Upthread, I made some negative comments about her looks, but she was truly radiant when she was smiling and hugging the trophy. Congrats, she played well and she was a worthy French Open Champion.
It’s a contrast thing. I didn’t think she was particularly heinous in the Dementiava match, even though Dementiava is reasonably attractive. Compared to Wozniacki, though, oh my. Wozniacki isn’t even really sexy; she just looks like the pinnacle of wholesome girl next door sweetness. (Though she isn’t by a long shot; she just looks that way.) Compared to that, Schiavone was hideous.
Schiavone was awesome. Sam Stosur said that she was happy with how she had played but Francesca was just too good.
I just noticed watching the highlights that Schiavone’s supporters were wearing t-shirts saying “Anything is Possible”. Since she is Italian and the match was in France, why an English slogan?
English is as close to a universal language that we’ve got.
Ah, English as she is spoke.
Is anyone watching the men’s final? I occasional walk by the tv and check the scores but for the life of me, I think Rafa is the most boring player to watch.
I respect his accomplishments and there is no doubt he has talent, but I find him uninspiring. If you have seen one of his matches, you have seen them all.
Too bad Soderling can’t seem to keep his momentum going for the big stage.
I was expecting Nadal to win in four sets. Possibly even having to take five. Shows what I know huh? 
Nadal is like a machine on clay.
Nadal uninspiring? Seriously? I think he’s incredibly fun to watch because he gets to everything. I enjoy watching him do his boxing moves as he faces his opponent, I enjoy when he runs from his seat to the baseline following breaks. The only thing I don’t enjoy is his constant picking at his ass. OCD is a bitch.
BTW I really wish that the Soderling who played Federer would have shown up today.
Any word on the dude who collapsed in the stands? I thought it was cute that Rafa listened to the people in the stands telling him to stop play.
Yay! 2 out of 4 picks for me! Admittedly the Williams sisters were dead certs though.
OCD would explain some of Rafa’s rituals - I had heard it was because he was very superstitious.
I heard Soderling interviewed & he said that Rafa just had one game - but he does it so well!
I’m looking forward to the replay. I tried to stay awake - but after a 9 hour day working on concrete the 1am start was too much for me. I watched the replay of the women’s final - what a game - both women were so exciting to watch!
Did you hear it from this guy?
I’ve read it in a number of places.
& my daughter is a huge fan of his.
I agree, he does get to everything. I do respect his talent, I really do, I just find him incredibly boring to watch play. Run, hit a huge buggy whip forehand, run some more, hit a huge buggy whip forehand, run, etc., etc., etc. Admittedly he does it better than anyone else. I also don’t care for the OCD, and the sneering and the fist pumping (although all the players seem to do that these days) and all the other tics he seems to have to deal with.
I guess I am just too old school (comes with being old). I appreciate the all court players. I like the players who use well constructed points, use all the shots, you know like volleys, drops and lobs, who can throw in a variety of slices and can hit solid shots off both wings.
…like Federer.
The most annoying thing Nadal does is the grunting, which is becoming far too common on the men’s tour. Another point for Federer, the silent one.
And if you think Rafa doesn’t have all those shots in his arsenal, then you either haven’t been paying attention or don’t watch him play much. Because he does – tactically speaking he is also one of the smartest players on Tour, as masterfully proven by the way he denied Soderling the timing for his booming swings by both moving him side to side and taking some of that power way by keeping him (for the most part) about a meter outside the baseline with deep strokes of his own – with plenty of slices and spins thrown in.
As someone who’s followed his career from the day he made headlines by beating former GS winner Pat Cash in an exo in Mallorca at the ripe old age of 14*, I am sometimes amazed at how little credit this (still) kid gets outside of Spain and England. Fact is, without Rafa, tennis would have had its dullest decade…ever, as he was the only player who stood up to Federer’s dominance. And did with a style that make the world take notice: Barely 19, He’s Got Game, Looks and Remarkably Good Manners
*[One of the first prominent players to suffer for it was the former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, who visited Majorca for an exhibition match with Boris Becker in May 2001.
