The Tennis Thread- French Open (26/05- 09/06)

[goldb]

What a brilliant match. Murray totally had Federer pegged in that first set and was unlucky to not win the second set which was close too. As soon as they came back from the rain delay, there was only one player in it. Faultless 3rd and 4th set by Fed.

Murray I hope will take a lot from this, reaching his first Wimbledon final. He knows he can do it now and I hope he wins it because he deserves it. His speech at the end was pulling my heartstrings boy, so many feels.

All in all it was a lovely game where the important and most points were decided on fantastic shot-making by both players.

17 Grands Slams, back to world no.1; Olympics in 20 days. Could be a career defining summer for Federer.

[Josef K.]

So who is up to win the US open guys? It seems nothing is safe to say now, with Nadal not being there, as a huge lost to this sport , to Murray having a weird form after the Olympics, I am going for another Novak vs Federer here. Though Federer really is showing even greater class than ever, he is making history with everything he does form now on.

[goldb]

Gutted to not see Nadal play again for a while, his injuries are becoming more frequent and lasting longer iirc. Hopefully it's not career threatening. As for the US Open, I'm going for a Federer vs "your guess here" final; he's been on better form than pretty much most of the top ranks and is playing some amazing tennis like you said. Djokovic disappointed at the Olympics, so he may be wanting to prove something and come back with a bang, so we'll see.

What's up with Murray's form? I've not followed any of the tournaments in the last few weeks...

[Josef K.]

Well the AO has started? Why so little interest in tennis? So yeah, I feel the whole tennis community is suffering a major blow by Nadal not being that active, a great player has been lost, things would have been so much more interesting in every tournament that he did not play in.

They do say Djokovic is in his top form, I dunno, Federer does pretty nicely on the hard court so I expect him to grab this one right under Djokovic's nose. It's going to be tight, this year overall, considering that last year no one had consistent form. I do like and expect something like that this time around as well.

[goldb]

Quickly regarding Nadal; I've read here that he's scheduled for his now long overdue comeback in next month's Brazil Open.

I can't believe I've been at home all this time and forgotten about the tennis; for shame. Looking at the men's results, first upset would be Mikhail Youzhny losing to an unseeded player but to be honest I think he's been gradually losing his form for the last few years...(not that it was ever at the top level).
It's definitely going to be a good year, and the winner of this slam will set the pace for the remainder of the season. With Murray winning the last slam and Olympics, its given him much needed confidence to know that he CAN do this, so hopefully he's still got that mindset going into this. I expect it to be very close between Federer and Djoko.

[FrostyMouse]

Right, so my picks for the AO title are Djokovic and Serena. I know that I'm not really going out on a limb there, but you can't pick Ferrer to be your AO Champion and expect to be right, no offense to Ferrer or anything. In terms of Serena, she's better than every other player out there when she comes to play, so yeah. Azarenka and Sharapova have been quite impressive so far in this AO, but those are the first few rounds against pitiful players. We'll see what Sharapova does when comes up against Venus in the blockbuster third round match.

[Josef K.]

What a match, will this be a boost to Djokovic? O_O

[goldb]

That sort of result can only be positive for him. He may be tired and not fully recover in time for his next match but he'll massive momentum now. Of selected results, only notable defeat is Ivanovic to Radawanska, and 5th seed Kerber to 19th seed Makarova but to be honest I dunno either of them

[Hardy]

We'll see what Sharapova does when comes up against Venus in the blockbuster third round match.

6-1 6-3

[Josef K.]

That sort of result can only be positive for him. He may be tired and not fully recover in time for his next match but he'll massive momentum now. Of selected results, only notable defeat is Ivanovic to Radawanska, and 5th seed Kerber to 19th seed Makarova but to be honest I dunno either of them

I was debating it with my friends, has Djokovic lost, it would appear that Federer was a clear win for this one, of course now Djokovic is on fire and this will bring more troubles for Federer.

The highlight of course is that maybe we can see Wawrinka reach new heights in his next tournaments and matches he may climb to the top 10, and cause some damage.

[goldb]

I was debating it with my friends, has Djokovic lost, it would appear that Federer was a clear win for this one, of course now Djokovic is on fire and this will bring more troubles for Federer.

The highlight of course is that maybe we can see Wawrinka reach new heights in his next tournaments and matches he may climb to the top 10, and cause some damage.

True. Also Federer didn't have it all easy in his way in his last match, though he won in straight sets. I'm also not ruling out Andy Murray at this stage. He is facing Giles Simon in the next round, but Simon had a near 5 hour match with Gael Monfils so he'll be tired; so hopefully Murray can capitalise on this and make short work of him.

That's what always worries me with players that perform like this and lose, some use it as a lesson to improve, others become dejected and lose their edge. I hope for him that it'll push him forward; for such a long time he's been under Federer's shadow in his nation's eyes, it'll be good for him to get out of it.

[FrostyMouse]

So, Serena aggravated her ankle injury in her doubles loss, and then against Sloane Stephens, Serena could barely move, although she won the first then. Then, she hurt her back and could barely serve or make shots and still nearly wins, but at the end, ESPN treated Sloane Stephens like she was a heroic winner. When Pam Shriver interviewed her after the match, Sloane Stephens acted as if she went out there and beat normal Serena, not hobbled Serena who couldn't serve and couldn't hit towards the corners.

I just want Azarenka to kill Sloane Stephens and then beat Sharapova.

[Hakuteiken]

Sloane Stephens was introduced back a year or a bit more ago as the new Serena Williams, I believe. It's not that really surprising for ESPN to give her more credit than perhaps she deserved. She is nowhere near that level, but still made a very impressive run to the semis so far.
I'm not writing her off, since the fans will probably be cheering for her against any other opponent since she's so young.

Nice to see a surprising name deep in the draw. Look at the men's lineup. Top seeds battling it out. If it's Sharapova vs Azarenka in the final in the women's draw as well, it'll be such a shame.

[Josef K.]

Damn, Ferrer vs Almagro and Federer vs Tsonga are really matches that could have gone either way. Nice to see Federer play a match where he was pushed to his limit at times, that means he can be ready for Murray and then probably Djokovic.

Well at least the women have one surprise indeed.

[goldb]

Gutted to see Serena fall, but after her doubles defeat yesterday I knew it'd be tough for her today. I think with her out, I'm rooting for Sharapova to win it all. For a very long time she had potential and seen as a rising star but she didn't really fullfill that, though lately she's come really close and only falling to Serena in major events.

Glad to see my main man Federer come through against Tsonga, who is not an easy player for Fed. This match would surely have taken a fair bit out of him, so we'll see how he recovers. On the other hand, Murray made some light work of his oponnent, so he's the fresher of the players making it to the next round.