Roland Garros FRENCH OPEN 2011

Begins sunday May 22.

Men's Draw
Women's Draw

First round watch: Federer vs Lopez
2nd round watch: Nadal vs Davydenko
Giant-killer Dulko: May meet Stosur in 2nd round.
One to miss: Shaky delPony meets Karlovic in the 1st round.
Biggest cakewalk: Zvonareva

Impressive how easy Sharapova's first few rounds should be before it gets potentially iffy.

i dunno, 3rd round against Zakapalova could be tricky if she plays well.

Wozniacki has a bye to the quarters.

Gonna do myself a nice 'fill in the draw' now as I do before every slam!

Yeah I gotta think a bit about my predictions (before getting them all wrong as usual).

Zvonareva is getting schooled by Shuai Peng right now in Belgium, so I think we can conclude that Bepas clay season is not of a slam caliber.

Bepa hasn't done shit on clay in years and years - I know it started out her best surface but it's got to the stage where I don't expect anything from this part of the season at all. I assume she made some fundamental technical/tactical alteration to her game at some point, maybe because of all the injuries she's had.

Zakopalova will not beat Sharapova or any top player in a Slam, now or ever

Delpo/Djokovic in the third round is HARSH but as I said on the other thread, this is what you get when Delpo lands a 24-32 seed rather than going unseeded. Nole's draw is about as tough as you get really - even after Delpo there's either Bellucci or resurgent Gasquet in round four (Wussquet might actually be preferable given the implausibility of him ever manning up at RG). Gulbis lurks in that section too, you never know quite when he'll stop being useless.

Murray/Raonic in the 3rd round is a massive landmine too, can't believe that this time last year Raonic just wasn't on anyone's radar at all - not even in RG qualies.

LOL @ Isner/Nadal round one though.

Poor Kimiko, drawing yet another top seed ;_; Lucic against Shriekapova too ;_; At least only one out of St Kim and Maria can reach the SF.

Li getting Kvitova in the 4th round is vexing, though...watch out for Midget Domi in that section.

Well Zakopalova did beat Seles in Australia 2003!

You never know with Sharapova, so I'm erring on the side of caution although I would certainly expect to see her in the QF

heh, Zakopalova beat Sharapova and Seles back to back in that Slam. Shriek's first ever Slam main draw, and then a hobbled Seles. That was before she established her pattern on tour though, which is to never ever beat top players ever, apart from that one time Silliams tanked to her.

Of course, in their only encounter Date-Krumm managed to take Caro to three sets. We can dream.

My wacky prediction!

QF

Wozniacki def Safarova
Pavlyuchenkova def Peng
Kvitova def Azarenka
Clijsters def Sharapova

SF

Wozniacki def Pavlyuchenkova
Kvitova def Clijsters

F

Kvitova def Wozniacki

Because why not...

Early upsets: Safarova def Goerges and Stosur / Vesnina def Li / Peng def Schiavone

Women's qualies done and dusted - interesting qualifiers are Sloane Stephens (US prospect who's had a pretty good clay season and seems to have impressed people w/her good attitude as well as game), Heather Watson (wow, she really is leaving Robson in the dust) and Sabine Lisicki (hot on the comeback trail). Will wait for them to be placed before making predictions.

Karatantcheva couldn't make it out of qualies ;_; Though I note that a girl from Hong Kong, Ling Zhang, won a qualifying round, against one of the terminally useless Pliskova twins. When was the last time a HKG player won a Slam match? If ever?

Considering whether Peng will upset Schiavone or not...it's the obvious pick given their respective forms. I have a feeling that Fran's defence of her title will be similar to Costa's in 2003, though. Totally unexpected winner written of as a "fluke", but put up a lionhearted defence despite poor form - I remember he fought through like three five-setters before finally falling in the SF. Wouldn't surprise me if Fran does the same, she has that moxie that 99% of the tour lacks.

Women's qualies placed. Predix from 4R!

Wozniacki d. Begu
Goerges d. Stosur
Zvonareva d. Pavlyuchenkova
Schiavone d. Mattek-Sands
Kvitova d. Li
Azarenka d. Watson
Sharapova d. Radwanska
Clijsters d. Hradecka

Wozniacki d. Goerges
Schiavone d. Zvonareva
Kvitova d. Azarenka
Sharapova d. Clijsters

Wozniacki d. Schiavone
Kvitova d. Sharapova

Kvitova d. Wozniacki

That actually looks too NORMAL to happen. Christ, I have no idea whatsoever.

F

Kvitova def Wozniacki

ha, I hadn't even looked at yours when I made mine! ~consensus~

Men's predix:

Nadal d. Monaco
Soderling d. Simon
Murray d. Dolgopolov
F.Mayer d. Roger-Vasselin
Ferrer d. Monfils
Federer d. Tsonga
Berdych d. Cilic
Djokovic d. Bellucci

Nadal d. Soderling
Murray d. F.Mayer
Ferrer d. Federer
Djokovic d. Berdych

Nadal d. Murray
Djokovic d. Ferrer

Djokovic d. Nadal

Wow Watson's draw really is rather great... Fourth round isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

QF
stosur d wozniacki
pavlyuchenkova d schiavone
azarenka d kvitova
clijsters d sharapova

SF
stosur d pavlyuchenkova
azarenka d clijsters

F
azarenka d stosur

I.. don't even know. Looking at it it doesn't look right.

