French Dynamo Moutet Emerging At Roland Garros

Thanks, Scoop. That was an interesting article. I will be paying more attention to the youngster. France needs some young blood to fill the shoes of the French oldies, and he looks very promising.

Does anyone serve n volley on the clay as much or as well as Federer? The guy is amazing. He employed this tactic so well today against Ruud who was standing way back behind the baseline to return serve. Watching Fed play on clay is amazing. He ripped one forehead 96 mph from well inside the baseline. I’m not saying he’ll do it, but if Fed wins the French this year it’ll be the singles greatest feat in tennis history.

Didn’t see any of the tennis today except for some Fognini, who’s playing well. Zverev is such a disappointment, to have to go five with Lajovic when he was up two sets to none is not a good match. Tstsipsas was having his troubles today too with Krinjovic who could have made the match go five, but couldn’t serve out the fourth set.

Big win by Kenin who both Scoop and I like a lot. And Anismova at 17, wow, the young female Americans are looking. Thankfully, the Russian transplants to the US, Kenin and Ansimova, Kenin came over from Russia at two and Anismova’s parents came here shortly before Anismova was born, aren’t playing like Stefan Kozlov.

What a shot by Wawrinka to win 8-6 in the 5th set and to hit a backhand passing slice shot that hit the line (even though Tststsipsas circled a ball mark that was out and the umpire came down to correct him). Wawrinka served eight break points in final set.

Tstsi is a little crazy, no? The guy likes to punch himself in the face. Also, he’s got to beef up his serve if he’s going to be a great player. Right now, he wins no free points on it. Wawa v Roger in quarters.

Women’s draw, besides Sloane, Murguruza, Halep and Keys it’s a little light, no? Women’s game is definitely suffering from lack of really good young players and signature players.

Dan – I don’t know if the women’s game is really much different now from previous years but because you’ve still got Federer and Nadal around and competitive it skews the perception a bit. There aren’t any older women players still marquee names and the younger ones are still ‘promising’. There’s a bunch in the middle who are pretty inconsistant. Wouldn’t say Muguruza and Keys are examples of players who pack the stands. There’ve been some good matches at RG this year but in the main they’ve featured players who aren’t exactly household names.

GS tournaments don’t always showcase the women’s game – a large draw (too large ? Used to be 96) means a first week which can be pretty routine. Then there were a few withdrawals this year (Kvitova, Andreescu), Serena underwhelming, same with Osaka, Kerber (who should have stayed at home)and I would agree it hasn’t been stellar.

Tsitsi is just giving up in the service department. He’s got to beef up that first delivery else he’s winning nothing on grass and hard courts. It hasn’t been a very good year for Tstsi. I know he’s no. 3 now and only still 20, but you give him the win over Fed Down Under, he’s had a pretty bad year. Loses to Felix first round of Indy Wells; Shapovalov in the third round of Miami and now he’s out of the French in the fourth round.

You look at his year off the dirt and the best players he’s beaten besides Fed are Monfils, Goffin and RBA. I’m sorry that’s not getting it done and he’s going to have to get a better serve.

Catherine,

I know you like to say that the women’s game today is pretty much the same as it’s always been and I always disagree with you. Here’s the top 6 seeds, for example, just picking a year, of the 2002 French Open Women’s draw:

United States Jennifer Capriati (Semifinals)
United States Venus Williams (Final)
United States Serena Williams (Champion)
Belgium Kim Clijsters (Third Round)
Belgium Justine Henin (First Round)
United States Monica Seles (Quarterfinals)

Four of these players reached the quarters or better. They’re all Hall of Famer’s, in fact, they’re all probably in the Top 10 of Greatest Women’s Player of All-Time. Now look who’s in the Quarters of this year’s Women’s French Open. Halep might be a Hall of Famer; Stephens maybe, after that possibly no one else. There are no historic players doing well anymore in women’s tennis.

Dan – well, distance lends enchantment to the view and 2002 is quite a while ago. Players who seem ordinary now may look a bit different in 17 years time. I was actually saying that this year is not a great one at RG but Kvitova did not play and Andreescu and Osaka may well be future H of F. We’re in a kind of interregnum between the Williams and older players who are nearing retirement and a younger generation who haven’t done much yet. People were saying the same kind of things when Navratilova and Evert left the stage but somehow the game carried on.

