Maria TKOs Serena at Roland Garros

Wow Serena really wishes she would have beaten MS again – “my game matches up so well against her”

On a side note, with no match the Dan-Catherine argument is all for naught.

This just further proves my point that women’s tennis is oh so disappointing. I was waiting for this match, had carved out time to watch it and then I come back and find out Serena’s pulled out. Instead I watch The Woz lose in SS to Kasatkina, who I actually found much more interesting to watch than The Woz who’s like a metronome, always hitting the same shot, absolutely no variety to her game.

Then I try to watch Kerber v Garcia and that match was another snore-fest with Garcia making unforced errors up the wazoo and Kerber playing her metronome game. It’s not the kind of tennis I’m going to devote a lot of interest/time into it.

Look Nadal v Marterer wasn’t exactly my cup of tea either, but the young German did show pluck and he battled. But how about Schwartzmann, he came back from facing match games in both the third and fourth sets to beat Anderson. That’s the kind of tennis I want to see from the women’s game, but so far there hasn’t been one really good women’s match in RG yet. Let’s hope for Kerber v Halep and Keys v Sloane.

Dear Dan – Serena’s injury doesn’t prove anything except that’s life and yes it’s so disappointing but that’s life too. And what if this much anticipated mega-bout has turned out to be a one-sided non-match ? Just disappointing.

Kerber and Halep can both play like metronomes so if I were you I’d avoid that one too.

Dan – Sloane has to get past Kasatkina, whom you praised above, before she meets Keys.

Sloane v Daria could be a good match.

Watching Fog/Cilic

3-3 5th set. Fog fights back to 40-30 after being down love 30. Playing fast. Some clown in the front row decides to walk out. Play stops, Fog looks at him like he wants to kill him. Fan totally oblivious. Fog loses rhythm gets broken next 3 points.

Hartt
Maybe Daria should hire a specialist serving coach, different coaches for different strokes as they have in other sports. When your serves breaks down it’s a real signal to an opponent. I think Sloane will win this match since she is generally stronger all round, as well as being a little older and big event toughened.

As for the one-handed topic, we’ve been here before many times – it would take one totally dominating top player to give a one-handed example to others and inspire coaches to try a different style with girls. Some hope. BTW – how many top men are one-handed, apart from Federer and Stan ?

BTW -I was interested to see a pic of Simona meeting Justine Henin at RG. Now Simona has always said Justine is her idol which has always puzzled me since Simona plays nothing like Justine and has a two-handed b’hand. And when would she have seen Henin play ? Simona’s much younger.

But then Angie has always cited Steffi as her idol and two more dissimilar players I can’t imagine. But perhaps all German girls say that.

There are a few big examples besides Stan and Fed of the one-hander flourishing on the men’s tour: Thiem, Shapovalov, Tsitipas are the younger players all coming up with one-handers.

Yes, it takes one player to show the others it can be successful, but the women’s game is not thriving on variety of late.

Hartt – I just thought Daria might have got the serving yips, like golfers do with a certain stroke, and they go to someone for help. But maybe her serve will right itself.

Yes, I’ve always like what I’ve heard of Daria’s interviews, she’s more articulate than most. Unfortunately as players get older they start to get more wary and the shutters come down. I think this is partly through sheer boredom and maybe also a bit of defensiveness. Older players tend to give pat answers: thinking,’how soon can I get away from this insanity ? I want to go shopping/sleep/practice ‘.

Scoop – Kim Clijsters made a comment on Serena’s injury, saying you feel more aches and strains for many months after pregnancy. Which makes sense because some muscle groups are affected by hormone changes and that may weaken them and it takes a while to build up again.
Having a baby, even without complications, is a big strain on the body. Serena may have over-estimated her powers of recovery.

The commentators said Kasatkina might have had a hard time serving because it was her first time in Chartrier..The huge surroundings might have thrown her off. Have heard other people say it takes a while for some to get rhythm, when the dimensions of the surroundings are huge.

