French Open '10: Point by point coverage

[francienolan]

Monfils has been quick to jump on the coaching carousel for most of his career and this time around I would find it easy to believe that Rasheed will run for the hills shortly.

I really like Safarova, so I was bummed that she got bounced. Just found that news out as it dod not make the headline news scroll

[mooncreek]

I would wonder about Rasheed sticking with Monfils after that match. That match should have ended in either three or four sets - but the way he started today was rubbish and would make a coach believe that all of his words were for naught.

[falafaclese]

Very nervous about Venus tomorrow. Cibulkova can cause problems. Martina and her co-commentator mentioned that it looked like Vee was playing with a little more topspin on her forehand side, and I did notice it on some shots. I hope that is the reason for her improved consistency, and I hope she continues her improved play.

[harry24]

I've only seen a few minutes of Venus, but her forehand looks a lot smoother and less mechanical to me. It flows and looks more natural.

After having watched the Fed-Falla match on both TTC and ESPN2, it was clear why Cliffie-Cahill are so far superior to Ted R-JMac:

1) Cliffie is more knowledgable than TR, has a much more pleasing speaking voice, and doesn't talk nearly as much. TR reminds me a bit of Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay, in that he treats the broadcast as more of a talk show than a sporting event. They end up talking endlessly, often on tennis-related tangents, but often losing sight of the actual match at hand.

2) Cahill is immeasurably better than JMac. JMac strikes me as being extremely lazy in keeping up to date with the players. He spoke at absurd length about the challenges of learning the game at altitude the way the Colombian players have to. Not a bad point, but not one that he needed to expound on for 15 minutes. And it was a general point. He didn't really know anything about Falla in particular. Cahill, otoh, had seen Falla play several times and had even watched him practice quite a bit. He was able to talk about how much better he moves on clay than on other surfaces, which has kept his results more limited elsewhere, despite his impressive game. DC also was far more observant about the match at hand, pointing out how well Falla was reading Fed's first serve and that the way he hugged the baseline made it hard for Fed to utilize the drop shot.

3) When Cliffie-Cahill go off on a tangent, they keep it pointed, short and, usually, amusing, i.e. when they were speculating about how Roger would do on Dancing with the Stars. JMac acts as if any thought that crosses his mind will naturally be of interest to the audience.

[francienolan]

My insomnia is dovetailing nicely with today's action, I haven't seen 5am in quite awhile but today almost makes it worthwhile.

I like Cibulkova quite a lot and under normal circumstances root for her. But I'd like to see Vee go far (would be happier to see her do so in contrasting tennis shorts but that is another story!) Her short stature comes with a lot of cons but that low center of gravity can change things up quite a but and Vee's forehand is quite capable of going for the rails spontaneously. But I'm going to think positive.

And yes Robinson's baseball's roots are on full display, harry24.

[apocalipstick]

harry24, could you copy that email to TTC and ESPN?

Again, I have a full day of crap to do, but I'm pretty thrilled to wake up and find that my sweet, sweet Rafa cruised through.

[oopssorry]

The seeds are certainly in efficiency mode after the days of delays. Still haven't seen much tennis, but grateful to get the reports here.

[lt]

harry24, could you copy that email to TTC and ESPN?

Seconded. I agree with every word you said. JMac can also get quite pissy when the players don't do what he's already told us they would do. However, I'm okay with him when he sits with Bill Macatee (who's gotten ridiculously better now that he sits in a chair and just interviews people) and shoots the shit about the tournament. Then he can say anything he wants and there isn't a player in front of him proving him wrong.

Although now that Francie has reminded me about the horror show that is NBC I'm sure I'll be loving all over both ESPN2 and TTC by Monday morning when ESPN2 takes over the afternoon slot again.

eta: I'm watching Verdasco/Serra (I know, surprise, surprise) and while the crowd is definitely rooting for the frenchmen they are cheering for Fer's winners. Fer makes quite the face when he drinks that pink stuff and he always follows it up with a slug of water. I'm just guessing how bad it must taste.

Mercedes Benz did not keep their sponsorship of Fed very quiet considering I saw the commercial a couple of weeks ago.

[skyz]

Venus played so solid today and I'm glad to see her move on, finally. She's looking mighty confident and I love it.

I'm rooting for Marco over AndyM and hope it's a good match.

[lt]

What the hell? When I said I wanted a bagel I didn't mean against Fer. Hope this bathroom break helps--he's got to hit a couple of walls again.

Some of Serra's shots seem pretty long and it seems to be disheartening Fer that they aren't being called.

[mooncreek]

The French cannot be thrilled with the fact that there's only one French guy surviving to the third round - and that's only because Tsonga faced a Frenchman second round to guarantee it.

In contrast, there are three Americans through, with Fish even with Ljubicic in the fifth.

[GrandSlamGuru]

Well, I overslept this morning so I only saw Venus play before dashing to work. Looks like I missed some good matches.

I'm for Marco over Andy Murray but that doesn't look like it will happen. Damn.

[falafaclese]

I didn't get to see any of Venus' match other than the first couple points. I'm glad to see she made it through, and apparently in convincing fashion. I'm kind of glad I was spared the stress of watching the match as it happened. I'll have to check it out later. And then promptly start worrying about her next match.

[lt]

Ljubicic is just a crazy old man now, isn't he? That dance is bizarre.

On to one of the other American men--I don't think Isner has what it'll take to take down Berydch if Tomas is playing well. And yes, it is easy for me to jump to that conclusion seeing that John is down a set and a break and is looking a bit unhappy.

[tisha]

If Marco isn't willing to get in shape, I'm just not going to care about whether he wins or loses. The guy has moobs, ferchristsake. Say what you will about Murray, but at least he's willing to put in the work, even if he does take sets off *cough*thirdset*cough*

I'm going to be pissed of Tsonga loses to this Dutch guy. I've never seen him play before and I never want to see him again. That many drop shots? Really? I love good touch as much as anyone, but it's annoying to see it every other point.