he's hitting the shot well. Which was not today, at least not for stretches that are less well described as long or short than as critical.
Those two stories are: Rafael Nadal, who won four successive titles at Roland Garros and vaulted to the world No. 1 ranking before he lost his first match here at the French Open, has been beaten, and not by one of the usual suspects. Story number two, and one that may prove to be even more historic, is that for the first time since the beginning of his golden era, Federer is, on record, the best clay-court player in the diminished draw and thus the instant favorite to win the title on Sunday. And we all know what that means: a career Grand Slam, and nearly universal acclaim as the greatest player ever to swing a racket.
And the most tantalizing question to rear its head is: Will Federer be able to handle it?
But let's leave that one hanging for now and backtrack a few hours. It was just my luck that I arrived here, more or less fresh (or stale) off my overnight flight from New York, just as things on Court Philippe Chatrier were getting interesting. While waiting for my credential to be processed, stunned press amigos kept wandering by saying, Do you see what's happening to Rafa?. . . What do you think of the way Soderling is playing?. . . Can you believe what's happening out there?
Well, at that point, Soderling was up a set and they were starting the second-set tiebreaker. When Rafa swept that one, I breathed a little more easily, and while I had no premonitions about Nadal losing, I had been thinking all morning about how quickly things can change in tennis. On a day-to-day basis, the game is predictable; the winning percentages of the top players attest to that. But you never really know where the land mines are buried, and when they go off they can alter the tennis landscape dramatically.
Running up to this event, I had a gut feeling that somehow we weren't going to see another Federer-Nadal final; that we'd had three successive ones already was remarkable, and in an odd way as much of a testament to the noteworthy superiority of both men. But for reasons that don't much matter here, I thought Federer was the one less likely to uphold his end of the deal. I was half-right, but instead of a mere scenery changer (for Nadal), we saw what might be a game changer for Federer.
In line with this reasoning, and cleaving to the conventional wisdom, could you have come up with a less likely spoiler than Robin Soderling, that lanky, stiff-armed Swede (the same one who lost to Nadal, 6-1, 6-0 in Rome just a few weeks ago)? This is as good an argument that exists for demolishing the inexact science of bracketology (as much fun as it is for some), or for lobbing thinly disguised insults over the Iberio-Swiss divide. Today, being in the same half as Soderling was a decided disadvantage, for he was very much on his game. But let me amend that first sentence slightly, in a broader perspective: Soderling is actually a picture-book spoiler: He hits pretty big and fairly flat (and guys like that are always a danger when they're feeling their oats), he's a veteran who appears to have a chip on his shoulder, and he tends to throb and then just as quickly detumescence on the radar.
I kept an eye on set three, and when Soderling wouldn't go away, taking it 6-4, I knew that even though I wasn't really in work mode yet, I'd better go out and sit in the sunshine to see if this was to be a four- or five-set opera. I started thinking about, instead of merely watching, the match in the third game, after it became clear that Rafa was going to have a hard time making that break of serve he earned in the second game stick. Soderling attacked Nadal's next service with brio. As Soderling later explained, "I tried to think, don't think. . . because you know, I just tried to play the next point after next point. . . I think I played exactly the way I wanted to play before the match. I didn't want him to make me run. I tried to be the one that make him run. I worked good with my forehand, and my backhand worked well. I worked my backhand flat and tried to go around and hit my forehand."
My first real note says: If there's an Appalachia in Sweden, that's where Soderling is from. He's big, raw-boned, woodsy-looking. His shirt theoretically is white, but it looks kind of dull, and the combination with those black-and-yellow shorts is pretty awful. But there's a deliberateness to his game today, and it projects danger, not clumsiness or poor movement as it might on another day . . .
 By contrast, I was surprised at Nadal's outfit; I didn't know you could get such an aggressive shade of pink, and that seemed fitting. But something seemed missing in Nadal today, and even if you don't have a trained eye for technique or strategy, you could pick it up in the way he sometimes grunted between swings - not just as or immediately after he hit the ball, as if it was an effort playing - not just whacking that stupendous forehand.
At his best, Soderling at times showed what a combination of accuracy and aggression - as in serve-and volley play - can accomplish. It isn't all that complicated, you know. You dump the serve way wide, pick up the return coming in and go way wide the other way, then just cover your line as you close the angle and rumble to the net. What's so tough? Well, one thing you can control (your level of execution on the serve, approach, and killing volley) and one you cannot, which chiefly is the quality of the return. That's where Nadal can make it seem suicidal to attack; his return is not only upon you remarkably quickly, it's also someplace (down the line, cross-court, take your pick) where it isn't really convenient to implement your plan.
By the time Nadal held serve for 3-2, the skies were overcast, leaden clouds were waddling in from the west, and sitting in the stadium you would swear you could hear rolling thunder - only it was noise the wind always makes when it hits the courtside mikes. Soderling held, and the men exchanged holds again for 4-4. One point that Soderling served seemed particularly telling: at 30-0, he served into Nadal's body. Nadal tried to dance away, but didn't move quite quickly enough and awkwardly shoveled the ball out. It was telltale of the kind of day Rafa was having - a day late and a dollar short on too many occasions.
In the next game, Nadal appeared to come to life. He rolled to a 40-0 lead, and the overcast made him seem more dangerous, more vital. A red clay court never looks better than on an overcast day, when it has texture that is flattened out by sunlight. Under clouds, a red clay court looks like it's made of exquisitely soft, pliant buckskin. In the glare of an afternoon sun, it looks a dirt parking lot, but dimpled with ball marks rather than footprints of a horde tramping over to the sound stage.
Nadal won that ninth game whistling a passing shot by Soderling from close quarters; en route to his chair, Rafa waved a clear apology for hitting so close to his rival. It was a nice gesture, given that Soderling made fun of Nadal and more or less tried to bully him around at Wimbledon a few years ago, and if you think Nadal may be a bit intimidated by him, just think about the score in Rome. It's more likely that the person who thought the least about that Wimbledon incident was Nadal; Soderling's punishment for being such a boor has been having to answer questions about the incident, even today.