I think what’s happened to the women’s game is unlike the men’s where players are developed outside academies and you see players like Tstsi and Shapovalov who have distinctive games, the women all play the same. Where is the woman today with the one-handed backhand? Where is the woman who charges the net or plays with finesse (this is where I like Martic because she actually does play with finesse)? Andreescu could be another outlier, but if you look back at Henin, Mauresmo, Hingis and Clijsters, they all played differently from the top women today, and of course if you go back to Navratilova, my favorite, you’ll see a player who is basically non-existent today, in the midst of all the Kerber’s, Halep’s, Wozniaki’s and even Williams’s sisters.

Sure Osaka was developed in academies, more than one. Osaka’s a perfect example of a player who was cloned to be Serena Williams, maybe not in her stroke form, but in the style of her play, totally. You had Steffi, Henin, Amelie, all these women had one-hander’s. There can be another one-hander women’s champion again.

And that’s not true everyone back in the 60’s and 70’s played like BJK and Court, there was Chrissie and Goolagong and Wade, they didn’t play solely serve and volley. The point is not only in playing style, but most of these women today are vanilla, there’s just little to no personality to them. Take Kenin, she looks like a robot out there. Keys I like, she’s got some personality and so does Stephens, but you’ve got the Ova syndrome in tennis and it’s hard to find a lot of these women likable or watchable. Where’s the next women’s player with some fire and style?

Well, I agree with you about lack of personality etc but I’m not sure what anyone can do about it. It’s not something you can teach.

As I explained, I thought, Chris brought a new style into tennis. She never served and volleyed. She was different. Girls copied her.

Evonne’s game was modelled on serve/volley. That was the Australian style. Unfortunately she didn’t have a great serve. Virginia Wade was also a serve/volleyer in basic style.For her day she had a good serve before she changed her action late in her career. Not my favourite player. BJK played the purest serve/volley but few women could compete with her there.

Blame the WTA for crushing the personality out of players and producing assembly line cutouts.(Luckily Petko has avoided this fate but she’s not a top player.)Kerber has a personality but you dislike her (you’ve said) so you don’t see it. Or perhaps you do see it kind of subliminally and that’s why you dislike her. You don’t seem to be alone there.

What’s better – having a good game and no personality or a terrific personality and a ropey game ? Seems to be one or the other at present.

Harold,

Good to hear from you, buddy. Man’s got the best tan outside Nick Bollettieri in the Western World. And yes, you know I guess you, Catherine and I think alike, I was just thinking of Barty, who I like a lot in though her personality is muted too, she is the outlier on the women’s tour today. I hope she goes on to being a Top 5 player.

Kerber I don’t like, ever since I sat courtside next to her coach at least five years ago now and Kerber and her coach, a tall Sam Querrey look guy, were pretty sour folks.

I’ve come around to Federer because he’s become less high al’mighty in my opinion and his game is just too exquisite not to like.

Regarding Angie, a poster on MCM quoted a transcriber working at RG as saying the super nice players included Rafa, Petra, Simona and Angie. So perhaps she is nice behind the scenes. 🙂

Perhaps Bianca Andreescu is the player who can combine good play with a lively personality. She does show emotion on the court – we’ve all heard the “drama queen” statement by Kerber.

She loves the spotlight off the court. After her Indian Wells title, she threw out the first pitch at a Blue Jays game, plus similar things for Toronto FC and the Raptors. (And her pitch was pretty good.) She said she would like to do those things again. She has done a lot of interviews in Canada, and comes across as positive, lively and engaging. She is outgoing, and seems to have a natural self confidence without being arrogant.

Hartt – I’m sure Angie’s nice at tournaments and in carrying out her various duties as a player – I’ve never heard she’s not completely professional and co-operative which is more than you can say for some.But there’s another side, there usually is, and Angie’s a complicated sort of person. Comes out sometimes in matches when she’s under stress (the incident with Cornet a couple of years ago eg)and Dan obviously picked it up as well.

So although a lot of people seemed taken aback by the DQ incident as out of character for Angie I have to say, with my PhD in Kerber Studies, I wasn’t surprised.

Bianca sounds a naturally outgoing person who’s comfortable with the spotlight but I imagine if she carries on to fulfill her promise and become No 1 she’ll develop her own public/private face – they all do. Except maybe Kyrgios. What you see is what you get with Nick 🙂

Scoop – you’ll also hear about the brand of handkerchief she uses – something fashionable I’d guess 🙂