Tennis thread

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Mauresmo is finished for this tournament.

Mauresmo has never been good at Roland Garros. She plays fairly good but not good enough for this tournament.

[spyretto]

The French mentality in front of their own crowd is all wrong...As I predicted one after the other go out of the tournament.

The Roland Garros crowd are either totally clueless or they don't follow tennis. They're very one-sided, supporting one player all the way for whatever reasons they have, even when the opponent deserves their applause. That happened with Hantuchova vs Garringuez. Garringuez deserved her gutsy win out there. It won't take long before they start booing too. Grow up the Frenchies.
Having said that the Germans are even worse

[the unforgiven]

omg! Djokovic - Patience was an awesome match
Patience was on fire, too bad he lost but Djokovic is such a great player
it's a good exemple of fair play too
in my opinion, Patience lost the match when he lost the 4th set
but it was a really amazing match, I was all excited in front of my tv lol

btw, Olivier Patience is really good looking hehe

about Amélie Mauresmo, I'm not surprised at all
she always blow up her chances at Roland Garros, she's a great player but for me she's not a real champion she doesn't have the spirit lol

[forre]

Originally Posted by the unforgiven

Djokovic - Patience was an awesome match

Yep, definitely a kicker, the best match of the tournament so far! Great tennis, great atmosphere.

[spyretto]

I recorded the last set...It was amazing. All credit to Patience for playing the match of his life but Djokovic is immense. Probably the next no 1.
It's not easy to come back the way he did but he's used to it. He's so tough mentally.

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

They're very one-sided, supporting one player all the way for whatever reasons they have, even when the opponent deserves their applause.

French audience is great I think. It always gives applause to good points. Yesterday they were even cheering for Dementyeva, trying to give her some support, though she had a really lousy play.

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by forre

French audience is great I think. It always gives applause to good points. Yesterday they were even cheering for Dementyeva, trying to give her some support, though she had a really lousy play.

Not in the match I watched they weren't. They were cheering for Hantuchova at an irritating rate. The only good thing is that they applaud some good points by the player they don't support, or acknowledge his/her superiority when they win. Cause what the Germans do is even cheer for the opponents unforced errors and mistakes and not give them any credit at all.
The Italian crowd in Rome was a lot better, I'd say fantastic, so passionate and enthusiastic. If it was up to me, I'd give the grand slam to the Italians. They even had lights for night matches there. Safin finished at about 11 local time. They know how to organise sports events while the French always have problems with the organisation and the rain.

[the unforgiven]

Originally Posted by spyretto

If it were up to me, I'd give the grand slam to the Italians. The French always have problems with the organisation and the rain.

omg! that means that the Italians can control the weather? awesome

sometimes, the crowd is not really great but nothing can be perfect
the most important is the game (in my opinion)

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

They know how to organise sports events while the French always have problems with the organisation and the rain.

The organisation at RG is wonderful. Come to the tounament one day and you'll see for yourself. Rain... LOL. It's an outdoor tournament.

[spyretto]

This is not what I hear from the Brits...they say the organisation sucks...they say it's almost like a Masters tournament, not even close to the other grand slams.
They're rivals though

By the way, Verdasco finished off Ferrer and Djokovic will have his hands full. He's playing with a clear head Verdasco and if he cointinues like that he's dangerous vs a tired Novak.

Originally Posted by the unforgiven

omg! that means that the Italians can control the weather? awesome

sometimes, the crowd is not really great but nothing can be perfect
the most important is the game (in my opinion)

Yeah they can...better weather in Rome, always raining in Paris...simple
The game is very good but so was in Rome. There were lots of matches like the Djokovic v Patience...Davydenko v Nadal was wonderful and so was Nadal v Federer.
It seems like a RG to me, only in a lesser scale...with great crowd, floodlights for late matches and a roof for the main court -Offtop:
lying about the roof part

[the unforgiven]

Originally Posted by spyretto

This is not what I hear from the Brits...they say the organisation sucks

*sighs* the Brits don't like the froggies lol

maybe, you're right
let the italians organize a grand slam and then we can compare

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

This is not what I hear from the Brits...they say the organisation sucks

Brits somplain about anything, which is French. So do French when it comes to Brits. Rome has its own tour, I don't see the point why RG should be moved. If the tournament raises that much money and attracts thousands of spectators, why to screw it? The rain is not an issue. We had a brilliant week of qualification, then we had one week of rainy, windy weather and now we are entering the third week. I doubt that Rome has 3 weeks in a row without rain. I don't accept your complains, spy. Btw, what was the Brits were complaining about?

