Ooooooohh… Djokovic got a lot of help from the net cord there. Then he hits an ace. Federer’s turn with one match point to go. AND HE DID IT! An ace up the middle and Fed wins. The streak is over!
Federer wins!
And…next up is Nadal in final. Uh, yay?
Yup, Federer-Nadal Sunday morning. That was a classic Federer win today, and I hope he has a lot more of that left over. This might be the last time he gets Nadal in a major final and I hope it’s a great one.
So NBC only allotted 6 hours for 2 best of 5-set matches. Ask me how I know. The tape cut out just as Federer won the second set. I was lucky to catch the 4th set tiebreaker this morning because TTC was replaying it again. But curses on the network for only allotting the minimum time for the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. I really would have loved to have seen the entire match in one sitting, with fantastic commentating.
Okay, back to tennis.
I wish Murray hadn’t tweaked his ankle because I’d love to see both guys slug it out at 100%. By the end, Murray was just not himself. But he is definitely ripe for a big win. Nadal is looking very confident, which is nice to see. Kudos to Nadal for being very gracious in his post-match interview, acknowledging the crowd for singing him Happy Birthday and for admitting that he’d be facing either the #1 player at the moment or the #1 player in history, and neither was going to be easy.
Djokovic. Oh, I felt for him! He had the perfect storm of nerves rattling him: #1 ranking, French Open finals, and undefeated record on the line. And WTF was up with the umpire calling him on time? That was just ridiculous. I agree with Johnny Mac that the umpires shouldn’t insert themselves into the game like that.
I was disappointed to see the bewildered and dejected “I have no idea how to beat this guy” Djokovic return because he’d worked so hard to pull himself out of that. Honestly, I partially blame Fognini, who was a complete dick for pulling out of the quarters instead of letting Djokovic thrash him, which would have been a great confidence builder going into the Federer match. 4 days off isn’t good in the middle of a high-stakes tournament, IMO.
It’s no disgrace to lose to Federer, but I wish I’d have seen more of that swagger and fearlessness that brought him to the cusp of being #1.
Federer. After his win, he showed more emotion than I’ve seen from him on the court in a long time. I have to admit I teared up a bit. You could see how much it meant to him to show the world that he’s not ready to be put out to pasture yet. Bravo for him.
Tomorrow’s match should be interesting. Nadal’s confidence is back, but Federer is hungry. And a hungry Federer is a force to be reckoned with. The crowd should be firmly behind Fed and that should rattle Nadal. So I’m going to have to give Fed the edge, even though Nadal has been able to get into his head.
Hoping for a great women’s match in a few.
Li Na is up a break in the first set. I’m really cheering for her.
Wow.
Looks like Li Na may be falling apart, just within reach of the championship.
Li hasn’t exactly choked away the match or anything, but in that fifth game, she was up in the court with a break point to go up 4-1 and Schiavone was out of position. If Li made that forehand in the corner, this match would almost definitely be over now. As it is she’s serving to get them to a tiebreak in the second set.
On my low def’n feed from NBC, that ball mark looked like it was touching the line.
Li Na wins the French Open. Congratulations
Yikes, we could see a bunch of really good tennis players from China in the next few years. When Se Ri Pak won the US Womens Open (Golf) back in the late 90’s, it precipitated an Asian Invasion in golf particularly Womens Golf.
And yet, for some reason, no Chinese men are making any serious breaks into top ranked tennis.
China has not impacted pro golf, yet. There are a couple of journeyman men players and one rank/file womens player but nothing really noteworthy…yet.
Taiwan has the #1 womens player in the game. Yani Tseng is very likable and has a bubbly personality, but unfortunately Yani makes Schiavone look attractive.
China made a major tennis push ahead of the 2008 Olympics. The only players who have had any significant success in singles are Li - who isn’t involved with the national tennis program, by the way - and Zheng Jie. Zheng won two majors in doubles in 2006 (with another Chinese player, Yan) and she was doing pretty well in singles through 2008. She’s fallen off the last couple of years. Li has done really well to peak at what you would expect to be the end of her career. When she doesn’t get overwhelmed mentally, she’s a very consistent player and Schiavone had trouble handling her power. I hope they both do well at Wimbledon.
Congrats to Mirnyi and Nestor, the men’s doubles champs. I’m always happy to see Max Mirnyi in the winner’s circle, and he won his fifth major men’s doubles title and first in five years. He won at the French Open in 2005 and 2006 (both with Bjorkman), and at the U.S. Open in 2000 (with Hewitt) and 2002 (with Bhupathi).
Very pumped for the men’s final tomorrow. I hope Federer can shock the world.
Predictions for tomorrow’s final?
I’m going with:
Nadal in four sets
Pak is South Korean.
It was an analogy. I never said she was Chinese.
South Korea is in Asia. there was an Asian Invasion after Pak won the USWO. Mostly Korean, but other countries as well. Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines.
You’re right! :smack: I just saw “Chinese” and the next name was Pak, so I thought you were implying she was. My bad.
I believe it was Mary Carillo who said that tennis was viewed as a feminine sport in China…
Yet Table Tennis is immensely popular amongst Chinese men.:dubious:
I heard her say that. I lived in China, where I coached tennis.
It isn’t viewed as feminine. It’s just not that popular compared to table tennis or other sports, like diving.
I have a feeling you are going to be correct. However, I am hoping that the mental boost Fed got from beating Djokovic might be just enough to get him past Nadal. I really want to see Federer beat Nadal at the French, if only to put to rest the idea that he got his grand slam by not having to beat Nadal on the clay.