French Open '10: Point by point coverage

[lt]

I was hoping Soderling could pull out that first set--not necessarily because I want him to win, but because Rafa steps on his opponent's neck and doesn't let up once he's ahead. Hopefully Robin can stay in this and keep making it a match because so far it's been very tight.

eta: another sick person? What the hell?

[tikigirl]

Why the hell don't you have tennis, boring?

I woke up a little while ago to pretty much what I expected -- Sod down a set. But I'm hoping he can make it competitive. Especially because I managed to get up this early after a Margarita Night (TM) with TikiBoy, his dad, and his dad's girlfriend. In fact, I might still be drunk.

[boringmember]

I found it on another random channel. But I sent a strongly worded email to our local affiliate, because that's how I roll. Who wants to turn on NBC expecting the French Open and see Dr Phil??? And now Sod got broken at love. Argh

[lt]

tiki, go back to bed--Soderling was playing much better before you woke up. . .

boring, that's incredible! I cannot even fathom how they thought it would be okay to pre-empt nationally-televised live sports.

[falafaclese]

I think Sod might be done. He's failed to capitalize on too many chances so far, and I think he's running out of steam.

[tikigirl]

Bah. I wish there was still some tequila left.

Come on, Sod!

(p.s. I forgot to say this yesterday, lt, but yeah, rugby is so hot. I used to get an international sports channel, forget which one, that showed a lot of All Blacks matches. Ridiculously hot.)

[tikigirl]

Hey valle, I think we need my paper bag wine right about now...

[acre]

Pfft, for a not so competitive match. But I pretty much always expected Rafa to win this French from before the tournament, no matter who he played, and also figure 3 sets today, maybe-maybe 4 if Sod pulled it together big time.

And I'm sorry but I'm just experiencing waves of Roger-love regardless, he just signed a permanent agreemement with the Halle tourny and says he feels a little like he's getting married, Chris Evert was quoted as saying something like her fave player is Roger, he's such a gentleman, you'd want him for a son or a brother or a boyfriend .. and thats how I feel with the not so minor exception that I actually have no desire to know him personally at all, don't want his autograph, don't want to meet him, don't want to know great detail about his life - I just want him to be in tennis.

And I'll add, going back to earlier discussions about player personalities ... I'm quite sure they're pretty much all arrogant and egocentric to a degree and ridiculously over-competitive in every single thing in life, and all get snotty about other players and losing and on and on ... but still think most manage to be pretty decent people anyway, giiven the parameters of their lives and circumstances. Unimaginable to me.

Sorry to be so wildly off-topic mid final, but eh, I've had it on and off, taking a break.

[apocalipstick]

Hey all. I had to go into the office this morning. Just got home. I score board watched on and off. I think it might have been better for me that way. Watching Sod annoys me. I'm still just scoreboard watching.

I think we all makeup or create personalities (or maybe just extrapolate from what we see) for players. Where I could see myself giggling and flirting with Rafa, I can't imagine Roger having one interesting thing to say. (I am also revolted by Roger's nose. I try not to mention it, but just looking at his face from certain angles nauseates me. Sorry, Roger lovers.) The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I don't really know these people. I've never met them, except for literally running into Nenad Zimonjic at a tournament. I'm guessing and speculating on personalities. It's fun. It's part of the joy of sports. It's also why I find Nalbandian hysterically funny and other people think he's an ass. I also adored Marcelo Rios.

However, Querry is actually a lanky drip. I've never met him, but he just lanks and drips around the court and around press conferences. Lank lank drip lank drip drip.

[chestylarue]

ooopsorry interesting to hear your point of view regarding expressiveness on court. I liked Borg, Wilander and Edberg as a child but I also liked more expressive players like Becker. I do tend to like expressive players as long as they are not jeering (which Hewitt used to be- but now I like his enthusiasm). One of my favorite players ever was Guga and I loved his expressiveness. As someone who is myself very expressive when I play tennis (it is normally angst at my crap play). I currently like a number of more stoic players (Roger when he was younger- he imo has become less stoic in the past couple of year), Venus and Delpo but can also really enjoy those to where you can see what they think and are not a cipher (Ferrer, Nadal, Dementiava, the Italian duo of Flavia and Franny). To each their own.