After Nadal won the 11th game in partial sunlight, you could almost hear Soderling thinking: Just get to the tiebreaker, just get to the 'breaker. As it was the fourth set, Soderling would be playing with house money if he got into the ever-dodgy tiebreaker, and if he made a hash of it there was still the prospect of a fifth set, stretching away toward the gloaming. Soderling struggled a bit; his 40-15 lead melted away to deuce, but he played a pair of great serves to hold and force the tiebreaker.
Nadal lost the first point, on serve, when he smacked the net with a forehand to end a rally. After Soderling elicited a forehand service return error, Nadal won his only point of the tiebreaker when Soderling drove an inside-out forehand out. When Nadal was broken twice to fall behind 1-4, the match was over.
I've often noticed that outstanding or significant matches very often don't generate terrific press conferences, and so it was today. It's pretty clear by this time that Nadal's hard-edged realism and logical way of looking at things is not a function of his age (and particularly not of a lack of worldliness or experience). This time, he found a few different but always simple ways to say the same thing: "I think I didn't play my best tennis, no? I didn't play my tennis, and for that reason I lost. That's it. I congratulate him and keep working hard for the next tournament."
Nadal's short version was that he was beaten because Soderling played well and he himself did not; his length was poor, all day.
A reporter tried to throw him a lifeline with a question about the wind, and the "difficult conditions," but Nadal replied: "No, no, no, no. The wind is there for both players, so no, no, no. I not going to put any excuse now. I think I played short because I played short. I didn't have my day."
You might have thought that, given Nadal's credentials, especially on clay, Soderling would have forgiven Nadal for expressing disappointment in the way he played, but in his own presser Soderling seemed to take issue with Nadal's assessment. He said: "I think I played very good for two weeks in a row, four good matches here. If he (Nadal) thinks he played bad, I mean, that's his choice. I would never say something like that, but. . ."
Never waste a chance to ruin a great moment, right?
So there you have it. The terms of the game have changed for everyone left in the draw, and we already saw how one potential champion handled the opportunity: Fernando Verdasco lurched out of the tournament, beaten in straights by Nikolay Davydenko. This sure is going to be interesting.
Note: We have now moved commenting to an Overflow post. Please use the link below to access it. Overflow
Morning, all. Please discuss today's matches here. The Order of Play can be found on this link. TW's commenting activity is hotting up as the fourth round begins today, so we will be providing you with a series of Overflow posts. These will be accessed through a link to be provided at the top of the current post. The most intriguing match of the day for me is second on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Andy Murray is 2-0 against Marin Cilic in their head-to-head to date, but their matches could hardly have been closer. I was there in person to witness the first one of those matches, when they played a Davis Cup match on Court 1 at Wimbledon back in 2007; it was a demanding battle that Murray, returning after injury, eventually won 6-3 in the fifth, with a huge amount of help from the crowd. They also met in Madrid in 2008 (when it was played indoors): Murray, who went on to win the title, won 7-5 7-6(2). They have never yet played each other on clay, and unlike Murray, Cilic has yet to lose a set this fortnight. The latter's record at Slams is pretty good - he's reached the fourth round at six of the ten Slams he's played, including the current one, though he's never gone beyond it. Murray's Slam record has included a quarterfinal and a final in it, but, unlike Cilic, he's never gone this far in the Roland Garros draw before.
As always, enjoy today's tennis. I expect that we'll be hearing from Pete sooner rather than later, as he should be arriving in Paris today. -- Rosangel Valenti
Note: we have now moved commenting to an Overflow post - please use the link below to access the new post. RV.
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' Morning everyone. Please use this as today's space for discussing the tennis that's going on. We'll also be providing you with Overflow posts when needed. The link to the first Overflow post will be provided when the time comes at the top of this post - it will not, however, be visible on the tennis.com front page.
 Today's Order of Play is on this link. There's plenty going on as usual. The interesting match between Victoria Azarenka and Carla Suarez Navarro that was suspended at a set apiece due to poor light resumes second on Court 1.
Another interesting match on the same court will feature Novak Djokovic and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Usually Djokovic would appear on one of the two larger show courts, but there are enough male French players in the bottom half of the draw to take up all the available slots. Court Philippe Chatrier will have matches featuring both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (versus Christophe Rochus) and Paul-Henri Mathieu (up against Roger Federer). Two more Frenchmen are in action on Court Suzanne Lenglen - Marc Gicquel (taking on Andy Roddick) and Gael Monfils (playing Jurgen Melzer). Another French survivor, Jeremy Chardy, is playing Tommy Haas on Court 1 at the time of writing.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.
-- Rosangel Valenti
By Jackie, TW Social Director Evening, TWibe! It's been quite a week, huh? Were not even a week into Roland Garros and we've already seen some fantastic tennis in Paris (and some not-so-fantastic blowouts, as is typical in the first few rounds of Slams). I could've done without that Gilles loss, though ...
A couple of notes before I delve into today's topic: 1) I'm thrilled that so many of you have requested to join our Facebook group, TennisWorld > Real World, over the past several months, but it seems as though both participation and enthusiasm have waned recently. I attribute this to the nature of any Facebook group; members tend to forget they even exist since they can't tell when there's been any sort of activity unless they're actually in the group's page. As a solution to the problem, one of our TWibers suggested that I create a TW "fan page." Unlike with group pages, when fan pages are modified, you're alerted in the News Feed so you'll be much more likely to catch updates. In the long term, this should help make TW more "top of mind" during your Facebook visits. I wouldn't want this to replace the group, as some neat discussions are archived there, as well as countless member introductions that I find handy to this day(!), but it could serve as a more effective way for us to keep up with one another outside of TW. Before I put any effort into it, though, I'd like to gauge your level of interest - is this something you guys would enjoy? Does it sound like a good idea or do you not see yourself doing much with it? Please share your thoughts in the comments! 2) For those entered in the TAT Suicide Pool, feel free to use this space to discuss picks, gloat over wins, whine over losses, etc. I'm not entered - just didn't have the time for it - but I'm not against living vicariously through those who are, so any SP talk is welcome here!