Becker withdrew with an injury, and Cash agreed to play the 14-year-old Nadal, who beat the 36-year-old Cash. The next year, Nadal turned professional and won his first match on the Tour.](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/sports/tennis/06nadal.html?_r=1)
Anyway…
Vamos Rafa! You beast!
RAFAEL NADAL
**Singles Titles: 40
7 GRAND SLAMS
Masters 1000 titles leader with 18 crowns
Only player ever to win 3 Masters 1000 clay titles and French Open in the same year.
World Number One…and just three days past his 24th birthday, surely there’s much more to come**
PS-Talk about “old school” I started watching tennis with Manolo Santana, who made the sport popular in Spain – so yeah, I’m rather old myself…but give me the energy, guts, movement and determination Nadal has over of the old timers/insipid 'droids any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Old school? Sure. Johnny Mac style.
Exactly this - he’s wonderful to watch. I remember in the first set of the final, Soderling had about three or four break points to level the scores and Nadal pulled out some absolutely gobsmacking defence. Then again at the start of the second set, Soderling had break points and again Nadal was out of this world. On one rally he was totally out of the point, ran almost into the crowd to retrieve the ball, hit a perfect length crosscourt that forced Soderling to play a weak shot and then put away a volley at the net. Incredible stuff, and it must be so demoralising for his opponents.
To further belabor the “boring” angle, Andy Roddick is #1 in my book for being boring to watch. I just hate that racquets have developed to the point where someone can nail 25 aces in one match. 1-2-3-4 game. Who wants to watch that?
However, to his credit, he has been working really hard on improving his game and transforming from a one-trick pony into an all-around player. I have gone on record, possibly here, saying that Roddick will never win another Grand Slam because aside from his serve, he failed to develop the other parts of his game. In a lot of respects, his awesome serve had handicapped him. But he’s worked really, really hard to improve his all-around game. So good on him, even though he’ll never possess the court savvy that Federer, Nadal and even Soderling have. You can’t train for that. You either got it or you don’t.
What’s really nice for fans is that there’s a whole generation of kids who grew up watching Federer, so hopefully we’re on the cusp of some great years when no player will dominate everyone.
As far as women go, I do hope it doesn’t continue down the path of being a light version of the men’s game, with baseline rallies overshadowing the finesse of the sport. I really enjoyed watching Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez’s victory over Jelena Jankovic in Rome this year. It was one of the funnest matches I’ve ever watched. She could drop shot on a dime. 
Nadal is never going to be my favorite player to watch but he’s extremely tough and a remarkably impressive athlete. And on clay some of the shots he hits are crazy. Match point was a typical example, but the most impressive was a shot he hit in the third set- he was pulled way off the court on his forehand side and managed to hit a crosscourt passing shot by Soderling even though Soderling was standing at the net. He really does demoralize people. How many times did you see Soderling crush the ball, Nadal return it, and then Soderling would go for even more and miss? He needed the court to be about five feet wider, and sometimes he passed up opportunities to hit winners because he figured Nadal would track them down and win the point.
I was hoping for a better match but Nadal was too good. Nobody pushed him the entire tournament, even granting that he got a soft draw. Wimbledon should be really interesting.
I couldn’t agree more with everything you said about Andy’s game. I admire the fact that he has been willing to “go back to work” and develop more aspects of his game. Sadly, I don’t think he will win another major. Far too many guys with far too much talent at the top.
Another in that same camp is John Isner. Its nice to see him starting to develop more of his game as his opponents are learning how to deal with his serve.
Speaking of technology, what do you want to bet that Babolat is going to be inundated with orders for the new strings Nadal, Stosur and Schiavone were using? Did they have a deal with Johnny Mac to mention the strings every five minutes or did they just get lucky?