Nadal is 15-0 during the clay court season, big shocker I know. There’s some talk that [del]Tarantino[/del] Federer might actually be able to beat Nadal at Roland Garros but I’m not buying it. Something about their recent match being closer than normal or something, but they seem to conveniently forget that certain tournaments (read, grand slams) come with a whole new mindset and drive to succeed.
Also, a number of top tier males are out of the tournamet: Del Potro and Davydenko are the first that immediately come to mind though I know there are a few more.
And surely there is some kind of news or something worth talking about with regards to the women, but I surely don’t know it.
This is first time I have paid attention to tennis since Aussie Open. Looking at the Women’s draw, I see Serena and Venus as the top two seeds, but Caroline Wozniacki as #3?
Melanie Oudin is the next best ranked american at #37 and only two other American girls are in the top 100, and I have never heard of either, Vania King and Jill Craybas.
The Men’s rankings haven’t changed as much as the Ladies, The top 6 are what I remember from last time I checked. 5 Del Potro and #6 Davydenko are out of the tournament.
I am really sticking my neck out on a limb here, but I would guess it will be Venus vs Serena in the womens and Nadal vs Federer in the Mens.
Checking the Ladbrokes bookie website, Nadal (4/11) and Federer (5/2) are prohibitive favorites. Next best is Djokovic at 16/1. And #22 seed Justine Henin is the favorite on the Womens side at 9/4 and Serena is 4/1.
Federer beat Nadal on clay before the French last year, for whatever that was worth. Nadal seems to be playing like his normal self on clay, which is bad news for everybody else. Maybe there are some lingering doubts based on the way he lost so unexpectedly last year and the health problems he had after that. But he has to be the favorite here.
Del Potro is having wrist surgery and is not expected to come back until November. It sucks that he is missing essentially the whole season right after his big breakthrough.
Nobody knows what to talk about because the field is so unpredictable! I guess Serena is going to show up for this one. The word is that Henin has a tough draw and that looks to be true, but this was her tournament for years.
That draw looks very comfortable for Federer. I don’t know who would challenge him in the first few rounds. He might get Monfils in the fourth round, but Monfils doesn’t have much on offense and historically I don’t think he’s played well in front of a home crowd. He could get Soderling or Cilic in the quarters, though. And it’s pretty much the same for Nadal. Ljubicic is in his quadrant and so is Hewitt, but it’s clay. He could get Gonzalez or Verdasco in the quarters, but we the last time he played Verdasco on clay, it was murder. The big questions for the men are the psyches of Djokovic and Murray. Djokovic could get Sam Querrey in the fourth. Murray’s going to get Gasquet in the first round and he might get Baghdatis and Isner or Berdych later on. That doesn’t look good for him.
Is that actually any different than some of the stuff she’s worn recently? I remember there being some kind of kerfuffle during the Australian Open over something similar.
I think she wore flesh-colored underwear during the Australian, and some people jumped to the conclusion that she’d gone without.
No too many real surprises so far. I saw Gulbis lost already. He beat Federer recently but I didn’t expect him to do anything here. It’d be good to see him put it together at some ponit but clay isn’t his surface. Azarenka lost on the women’s side yesterday, and Melanie Oudin lost this morning. And it’s nice to see that Taylor Dent won his first match.
I’m just watching the scores online, but Gasquet is up a set against Murray. They’re on serve in the middle of the second set. And Taylor Dent had never won a match at the French Open before today - although with all his injuries, this is only his third try. He lost in the first round in 2003 and 2004.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Andy Roddick is in trouble. He’s down two sets to one against Jarkko Nieminen, and they’re on serve late in the fourth. Dinara Safina lost a set to Kimiko “yes, I came back, too” Date Krumm, but Safina is up a break in the third set.
Roddick came back to win, and Safina gave up her lead and lost 7-5 in the third set. I think she got broken at love in the last game.
A little about Kimiko Date-Krumm, for those who don’t rememeber: this is her first win at a major since Wimbledon 1996. I don’t know if anybody has ever gone 14 years between wins at slam tournaments - I’m sure someone will look that up. She’s 38 and started a comeback two years ago. She wasn’t a real threat to the Grafs or Seleses or Hingises of the world, but she was a successful player in the early '90s who won a few tournaments and even got to #4 in the world. She’s a three-time grand slam semifinalist, including at the French Open in 1995. She retired when she was 26. She won a minor tournament in Seoul last year, which was her first tournament win in 13 years.
Can’t bet against Nadal on clay, esp since he’s hungry for another Grand Slam win.
Can’t bet against Henin either. She’s got her game back and her drop shots are so effective on clay. After seeing Fernandez Sanchez beat Jankovic in the Madrid (?) final, I’m going to predict she goes far. Her drop shots were impeccable.
Does it look to anyone else like Federer has dropped 10 or 15 pounds? I saw him play yesterday and I didn’t recognize him from the back.