Considering RG is on all of our minds (and will be for at least another week), I figured that today's Deuce Club should have an RG theme. So, today's post is all about RG fashion! (Somewhere, the inimitable Jacko is jumping up and down.) Many of you will recall that I wrote a fashion post during the Australian Open, as well; perhaps I'll make this a DC tradition during the Slams. When I think about the outfits of my favorites and my not-so-favorites, the discriminating factor is color. So you'll notice that most, if not all, of my observations center around color. (I'm quite sure this isn't how I evaluate clothing in real life, else I'd be championing multi-colored muumuus for all. Go with it today, though.) Blue seems to be the most popular color at RG this year. The "Smurf" look is in! Adidas went with blue for both the guys and gals, as we saw on Marat, Dinara, Gilles, and Ana, just to name a few. Several players not sponsored by Adidas went the blue route, too, including Roger, Maria, and Jelena J. I love blue, especially on men (I'm a traditionalist, what can I say), and it stands out better than any color against the red clay, so I can't say I don't appreciate it. Still, in those first few days, after seeing blue kit after blue kit, I started to long for something different. Even something that didn't "go" with the clay. Luckily, I got just what I was looking for in players like Feliciano Lopez, who showed up in orange. I give it a thumbs up - and I'm not usually a fan of orange clothing. (And I'm happy his hair is growing out, too!) Speaking of different, how about Rafa in pink? Everyone and their grandmother has put in their two cents regarding his look. It's been rather polarizing - some say it's fabulous, others think he looks like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. Me? I adore pink - would wear it every day if I could - and don't mind it on men in the least (I guess I'm not that much of a traditionalist after all). So I was pleasantly surprised to see it on Rafa. However, I have some reservations about combining the loud pink with neon yellow. Unfortunately, it leaves him looking a little like a pack of highlighters. I'm not sure that was what Nike was going for ... While Rafa's AO outfit was met with just as much (if not more) controversy, I actually preferred that one to this. The sheer novelty of it, coupled with the softer color scheme (some blue, some white), made it more palatable, in my view. And now, on to Maria. "Polarizing" and "controversy" are two words that seem to follow her, especially when it comes to fashion. I first saw her RG dress not in a photo but in action, during her match against Yakimova. I liked it. A lot! The cool blues ... the shape ... that it was a unique mix of daring and demure. Plus, it looked like something I'd want to wear while playing tennis - flowy, not at all constricting. I enjoyed the matching warm-up jacket even more than the dress (though I only caught a glimpse of it from the back). In photos, though, the look doesn't come off as well, which makes me wonder if my glasses are in need of adjustment. What do you guys think?  A few other random musings:
~ I'm a fan of bright colors, but I'm also drawn to contrast. Black and white, especially, can be just as striking as a fire-engine red. This explains why I took notice of Jelena Dokic's navy and white outfit; it suited her well and was a nice change of pace from her Australian Open pastels. In my book, you can't go wrong with b&w, or some variation of it. Some might say it's staid - I just think it's classy. ~ Lack of color and lack of contrast don't do it for me, then. As with Elena's dress, which is a little too drab for my liking, both in hue and in style. (Is it supposed to be lilac? Lavender? A great idea, but perhaps just executed poorly.)
~ I'm a fan of Sveta's Fila outfit. I should be, right? It's got pink, as well as black and white ... my favorites all mixed in one! It suits her nicely - sporty but still feminine. ~ Roger deserves a mention for staying true to his classic look - crisp lines, conservative colors - while also updating it with that dash of orange. Very fresh.
~ Andy M. is doing his best Darth Muzz impersonation, appearing in all black (minus the shoes). He's the only one to sport such a look here, so of course I'm in support of it (see my commentary on blue up above!). All black is rather regal - and an added bonus is that it doesn't wash him out. I can't imagine it's very fun to be wearing that in the heat, though ...
I think I've given y'all enough to work with! (Although I just now noticed that I only really commented on the looks I liked, not the ones I didn't. Maybe that just means I didn't dislike very many ... I'm easy to please, apparently.) Now it's your turn to share your RG fashion opinions. Who are your picks for best and worst dressed? What outfits surprised you? Which ones were underwhelming? Calling 911 for the RG Fashion Police!
by Pete Bodo
You thought I was kidding about following the French players right to the bitter end, or at least Saturday (when I leave for Paris), right? No way. Venus Williams was clobbered today by Agnes Szavay. Who cares? Of course, Szavay is my Hungarian countrywoman, but I don't want that to get around, it might destroy my reputation as an ignorant, insensitive, war-mongering, Europhobic American!
Well, Szavay is a nice kid, and why should I care how well Venus does on clay, when I'm not really sure she herself cares a whole lot? I say let's get back to the French. After all, the reactions to the Hear Me Roar post were generally so favorable, both in the Comments and via email etc., that it made me realize that either I'm just one muy talented hombre, or I happened to hit on a particularly interesting subject.
Much as I'd like to go with option A, I must confess that slumming in Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda land - focusing on the early round losers, and particularly the French losers at the French major - has taught me something. It's also made me buy into all that Vogue magazine hooey about the the mystique of French women like never before. Is there a more diverse, mystifying group of women out there?
