I was talking about the men’s semifinals on Friday. They scheduled Novak and Rafa to play the first match (1pm local time; 7am Eastern time), so that Tsonga could have the prime time slot. It’s their prerogative, of course, but what match do you think is going to draw better ratings? At 1pm, viewers in Europe will be at work and US/SA viewers will have to get up before dawn.
I know I can tape it, but I’m almost always spoiled before I have a chance to go home and watch it.
Ah, I see. It’s a tough call. I’m not surprised the French organizers want to put the French player in the primetime spot there.
Yahoo and so forth make it impossible to avoid spoilers. When I’m at work, I can’t access ESPN3 in the background, so…I bootleg the feed from websites. Sue me. I have ESPN at home and can do ESPN3, but my ISP at work must not include ESPN3 or something.
Yeah, it actually makes a ton of sense for Tsonga to go primetime.
Are we going to start truly acknowledging what Serena is doing?? Thirty match winning streak… 22-0 on clay… Going for her sixteenth Slam in her early thirties?? Steffi was done by 28… Serena is kicking ass into her thirties and is the overwhelming favorite for Wimbledon and the Open…
I guess if you just pretend not to see that … maybe it’s not happening…
Nice talking to you, too.
Just so you don’t think I’m xenophobic, I have similar complaints here in the US. At my hometown ATP 1000 event, they always give the Americans the prime time slots. Which sucks because our pickings are so slim. So if you actually have to work, you are relegated to watching Blake and Querrey instead of Federer and Djokovic. Or Tsonga!
(At least this year we have Mattek-Sands and Stephens to look forward to.)
Personally, I think they should give the prime time slots to the highest ranking players regardless of what country they’re from. I mean, how many of us have favorite players who do not hail from our country?
Do you mean that she dopes or is taking male hormones? And Roger Federer just got his 17th slam last year and he’s in his thirties.
Mind you, I have no idea if Serena uses performance enhancing drugs.
Wha?? I think he’s saying she’s playing some of the best tennis of her career, which she is. And the timeline for men and women is a bit different; Serena is the oldest women’s #1 ever and is likely to keep extending that record for some time. She’s also far from the record for major titles, but she has won two majors in her thirties and looks like she’s going to win another one. Federer has won one so far.
For the record, I didn’t write this. My boyfriend (Chicago Jeff) posted without noticing that I was logged in.
And, yes, he was commenting on how well Serena is playing, not making any allegations, other than perhaps she was being overlooked in this thread.
One set each, with Nadal up a break in the third set. Good match.
Third set was a Djoko throw away.
A little off the current topic, but I was surfing some wiki bios of some past tennis greats.
Wiki says Margaret Court turned Pro in 1960 and it also says that she won won Wimbledon in 1963 and 1965, which was before Wimbledon allowed professionals to play in 1968
Similar stories for the French, Australian and US Opens, she won several of these Grand Slams after turning pro in 1960 and before the these tournaments became Open to professionals.
I had to listen to it (yeah for RolandGarros.com’s radio commentation) but I was still riveted to my seat. I thought for sure that Nadal was toast after going down a break in the 5th. What a rollercoaster ride.
Looks like Tsonga is not on his game yet. Shame.
That would have been a great final. Djokovic bonked a couple of overheads and caught a bad break when he touched the net during the eighth game of the last set, but it was an extremely satisfying match. Tsonga was awful in the first set against Ferrer but now he seems to have found his footing. They may be going to a tiebreak.
Ferrer vs. Nadal for the final.
Nadal should have a much easier time than with Djokovic.
During the Nadal/Djoko match, I was riveted. I wasn’t surprised when Rafa could not finish it out in the 4th, he gets nervous.
Off topic haven’t seen the Umpire Mohamed Laylani, one of my favorites.
We could be looking at two really ugly finals here. It’s possible to imagine Sharapova putting up a good fight against Serena even though she hasn’t beaten her in forever, but it’s hard to imagine Ferrer pushing Nadal. I’d put the over-under at something like eight games for Ferrer.
I apologize for misunderstanding it. I must have really read that wrong. My bad!
Sharapova serves first, goes down Love-40. Now she is UP 2-0 in the first set.
Huh.
Sharapova is making a point of serving bigger so Serena can’t wail away at her second serve. But Serena got the first set 6-4.