[spyretto]

I'm asking them now, and we see what they say.

By the way, looking at tomorrow's matches:

Robredo v Volandri
Volandri is a wonderful player but the fav is Robredo. Volandri can edge him though, possibly another close match.

Safina v Serena
Will be cheering for Safina with all my heart...might not happen though

Federer v Youzhny
Youzhny plays small when he meets Federer. Fingers crossed he gives him a run for his money this time.

Peer - Kuznetsova
zzzzzzzz

Henin - Bammer
Bammer is excellent with a good serve. Henin might struggle

Ivanovic - Garringuez
Interesting match, if Garringuez can hold. Either Ivanovic in 2 or Garringuez in 3 if she holds

Canas - Monaco
Monaco is ok, not good enough for Canas...straight sets

Jankovic - Bartoli
Another French to exit the tournament. Are there any more left?

Safarova - Chakvetadze
Based on today's performance Lucie's game is too big for Anna to muster

Davydenko - Nalbandian
Nalby will have to find last season's form to trouble Davy. If not it's one way traffic

Schnyder - Sharapova
Sharapova could exit if Scnhyder holds. But Patty had a tough match vs a qualifier today and Sharapova had an easy match. Sharapova will probably survive.

[Arnaudfrenchy]

Goodbye Patience, defeated by Djokovic.

Finale will be Nadal/Federer, i think.

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Safina v Serena
Will be cheering for Safina with all my heart...might not happen though

Oh my, and I'm going to miss it! Damn! Those two are highly loaded when it comes to expressions and running around trying to reach hopeless balls. Looking forward to check some of it on TV.

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by forre

Oh my, and I'm going to miss it! Damn! Those two are highly loaded when it comes to expressions and running around trying to reach hopeless balls. Looking forward to check some of it on TV.

Yeah, so many great matches for tomorrow. The tournament is starting now.
I want good close matches and lots of drama.
Today's Garringues - Hantuchova and Djokovic - Patience were great appetisers

Cant wait

forre Safina is at 10:00. You're sure you're gonna miss it ( 11.00 French time )

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

forre Safina is at 10:00. You're sure you're gonna miss it ( 11.00 French time )

Yep, sure. Bleh....

[spyretto]

" Roland Garros is the Grand Slam.
Everybody turns up, you get long rallys,it's played in a fantastic city and the red clay is asthetically pleasing.

What more could you want."

Now, here's the other view

And this is why they say it's bad organization:

1. It gets chaotic and very miserable when it rains
2. They stop play even wth a slight drizzle
3. They reschedule matches for the next day before the ones which were suspended the previous day. For example, a match stopped in the 4th set won't resume first thing the next morning.

Not that it's much different with Wimbledon but hey

[forre]

Originally Posted by spyretto

1. It gets chaotic and very miserable when it rains
2. They stop play even wth a slight drizzle

1. I was at Chatrier when it began to rain and no one was feeling chaotic. People opened umbrellas and that's all. When they had to put a rain delay, we all went outside for coffee, hotdogs, french fries. I was up at the arena shooting some rainy Chatrier and there we talked to people who just were sitting left under big umbrella's. Then we made a few waves "Hi" to the commentators as the cabins were just a couple of feet away and they waved back to us.

2. What a bull! They stop if it rains enough much and blows too as it's CLAY! We were sitting yesterday under that dizzle watching Williams to win. And it was like raining for 40 minutes. No one stopped the match.

Actually, I think people get big eyes and then it's up to you how to use your "rain" time. We had big discussion about tennis, we had coffe and beer, french fries, hot dogs, ice cream, etc. Ha! Only a fool is bored at Roland Garros.

And what do they do during the rain at Wimbledon?

[taty994945]

Originally Posted by forre

we had coffe and beer, french fries, hot dogs, ice cream, etc

Now I feel like eating those foods, lol.

I haven't seen a Roland Garros match since 2003 because the tv idiots decided to remove it from free to air. Apparently it's the least popular grand slam to watch.

Nalbandian - Davydenko and Hewitt-Nadal matches sound promising. I hope Federer meets Canas in the semis, should be interesting.