For the record, I always knew that Virginie Razzano's father was a magician, and sure I thought that was interesting - up to a point, and in a whimsical kind of way. But until this week, it's unlikely that I really would have been very interested in Their Ginny's "personal journey" on red clay (Our Ginny, of course, was the tabloid nickname bestowed on Virginia Wade the year she improbably won the Centennial Wimbledon; I guess if any other nation comes up with a quality player named Virginia, it's just going to have to be That Other Ginny, and that's what you get for being third).
Reading Razzano's last transcript makes me think the unthinkable: this French girl could go far at Roland Garros. I mean, it's like she's channeling Andre Agassi, and nobody thought he would ever win the French Open, either - not after he blew those two early-career opportunities in such ghastly fashion in early 1990s. There's always hope, at least for those who care.
Anyway, here's what Razzano said when a French reporter supportively informed her that he felt she had found a way to adapt her game, which he described as an "attacker's game," to the red clay:
"Well, it's got to do with maturity, you see. It's quite simple to me. When you start accepting the fact that clay is not your enemy but your friend, as I said yesterday, that's when you start thinking more about things. That was my case. (Early this year) I thought, now, it's going to be two months on clay again this year, whereas this time you're going to look in a more positive way.
So what did I do about it? Well, I said, there's no choice, and your game is a game you can adapt to all types of surfaces. So why not? You can play well on clay with the type of game you have So that's when I started practicing and working more on my clay game at home. That is, the pallet (sic) of shots I could play with: Sliced shots or also moon balls and forehand, backhand, dropshots.
Now, you see, the other player moves more into the court. With the Spaniards it's very important, because usually they like to stay behind the baseline. I worked on my serve, as well. It's very important to have a first ball on this surface. It's more important than on any other type of surface. What else did I work on? Fitness, to be more solid behind the baseline, to resist in a better way and to accept longer rallies if this is something that has to happen."
Razzano took a little break to let her audience digest all this, and then she added: "I'm a fighter. I want to go as far as I can and win. But, you know, as far as pressure is concerned, there's no pressure, because, you know, playing here, Roland Garros, is not something that all players can do.
What's good with me is I'm a professional tennis player, and therefore, I can play the four Grand Slam tournaments. These are the most important ones during the year. So I try and seize all these opportunities that I can share with a French public, and I think it's quite pleasant. . ."
Now, isn't that just. . .nice? A few things to note here, and the first one has been a surprisingly common theme in the early rounds:
1 - Plenty of French (and, presumably, other nationals besides Americans) have issues with red clay, too.
2 - Razzano makes a good point by stressing the importance of getting in the first serve in red clay; in general, two of the most overlooked aspects of the clay game are the importance of taking control of points and also the benefit of being willing to finish points. I think Steve Tignor touched on this in his latest blog entry as well. I hope Razzano pulls Gael Monfils aside and makes these points to him, but more about that later.
3 - How counter-intuitively wonderful is it to hear a French player talking about what a pleasure and joy it is play at Roland Garros?
If Razzano represents the good, Alize Cornet must be emblematic of the bad (as we all know, there is no "ugly" in France). Cornet is ultra-talented, but I get the sense that she could go the way of Richard "Baby Federer" Gasquet (except for Peruvian Marching Powder stuff). I couldn't make heads nor tails of the presser she held after blowing a huge opportunity to make the third round - with a Caroline Wozniacki (rather than, say, a Jelena Janovic) waiting there. Cornet lost to Sorana Cirstea, who's outside the Top 30 and had exactly one Roland Garros win under her belt before this year. How did Cornet describe a performance that can only be called pitiable (she won just five games)?
"Well, I think it has to do with the stress. I was so stressed before I started, it probably used some of my energy. When I walk on the court, I'm a bit stressed, and, you know, you waste a lot of energy before the match. I started off well, and all of a sudden at 2 Love, I really felt weak. My legs were not strong enough. So is it something that has to do with my physical condition? Is it something that has to do with my stress? I don't know. I don't know. But that's weird."
Note to Alize: You may not know, but you'd better find out, gal-up, and deal with it.
But let's not be too tough on the girls here - did you catch Gilles Simon's remarks after he played a disappointing match and went down in straights to Victor Hanescu? You know a guy's clutching at straws when he starts complaining about the expectations of the press, and today Gilles said (in response to a fairly gentle question about whether he was "thinking" too much):
"Yeah, but my results, as I said, are not as bad as you might think. So, I mean, you guys have other types of expectations this year. You know, this year, making the third round in Roland Garros is just normal for you, whereas last year you would have found it fantastic.This also has changed."
Okay, Gilles, we get it. You had a great year last year. But that was then and this is now, and you yourself wouldn't want it any other way. So Simon (and the intriguingly named Josselin Ouanna) are out, too, leaving the following French men in contention: Paul-Henri Mathieu, Gael Monfils, Jeremy Chardy, Marc Giquel and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Monfils was asked the other day about the Roland Garros Effect (aka Mauresmo Disease) and he gave an interesting answer:
I mean, actually, I'm just thinking about the new generation. Every time we said French, but the new generation, I think we did pretty good. I mean, every time we try to pass one round. I think about like Mathieu Montcourt. Every time he win a round. I mean, at least it's been all right. Josselin has been not too bad. He played very good. Jo now, and like Chardy also. So I mean, the new generation is always playing all right, I think, in the French. I don't really know about the others. I was too young. But, I mean, us, the new generation, wasn't too bad. Every time I think we made a good job.
Well, I'm not entirely sure I buy that, or that I even know just what he means, but Monfils certainly has held up well under whatever pressure the Roland Garros Effect entails. He's also been working this injury thing this year to point where it's a little weird, getting a lot of mileage out of a bum knee that he says doesn't really bother him all that much during play. Call me a cynic, but there's something coy about the way Monfils has allowed this issue to remain alive, and I don't like the way it builds in a nice excuse for when Monfils loses. It's not good for Monfils himself.
