French Open '12: Point by Point Coverage

[breezybee]

Gasquet. Total giraffe neck. His lack of chin definition has annoyed the crap out me for years.

For me it's the really short legs. If there is nothing around him as a frame of reference for his height he looks to me like he should be on "Little People, Big World".

[lt]

Awwwww, I'm rooting for Gasquet because I'm already rooting against a Frenchman in Mathieu. And John is trying angry face--it's not looking very convincing.

I listened to Radio Roland Garros at the gym and they had a trivia question. I don't think it was the official question of the day and I didn't hear the answer so I'm really just throwing this out into the ether: in the Open era, who is the tallest French Open Champion?

eta: something else they were talking about on the radio that I didn't realize: Prince has declared bankruptcy and is seeking protection from their debt. They said that management for the players on the tour who are sponsored by Prince are busy trying to get new deals. (John is with Prince.)

[mooncreek]

Frame of reference doesn't help the matter with him. Ever see a photo of Gasquet and Simon next to each other? They're basically the same height but, wow, is the distribution different.

As I write this, Dimitrov was serving for a 2 sets to none lead on Gasquet but apparently cramped up or threw up or something and has lost the last five games.

[breezybee]

Awwwww, I'm rooting for Gasquet because I'm already rooting against a Frenchman in Mathieu.

Oh I don't dislike Gasquet. I often root for him. I just sort of find him physically repulsive.

Wow. Isner and Mathieu have been out there a long time. I hope this doesn't turn in to another marathon match for John.

[lt]

Well, John just had two break opportunities to then serve for the match at 8-7 and he blew both of them so we'll see. . . and his backhand is looking lousier and lousier as the match is going on.

[mooncreek]

You know who's absolutely hating this match? Sharapova. Court 1 is the only decent-sized court that's finished (Rus just beat Razzano) so looks like she won't play until tomorrow.

[lt]

When it went into the 5th the radio guys made the joke that they could picture Maria in the locker room tapping her foot in annoyance.

John is starting to look a bit loopy out there.

[mooncreek]

John's having flashbacks. Either that or the match on Lenglen is contagious.

[lt]

The thing with John is that as he gets more and more tired he can only protect his one serve and isn't digging into PHM's serve at all so these marathons start looking ugly. I've watched from the beginning and it is the story of two Johns. People turning on now would wonder about this lumbering guy where he wasn't playing like that in first few sets. (Heh, they just showed the time of each set--sets one through four are around 50-57 minutes and set five is currently 118.)

Maria on tomorrow.

eta: oh no, PHM is starting to cramp.

Awww, I was rooting for John (obviously) but I really like PHM and seeing how overcome he was at the win I'm really, happy for him. Then I saw how gutted John was and I'm now very conflicted. But I'm happy the crowd got to see the conclusion of the match because it would have been so bad for them to have watched for all those hours and then miss the end considering it is their compatriot.

apocalipstick, if you have access to seeing Court 6 right now, Haas is wearing the blue shirt with the greenish-blue diamonds on it now.

[mooncreek]

There are seven Frenchmen left out of the seventeen that started: two wild cards (Mathieu, Devilder), one I'm still stunned played the event (Benneteau), one I'm stunned won two matches (Mahut), and the main 3 (Tsonga, Simon, Gasquet).

PHM does have one benefit for his 3rd round: his next opponent will have to play tomorrow. Granollers/Jaziri were at 2 sets all when play was suspended.

[apocalipstick]

I decided to sit on my porch and read with the iPad connected to directv via time Warner roadrunner. Yeah...I got all set up, turned off the sound and forgot to check. (I'm reading 1494.)

I did see the Haas print and deemed it spiffy.

Poor Dimitrov. Gasquet does have an uggo shape.

So happy for PHM. Isner does play crappier once the match gets long.

[falafaclese]

May 31, 2012 18:32:24 GMT lt said:

When it went into the 5th the radio guys made the joke that they could picture Maria in the locker room tapping her foot in annoyance.

I can totally see this. She seems like the type who always just wants to get on with it. Whatever "it" happens to be at any given moment.

[harry24]

Okay, less than a week into the FO and we already have our winner. This is what Nicolas Mahut said in his press conference yesterday:

—Honest-to-a-fault Nicolas Mahut, who plays Roger Federer in round three, was asked, tongue firmly planted in the cheek of his interlocutor, "Could you tell us something about your next opponent?" He answered:

"The advantage I have is that I don't need to introduce him to you, because you all know him. It's Roger (Federer). But I have a problem because my wife (Minette) is a fan of Roger. My whole family is. So I will need to make sure they will be in the right stand watching the match. They will be on my side. But I believe it's a beautiful present I get for my first third round in the French Open.

"I have one day to prepare that match. But of course I have very few chances of winning it. I don't have a lot of room for victory, but I'm going to try to use my weapons. I need to play the best match of my life, and he just needs to play an average match. But as long as the match has not been played, there is a possibility of winning it I will try to play my game, and we'll see what happens."

Game, set and match Mahut.

And the honorable mention goes to my new second-favorite woman player*, Sloane Stephens:

Finally, a reporter wanted to know a little more about Sloane Stephens "in'ner dialogue," and what she was saying to herself while she was hammering Mattek-Sands. Was she telling herself, "This is pretty good?"
Well, yes, but as she said: "There's always more. Because my mom is spoiled rotten, (I was thinking) she's going to want to fly home first-class or something. So I got to keep winning."

*No.1 spot still belongs to Li Na.

[GrandSlamGuru]

Murray getting criticism for being a "drama queen." bit.ly/KgFdDq

[lt]

I watched the beginning of that match and Murray wasn't faking. Also, it makes perfect sense that his back got better as it warmed up--anyone with back issues knows that while you can barely walk, if you can just make it to the gym and get in some cardio you're going to feel better and it's going to loosen up. And I agree with him that since Wade is someone he's known from when he was a little kid it would have been nice to ask him what was going on before talking about it as if she did know.

When Nick Lester says "bullring" in reference to Court One it sounds like he's saying "boring" so every time he talks about this great Berdych/Anderson match on the "boring court" it makes me laugh. And. . . Go Kevin!

eta: darn. Kevin lost. I read that his wife has joined him in Paris so I hope they have a little fun before heading to the grass.

Surprised Aga went so meekly. I only heard the match on the radio--was Sveta just playing that great?

Damn. TTC takes over the morning tennis this weekend which means I'm stuck with lousy NBC who won't even go on the air until noon. Blah.