I have turned off Sam btw since he called Miami "guido town," complained about how he can't find scrambled eggs in France and essentially said that he couldn't bother in his first match.

But on the otherhand- David Nalby makes me laugh when I should be annoyed. He just does not suffer fools in pressers but has so many goofy commericals that I have seen- that I find him hilarious.

Rafa is more expressive today- more like how he was circa 2006 or so....I think he just really wants it today. Conversely, I think it could help Robin to let out a yell like it sometimes does Roger.

[tikigirl]

Blech. Over and out, as I crawl into the dregs of that tequila bottle.

[apocalipstick]

I'm thrilled. Just thrilled. Now I can go back and actually watch the match. I feel kind of bad for Sod, losing twice in a row to different guys. Losing in straights both times. I do think he suffers from the pressure.

Have to love Rafa's joy though. I saw Uncle Toni hugging Mama Nadal, but Mama and Papa sitting a row and a few seats away from one another. Because I like the soap opera potential of it all, I'm going to pay attention to it.

ETA: Okay, I HATE that snivelly laugh of Soderling. HATE it. I would have liked his speech without the laugh. NBC needs to pay for a freaking translator to subtitle.

[vallegirl]

Jun 6, 2010 15:17:10 GMT tikigirl said:

Hey valle, I think we need my paper bag wine right about now...

Heh. I quit watching after Robin got broken in the second set, but I went to school in the south. That brown paper bag needs a bottle of Wild Turkey in it to start your Sunday right.

But congrats, Rafa. You're back where you belong as the king of clay. It was an earned victory, if a mighty boring one.

And I can't believe that I no longer can watch the French. It has bored me to tears for the last few years, and not just because of Rafa's dominance, and it used to be my favorite slam after the USO. Everything seemed so lively and charming when Guga was grunting somewhere and you never knew who was going to win.

I do miss USA's coverage of both the French and US Open. I might not have been able to tolerate Michael Barkan but there seemed to be more of an effort to make the coverage as much about the city and the environment as about the play. Learning about Shahar Peer's grandmother was fascinating...but those kind of stories have become few and far between and mostly relegated to the "after hours" coverage, and I don't care about it.

Anyway, time to move on to Wimbledon.

[lizm]

Would've liked it to be a bit more competitive, but liked the result. I really felt Soderling's problems were largely mental - not that he would necessarily won, but he could've made it a lot more exciting had he not gotten so down after the first set.

[lt]

I miss USA's coverage as well--and TNT's Wimbledon coverage. But what I don't miss is HBO's Wimbledon coverage. That was awful.

I wish Soderling could have pulled out a set but, alas, Rafa is the most front-running of front runners. His win/loss for all surfaces when he's won the first set is insane. I liked John's "those losses must have been when he was 13."

Watching Rafa cry into his towel reminded me of something he said recently--he cries a lot, he cries when he wins, but he doesn't cry when he loses. This one meant more to him than I would have imagined it would, but it makes sense that he can view this as the start of a much better year than last year. Interesting that he cited the divorce before the injury when he was talking to John about last year. Happy to see Toni give Rafa's mom a big hug first. I really like Uncle Toni. I've always liked his clapping for Rafa's opponents when they hit great shots.

Is it wrong that I want to be a queen/president just so I can get the good seat?

Did anyone notice NBC putting the full color peacock logo up on the screen for Rafa serving for the match? You could just picture a producer out there saying "okay, this is the shot that'll be on ESPN later, get rid of the transparent logo, put up a big colorful one."

Now that I have TTC I've really seen how long the clay court season is. As someone who loves the clay I will see that I'm ready for it to be over. I think if cooler heads prevailed (and gave up some of the "tradition" that bogs down the scheduling) tennis should double up on some of the smaller clay court tournaments, move the French up one week, move Wimbledon back one week and add two more grass court tournaments.