But I also must say Monfils has been pretty cool and charming about it all. He's been sharing all the secrets of the work they're doing in the body shop, part of which involves Monfils encasing his leg in a new machine that then more or less freezes it, from the thigh down. When someone asked him if his knee hurts on the court, he replied, "No, when I'm on the court, no. I'm not an injured player. But then before the match, yes. I think about this. It's different. I look at it differently. There is this new machine I love, really. You know, my leg is frozen all day long, and then I run like a rabbit on the court."
Being able to run like a rabbit is a good thing, but too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and that's where I think Monfils' biggest challenge lies when it comes to any designs he has on actually winning Roland Garros. Given his size, range, power and athleticism, Monfils may be selling himself short by relying so extensively on counter-punching and patrolling the hinterlands far beyond the baseline. The problem can be put pretty simply: with guys like Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and even Verdasco so willing to take charge, it may be that the evolving clay-court game is leaving Monfils behind.
 Of course, most of the attention among the French will be on Mathieu, who's got no. 2 seed Roger Federer next. The ground Federer has surrendered over the last 12 months in the intimidation department was nicely articulated by Mathieu, after he was asked if he felt he had better chances than before to beat the world no. 2. He said:
"Well, it's difficult to say. His results are probably not as good as they used to be, because he lost in a final. Well, you know, today we have Nadal. In the past we had Federer for five years. I think they're passing the baton, because Nadal is absolutely incredible, but I'd like to have the same records as Federer.
"No, I mean, in the past, he would almost never lose. Maybe now he loses more matches, even though it's most of the time to Nadal. But it's true that when you walk on the court, you feel you have a chance; but likewise, against Nadal, otherwise it's no use walking on the court."
Okay, there' s a fair amount of hemming and hawing in there, which can't exactly be described as confidence. But that tug of opportunism at war with the brake of realism (and the respect Federer has earned), is what most good players feel now before a match with Federer, rather than a simple, queasy feeling in their tummies and the urge to vomit. But Mathieu's tentative analysis also shows the way most players today are on guard about coming up too timid and missing the boat. This is the time to beat Federer, they sense, while it would still be an upset heard round the world. Consequently, I imagine they come into matches against Federer more aware, alert and prepared, because challenging the icon no longer seems an act of futile impertinence.
Well, I was hoping to see what Aravane Rezai had to say after downing Michelle Larcher de Brito to make the fourth round, but there's been no presser yet, and I've got to get ready to say 'Dios.
So let's end this on an upbeat note. I don't know of Jeremy Chardy reads TennisWorld, or knows what we've been up to these past few days, but he's certainly acting as if he does. Chardy had a quality win over Simone Bolelli in Round 2, although he blew a two-sets-to-none lead and dropped the next two sets before he sucked it up and put the talented Italian player away, 6-1 in the fifth.
Here's how Chardy analyzed the finish; someone ought to print it out and tack it up above Cornet's bed:
"Then two sets (the third and fourth) went by quickly, and I was really happy at the beginning of the fifth set when I was on my chair. I had lost the fourth set. I thought, stop thinking about what you feel. Start thinking about tennis. It's the one who is going to want to win is going who to win. And at the end, therefore, I was more positive mentally. . . I was a warrior. . . I looked at him straight into his eyes, and then I'm happy to have won the battle at the end of the fifth set.
Sheesh, I thought he was going to reveal that after he looked Bolelli in the eye, he bellowed: "Go ahead - make my day. . ."
'Dios!
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 Good morning, Please use this space to discuss today's matches at Roland Garros. We will also be providing you with Overflow posts as needed - the first of them to be linked at the top of the current post, but not appearing on the tennis.com front page. Please keep your conversations focused on the tennis - you can go off-topic after all of today's matches are finished.
Today's Order of play can be found on this link. My personal pick of the day is the match between Fernando Gonzalez and Josselin Ouanna, who took out Marat Safin in a memorable five-setter two days ago. I'm also anticipating the Nadal-Hewitt encounter, as well as looking forward to finding out whether Andy Murray can go further than ever before at this tournament - if that's to happen, he'll need to defeat Janko Tipsarevic today. Nikolay Davydenko versus Stanislas Wawrinka could be another interesting match. The most interesting WTA matches of the day might be the encounter between Carla Suarez Navarro, last year's quarterfinalist, and Victoria Azarenka, and the one between Agnes Szavay and Venus Williams. Szavay and Williams have only played each other once before, on clay in Acapulco earlier this year. It was won by Williams, but went the full three sets. As always, enjoy today's tennis. -- Rosangel Valenti
 by Pete Bodo Well, I learned yesterday that trying to account for 37 bodies, temperature ranging from stone-cold to warm, isn't as easy as it looks, hence I cut off my death watch of French players with the men. And while some posters noted that a survival rate of just under 50 per cent (8 of the 19 French men were still alive as of the time I posted) is pretty good, let's remember, the rate of attrition round-by-round isn't very promising. But there's always room to hope. By contrast, the women really ran off the rails once again, with only four of French women surviving the end of play yesterday (meaning round 2, more or less). But as this is the French Open, and a good time to celebrate a host nation that launched 37 hopeful starters. Of course, the number is slightly inflated by the number of wild cards doled out (rightfully, to my mind) to "home" players, but it's still impressive. So let's have a moment of silence for Mathilde Johansson (well, at least one of those two names sounds French), who lost a 10-8-in- the-third heartbreaker to Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, as well as veteran Julie Coin, who gamely won a round then stumbled out another Russian dream-breaker, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Stephanie Cohen-Aloro lost a real heartbreaker to Jie Zheng. Cohen-Aloro raced out to a 6-0 lead, but lost the second-set tiebreaker and fought gamely but futilely as she lost, 7-5 in the third. Dechy was bounced. Olivia Sanchez? Goner. Now, let's take a closer look at some of the other results: Saucer of Milk on Court 11, Please! Virginie Razzano crushed Daniela Hantuchova, 3-and -3 in the first round, after which she commented: "Well, you know, the atmosphere is good. Marion (Bartoli) complimented me in