Looks like Djoko’s wife finally forgave him for the ALLEGED cheating..She’s back in the box leading the cheers

Gabriela Dabrowski and Mate Pavic won their SF in mixed doubles over Srebotnik/Gonzales in SS. So Gabi will get to defend her RG mixed doubles title – she and Bopanna won last year. The prize $ for mixed doubles is peanuts, but it all helps. And even doubles great Daniel Nestor has only 4 Slam titles in mixed. Gaby is still young, perhaps she can surpass that!

Tomorrow Halep/Kerber and Muguruza/Sharapova.

Simona wants this one – and Angie’s a familiar face across the net. They know each other’s games back to front and inside out. No prediction.

Garbine and Maria both have something to prove. Garbine has hardly been visible this tournament and it’s hard to assess her form. My prediction is that this match will either be an epic or over quickly. Which just about covers it 🙂

Duke, yes it would be wonderful if Gaby and Mate could win the mixed. He is the current No. 1 in men’s doubles but she tends to fly under the radar, although she is about No. 10 in women’s doubles. In today’s match Gaby actually bailed them out a couple times, so it was great to see her win the match with a smash.

Oh, and you know the saying: ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’. (attrib Freud)

Scoop you stole my line! Cecchinato just made the Sandgren story look pedestrian! Also how about Fognini playing all these years and the ‘Cecchin Missile’ swooping in and becoming the first Italian male to reach a Slam semi in 40 years. I think he will knock off Thiem also.

No doubt Serena was afraid to lose. She would have forfeited against any player she has beef with like Sloane.
We know conspiracy theories generally check out (Pizzagate with Hillary, etc.) so there’s not a good reason to take Serena at face value. Plus she has fabricated stuff before like Indian Wells. Having said that, she is well within her right to do so and I am sure she will crush Masha the next time they meet.

Mark down next Wednesday for Fed’s first match since losing to Kokk.

I missed that Kozlov was drilled 1 and 0 by Dan Evans in Surbiton over the weekend. I tried telling you the Koz is a no-talent hack. And DY lost to Koz just this year!

Cecc now has reached one fewer Slam semi than Grigor. Also one fewer than Monfils.

Wilander also in my camp that he thinks Fed should play one more time at RG being a former champion. I hope it happens next year.

Keys or Sloane will become first American non-Williams sister in final since Capriati in 2001.

I’ll throw this out to T-P. Is Kuznetsova a HOF player or will she be Kafelnikoved out of the Hall? The general ITF rule of thumb is Russian players have to do more to get in while Americans like Andy Roddick can achieve less and gain entry.

I do hope Masha and Serena get elected in the same year!

Scoop, if Dabrowski and Pavic do win the mixed doubles it will be the third time for each, the 2018 AO together and one other tourney with different partners. So it would be a great result. She won last year’s RG with Bopanna. then he dropped her just before this year’s AO, without even letting her know he had a new partner. So there was a bit of revenge when she and Pavic beat Bopanna in the AO final.

Gaby is finally getting some attention in the Canadian media. Not enough, in my view, but at least there is some press about her. And Tom Tebbutt had a nice piece about today’s SF, talking about how well she played.

I don’t know if she is the leader of the Canadian Armada, but it is true that she is the one getting big wins. She has 7 doubles titles, including one Premier Mandatory (Miami) and one Premier 5 (Doha) to go with the mixed doubles Slams.

If it is available online somewhere, I suggest that any tennis fan should watch that 4th set. So much drama and excitement and the fans/atmosphere was electric. Cecchinato is something special so far in this tournament but I expect Thiem to handle him rather soundly, and it will be great for tennis to have a Thiem-Nadal final.

Chazz – be assured that match won’t be available online anywhere. So unless you know someone who’s recorded it, and they can watch in the privacy of their own homes and maybe invite friends around, it’s gone for good.

Wow, yes to agree with Dan and Chazz, that final set and especially the tie break was sensational tennis. Terrific shots from both players, and a few terrible errors.
Great drama with Ceccinatto knowing he only had to win the tie to win the match, and Djokovic knowing even if he won it, he would have to go on to win a final set.

Another victory for the tennis scoring system which creates so many turning points and cliffhanger moments when a whole match can turn.