the cloak rooms. It was from the bottom of her heart. I found it so
cute from her, so nice. . . She said, "You don't like Hantuchova at all, do
you?. . ." Razzano added, "Hantuchova or another girl, no, I want to do my
match. I want to do my job as usual. It's true. I was so happy to
win, and that's the way it is." I think we get the point. 10th Time Lucky? You've got to hand it to Camille Pin; she's persistent. She lost a close one in the first round to Tamarine Tanasugarn, 7-5 in the third. I can just see the reporter who asked the following "question" pretending to examine his fingernails as the words left his lips: I suppose that people will say it's the ninth time that you've lost in the first round. . . To which Pin replied: "Yes. Maybe there's a sign out there: Maybe next year, maybe next year. . . Even though, I think I've improved, the way I played today was such that I could have won the match. She's top 50, and I feel I'm up to it. I was there in this battle. But, no, unfortunately there's someone who's sort of bewitched me (could it be Amelie Mauresmo?). I can tell that you I'm very frustrated." Ah. . . Say What? Severine Bremond Beltrame was beaten in the first round by Elena Vesnina, and when I punched Severine's compound last name into my "IBM Grand Slam Draw Tracker," the site started to shake and blink like one of those really annnoying Internet ads that hops all over your screen. It wasn't the only object or person having trouble with Severine's name. It seems Severine was recently divorced from Eric Bremond, so she's going back to her maiden name - but not just yet. Now I don't know, maybe they do it differently in France, but I'd always thought that if you kept your maiden name, it preceded your married name, with a hyphen between the two. But never mind. The clear advantage of choosing to go with the double name is that it enables women who don't like making decisions to avoid choosing between "tradition" (taking your husband's name) and what has been euphorically described as "liberation" (it's also a nice way to hedge your bet, should your husband turn out to be a real stiff). Personally, I always felt that it made some women (and men, for that matter) feel grand, perhaps even borderline aristocratic, in a British sort of way. I mean, carrying two names instead of merely one, like any old prole, seemed to add a little heft to your identity, right? Anyway, here's how Severine explained - if that's the right word for it - her name situation: "I want to go back to my maiden name - Beltrame, my maiden name. So I want my maiden name in my name, but I don't want to create too much confusion. I don't want to go back to Beltrame immediately, because people are going to start thinking, What about Bremond? She stopped playing? Who's Beltrame? I want to take this step by step and go back to my maiden name, but gradually. I think I will stick to Bremond, because that's the name I am known by as a tennis player.After my retirement, for the rest of my life, I would go back to Beltrame." A sympathetic reporter commiserated with her:Well, Bremond Beltrame is a long name. It's not easy (especially if you forgo the hyphen, I might add). "Yes, I know," Severine replied ruefully. "That's why progressively I may go back to Beltrame." We'll keep you posted on this. . . . And I thought SPF meant Super-Powerful Frenchwoman! Stephanie Foretz lost a tough three-setter to Kirsten Flipkens, 6-4 in the third, after which she was gently asked if there was "anything positive" that she may want to remember from the match. She replied: "Well, I realized that I have a sunburn. I've spent half an hour with ice. I didn't really realize." Do You Think I Was Born Yesterday? Anna-Lena Groenefeld whacked Amelie Mauresmo, 1-and-3, in the first round, after which the French reporters cited a phenomena so familiar to French players that it hardly needed explaining: the Roland Garros Effect. . . "Is it again the Roland Garros Effect that was the main obstacle for you?" A reporter asked Mauresmo. She replied, "I Don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I can't give you anything this evening. You know, I don't want to speak. That's all. I'm quite clear." Trying to sneak in by a different route, another reporter asked, "Was this different from the other Roland Garros?" She shot back: "Don't you even try. . ." Oh, By the Way. . . Emilie Loit lost in three sets to Timea Bacsinszky, and when Loit was asked to talk about it, she said: "Well, my mindset was different, I would say, because to tell you the truth, after this tournament, I'll put an end to my career." Loit explained that part of her problem in the 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 loss was that "different things" came to her mind during the match, and she had difficulty concentrating because she had already made her decision to retire after this Roland Garros. She added, "I wanted to have, to make a beautiful exit. . .And I thought, well, Roland Garros is perfect timing for me to finish this career on this tournament which is my favorite tournament, which has always been my favorite tournament.Obviously I would have liked to win at least one match. That wasn't the case, and I played on my court, court No. 2. I want to thank the organizers, by the way, for scheduling me on court No. 2, which is my favorite court. So thank you to the federation. Thank you to the organization (she was in on a wild card)." Loit retires with a 10-10 record at Roland Garros. That's the Spirit! Irena Pavlovic lost in straights to Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova, 3-and-4; she met the press bloody but unbowed. When she was asked if she had any particular goal in terms of her ranking (it's presently 252), she saucily answered:"I try not to think about it, because I don't want to put too much pressure upon my shoulders. I have a dream. I want to be the No. 1 in the world, but I don't want to set limits in terms of ranking."  Are You Sure You're French? Kinnie Laisne (best name in the tournament!) was discreetly ushered out of the tournament in the first round by Australia's Jamilia Groth (that's her on the right), but that hardly diminished the joy and wonder she felt upon playing Roland Garros for the first time. In fact, a reporter asked her flat out, "Do you think it's the best day of your life?"
Kinnie answered: "Yes. That's what I think. Yes, it's the best day of my life. Beyond sports, Roland Garros is a dream. I've been dreaming about Roland Garros for quite a long time now." Someone asked if she watched Roland Garros on TV, and did she track any particular champions? She said she sure did, but her champion never did very well at Roland Garros. The roomful of reporters braced to hear her name Amelie Mauresmo, or perhaps Richard Gasquet, but when pressed to name her favorite, she said: "Andy Roddick." From Soup to Nuts. Marion Bartoli was one of the four French women to survive the first round (the others were Aravane Rezai, Alize Cornet, and Virginie Razzano; as of now, only Razzano and Rezai still show vital signs). She described what it's like to play at Roland Garros shortly after she advanced to the second round at the expense of her countrywoman, Pauline Parmentier: "When you are very stressed you can't breathe, and my impression was that my legs were weighing 100 kilos each. I was late on each ball. I couldn't see the ball properly. It was a nightmare. . . There's a little reason. First, we are in France. Second, we are in the French Open. Third, we have my results in the French Open (they haven't been great). Then I also played against a French player, and also, it's clay. So all of this sums it up." Given that she won that match, I was thinking that if she ever got over her anxiety, she'd be one hail of a French Open player, but alas. . . she got whacked today by Tathiana Garbin. Bartoli being Bartoli (as we've already seen), she suggested in her presser that Garbin was "strange" and when pressed to explain what she meant, she said: "Well, it's her clan. When I made unforced errors, her
team would shout. It's not sportslike. They're Italians." So now you know.
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' Morning everyone. Here's today's spot for gathering to discuss the tennis that's going on. We ask that you keep the subject on-topic until all tennis is over for the day; afterwards it's OK to go mildly off-topic. By that stage we'll probably have opened one or more Overflow posts to keep your conversations flowing while dealing with TypePad's current limitations. The first Overflow post will be accessed by a specific link to be inserted at the top of this post (it won't appear on the tennis.com front page); subsequent Overflows will be found via the usual automated links that appear at the top and bottom of each post. Today's Order of Play can be accessed on this link. My personal "match of the day" involves Juan Monaco and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, up fourth on Court Suzanne Lenglen - a claycourt expert versus a man with a big game, but on his worst surface. On Court 17 later on the day Juan Carlos Ferrero will play Philipp Kohlschreiber - I'd like to see that too, but lack of TV coverage of outside courts will prevent it. I'm also intrigued by the match between Jelena Dokic and Elena Dementieva on Court 1 - the last time I saw Dokic in action was during her emotional run to the Australian Open quarterfinal earlier this year. Yesterday's Player of the Day for me was the almost unknown Frenchman Josselin Ouanna, who has now survived two five-setters. In the first round he beat Marcel Granollers; yesterday he was involved in a huge match with Marat Safin on Court Philippe Chatrier that went on late into the evening. After taking the first two sets, he watched Safin come back with the next two, then went down a break early in the fifth. He levelled the match at 3-3, eventually winning 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 3-6, 10-8. Safin has lost several close matches recently from what looked like a winning position, but last night he was in it right to the end, saving match points with his serve and some precision groundstrokes. It required all of Ouanna's determination and cool under pressure in front of a raucous home crowd to put him away - aided by a nice aggressive midcourt forehand and a classic one-handed backhand. As always, enjoy today's tennis. -- Rosangel Valenti
by Pete Bodo Mornin'. I admit, I'm feeling a little mischievous bordering on perverse today - maybe it's the fact that I'm coming down off this weird anti-depressant that I've been taking, not because I'm depressed (y'all know what a happy-go-lucky guy I am) but because it happens to have proven far more useful as a medication for nerve pain, of which I've had a fair amount since having a case of Shingles almost two months ago. I'm pretty much clear of all that now and (mis)firing on all cylinders again.  Anyway, I saw the way Amelie Mauresmo once again crashed and burned early in the French Open (If you ask me, her record at Roland Garros suggests that she's got a real problem with her homeland, and has found a particularly public, passive-aggressive way to express it.) That got me thinking about how under-performing at Roland Garros - stinking out the joint, if you want to dispense with the niceties - is by no means merely a Mauresmo problem; it's as much a way of life for French players as is smoking 40 a day, eating stinky cheese, making jokes about gauche Americans in white tube socks and indulging in extra-marital hanky-panky for so many of their randy, fast-driving, personal-hygiene-ignoring countrymen.
The record of the French at Roland Garros is noteworthy, and not in a good way. In fact, their haplessness in the French Open is a mystery almost on the same order as why the British can't play the game they pretty much invented and brought to its apotheosis at Wimbledon. Now you could say that an American has some nerve, talking about tennis players who disappoint the home fans - pretty soon there will be no Americans playing in the U.S. Open, which certainly would make it impossible to criticize them. But let's keep in mind a critical difference here: most of the American players, bless their eager, never-say-die, always-trying-to-get-better hearts, exude an odor suspiciously like Vieux Boulogne when they set foot on a tennis court. But those French players, they've got track records and rankings, they've got shots, they've got style, they've got more talent than a burlesq - ah. . .never mind that last bit. Maybe this says it all: the most clearly gifted of French male players didn't even play Roland Garros this year; he's been thrown out of the game for testing positive for cocaine. And the weird part is that given the limp way Richard Gasquet responded to the call of the Tricolor in at least one Davis Cup tie (vs the U.S. in Winston-Salem, when he basically said he didn't feel like playing), he's probably sipping a decadently ripe, awesomely-endowed if slighlty pricey Bordeaux and utterly enjoying a pleasant side-effect of his suspension - the fact that he didn't have to play. . . Roland Garros! So I'm going to try to stay inside the French bubble for a few days, as I get ready to leave for Paris on Saturday. That means I'll be running an official death watch and paying special attention to the creative (or simply craven) ways those Gallic stylists find to fall by the wayside in the red dirt. By my count, the French had fully 37 players entered in the main singles draws (19 men, 18 women) On this, the fourth day of the 15-day tournament, 11 of the 19 male players are out, and just four of the 18 women starters are still in the hunt. Let's do a little catching up on some of the highlights: Nicolas DeVilder went out in five sets to Stan Wawrinka; no shame in that. Florent Serra got blasted off the court by Fernando Verdasco and had this to say: "I can't even encourage myself, because today I have the feeling that I'm at 800% of my shape, and yet I don't succeed." Mathieu Montcourt had far more than than his second-round loss to Radek Stepanek to worry about, because he was fined a stiff $12,000 for betting on tennis. Naturally, he was asked how he felt his transgressions stacked up against those of Richard Gasquet, to which he replied: "I mean, to my point, there is no comparison between cocaine and what I did with the betting stuff, because. . .I don't know. I would like to say that my case, it was in 2004. I bet on 20 or 25 players. The biggest bet was, I think, $3, and I lost $36, which is, to my point, ridiculous. "Everybody is laughing, so I think this is not only my opinion. So there is no comparison between betting in 2004 - on 20 bets on Federer, which I don't have any influence on Federer, on Sharapova, on Agassi. Yeah, can you imagine? I was betting on Agassi. He stopped playing like three or four years ago." Josselin (is that "Jesse" in French?) Ouanna put up a nice five-set win over Marcel Granollers (and you know how those Iberian dudes usually make the French quake in their LaCostes!), while Alexandre Sidorenko, a Frenchman by way of Russia, was bounced out by Marat Safin. Sidorenko cut to to the chase, analyzing the icon who sat him down: "Of course, he (Safin) still strikes the ball really well. He's an all around player. He can do just about everything. He's got one weakness: He makes mistakes." Yep, that's a weakness all right . . .
Gilles Simon won a five-set war with Wayne Odesnik, then beat Robert Kendrick like a drum. Juan Martin del Potro killed Michael Llodra, while Arnaud Clement hammered Dmitry Tursunov and Fabrice Santoro, all hat and no rabbits these days, lost to Olivier Rochus (in what probably was Santoros's last Roland Garros). Julien Benneteau had nothing to be ashamed of in losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and for his part, the former Australian Open finalist was thrilled to win his first round before the home crowd - as this press room exchange testifies: Q: Were you tense? A: Very. Q: Did the tension go away after a couple of games? A: No, I'm still tense now. . .(laughter all around) BTW, Tsonga showed up for his presser wearing a tie, and when he was asked to explain why, he said: "In other sports when you come to a press conference, you have to respect, to comply with a dress code, so I thought that in tennis, too, we could show we have certain ethics. I believe it's important. We have beautiful tournaments, and we should show a bit of respect." Adrian Mannarino got all of five games off Tommy Robredo, while Romain Jouan got eight off Andy Roddick. The French reporters asked Jouan what Roddick said to him after the match. He replied: " 'Good match.' and he told my father in the locker rooms that I was a good player. That was nice. I think it's very nice of him. I'm not sure he really believes that, but it was nice." Aw, Romain, don't be so danged tough on yourself!  Gael Monfils, defending a semifinal, got out of the Roland Garros blocks nicely against Bobby Reynolds, while Jeremy Chardy took it to Brazil's Thiago Alves in straight sets and Paul-Henri Mathieu simply crushed countryman Laurent Recouderc.
In one of the two great surprises in the men's draw, Guillaume Rufin straight-setted Eduardo Schwank, 1-3-3. Rafin, a talented youth, was described as someone with a "strong personality" and a reporter asked him if it was true. The kid answered, "Well, yes, because if you're that zen,
it's nice to be zen. You have to have a personality, your own
personality. This is something I missed in the past. I was too kind,
too zen. . .too mild. Sometimes when the match was tough I would give
up a little, but now I've changed. I have more personality. I try and
express myself more. This is what you need, to express yourself, to
have more personality." Uh, okay. But if you want to talk about strong, the man you want is Marc Gicquel. He just destroyed the no. 27 seed, Rainer Schuettler, feeding him two bagels before he surrendered four games in set 3. Hey, if you wanted to light a fire under the behinds of all those stylish and versatile French players, you could do worse than putting Gicquel in charge of French tennis. When a bleeding heart reporter asked Gicquel if he tried to put himself in Schuettler's shoes (never mind that shoe contract Shuettler probably has), or if he felt any sympathy or pity for his beaten opponent, Gicquel wasted no time in answering: "No, I thought I want to try to give him three times 6 Love. I didn't come here to sympathize. If I tried to give him one or two games, then everything could be overturned against me. Yes, I have respect for my opponent. If I can give him three times 6 Love I will." Those last two sentences are not as contradictory as they may appear to some. The bottom line is that easing up on an opponent almost by definition shows a lack of respect, because it essentially says: You can't hurt me, so I may as well help make you look better than you really are. I always felt that "easing up" in all but the most unusual of circumstances is not just insulting to an opponent, but it can also be an act of vanity - showboating.. Okay, that's it for today - tomorrow, we'll look at the how all those French women managed to fall by the wayside in the first four, tumultuous days, and see how the eight male survivors are doing.
[Note - as of around 11.05 a.m. EST, we have opened an Overflow post. Please use the link below to access it - RV]. Overflow
Good morning. As always, please use this post as your initial space for discussing today's tennis matches in Paris. We'll be providing you with a series of Overflow posts as the day goes on, to try to keep the conversation flowing. Overflows will be accessed through a link at the top of the current post - no links will appear on the tennis.com front page. Today's Order of Play is here. My personal matches of the day are those between Nicolas Almagro and Ernests Gulbis, and Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova. Action on Court Philippe CHatrier begins with Andy Murray's second-round match against Potito Starace, with Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams also in action, along with Marat Safin versus the Frenchman Josselin Ouanna. Dinara Safina, Gilles Simon and Rafael Nadal will play on Court Suzanne Lenglen today, where Fabrice Santoro and Christophe Rochus will also finish the entertaining match that could be the Frenchman's last appearance at Roland Garros, which was stopped last night due to bad light. Today's weather in Paris is forecast to be dry but cloudy, with some sun breaking through. As always, enjoy today's tennis. -- Rosangel Valenti
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