QF
nadal d simon
murray d almagro
federer d ferrer
djokovic d berdych

SF
murray d nadal
djokovic d federer

F
djokovic d murray

Murray d. Nadal? And I thought my predictions were wacky!

yeah about the only way I think that will happen is if Nadal's kneecaps pop off

I had to deviate on something.

the sensible choice wld be murray going out even earlier imo

He had that glimpse in his eye, during the match with Djokovic, of one who will go to the final of a Slam and lose.

or a glimmer, even

So the first Sunday isn't all that packed with top tier matcher. Poor, mentally unstable Mathilde Johansson will have to play in front of the home crowd on Philippe Catrier, vs Görges, as the late night attraction.

Meanwhile Sunny Woz took her first red clay trophy in Brussels, with another three setter against Peng. By all accounts a fairly poor match and surely a taxing lead-up to the French.

yeah about the only way I think that will happen is if Nadal's kneecaps pop off

― I HAVE ISSUES (DJP), Friday, May 20, 2011 6:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

So like a 1% chance?

It seems to me that Djokovic and Nadal both got unusually difficult quarters.

Meanwhile Sunny Woz took her first red clay trophy in Brussels, with another three setter against Peng. By all accounts a fairly poor match and surely a taxing lead-up to the French.

i tuned in at 4-3 in the final set, to be greeted with fucking moonball rallies. women's tennis just needs some Steffi figure to come along and slaughter everyone. Steffi herself could probably do it.

moonball rallies WITH UNFORCED ERRORS, to be precise

as for tomorrow's sched...I wonder about Sweta/Rybarikova. Rybarikova's historically been really bad on clay but she seems to have improved this year, including a win over Kvitova last week, and Sweta is really losing to ANYONE right now - Begu, McHale, the GREAT ARN, anyone.

Peer/Martinez Sanchez - both slumping but both have strong clay pedigrees, no idea who'll take it.

Pironkova to be put out of her misery asap, I see. First seed out. And the last time she'll ever be seeded at a Slam.

Tennis needs my girl SERENA back <3

a Serena with a work ethic and without the unpleasant personality would be grand.

like Maria though, women's tennis is so bad that I'd actually welcome formerly-disliked players like her and Silliams to come back and kill everyone, just to show them up as the losers they are.

This does not extend to St Kim.

I would say I want Justine back but the less said about that the better.

I'm not having any of that unpleasant personality shit! She's brilliance in every way with absolutely no flaws at all...

Justine was usually a fun source of entertainment or drama, so yeah I kinda miss her (even if I still hold an irrational grudge against her for the 03 French semifinal). St Kim is just so bloody DULL. If she wins the French having played, like, 2 matches on the surface in the last 5 years I'm done.

I switched on the red button this morning looking for the LEN Synchro Cup (the Russian team does a routine wearing swimming costumes with SKELETON RIBCAGES on!) only to find Sam Stosur hitting an easy winner... into the net. We're off to a great start :/

Well she's played pretty decently today and now finished it off, 6-2 6-3

Yep - I think I caught her worst shot of the match just then! Ferrer and Nieminen next.

Lol Pironkova won a match.

Cilic on his way out.

Bad news for fans of aesthetically unpleasing tennis - Pe'er bounced by Martinez Sanchez. If anyone cared and said this was an "upset" they'd be wrong. MJMS has loads of clay bona fides and Pe'er lost to Dellacqua last week. The last point was moonbally enough to prepare me for seven Wozniacki matches, should they occur.

Gulbis lurks in that section too, you never know quite when he'll stop being useless.

"Not today" appears to be a fair guess...

Asking myself if I hate myself enough to sit through Dokic/Dushevina, the answer is yes. Dokic is more than capable of playing half a decent match, and it'd be great if she played a complete one here, but so far the brilliance has then been followed by loose service games :(

Gulbis has now lost six Slam opening rounds in a row. Useless rich boy. Just retire.

Other than the shock of Pironkova winning a match, I'm not particularly unhappy that the Sunday start caught me unawares yet again.

Johansson lost her match serving 3 double faults in a row.

lol Johansson.. one of the sadder players to watch lose at RG, but at least it wasn't as tragic as last year.

was that the Diatchenko match? something like 8 match points and she served double faults on 4 of them, and lost 8-10 in the third.

Olivia Sanchez's first serve stats in the first set of her 0 and 1 loss to Hercog: 3/21

HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT

I'm positive that the Diatchenko match was 2009

Most boring opening day ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geqWAEKEesM

serious lols.

1st DF at the worst possible time :(

That was such a fail of a game from Fed

V poor.

*MARKERS BATSIGNAL*

outro music right there was blink-182's "i miss you"

This has 6-1 written all over it

fucking hell rafa is unplayable again

Awesome lob.

That is definitely the end, then

The sun is just breaking out, etc.

my stream died but judging by your comments i guess it's barely worth the hassle finding a new one...

So so good, would've been fascinating to see Djoko play Nadal because he wasn't looking in great shape at the start of that - but Fed is (bizarrely enough) just the 'right' opponent for him

Sigh. Congratulations Rafa, you deserve it for hanging tough, something Roger couldn't quite do.

oh god Jim Courier.

Not that bothered, just wanted a classic five-setter - they have 26 Grand slams combined.

Know its probably not the time but what the hell wasn't posting here through most of the week - totally great to see Del Potro back, too.

I guess today is the day I discovered that, after years of supporting both of them tactically (Rog needs a RG, Rafa needs a Wimbledon, Rog needs his 15, Rafa needs the career slam)...once there's nothing so huge on the line for either...I do actually like Federer a lot more.

ME TOO

both are great players and great to watch

How does Fed play four hours of tennis and still have such shiny, bouncy, non-sweaty hair?

Oh yeah I love all the Big Four - like to the extent that I don't want any of them to miss out on prizes. So this is actually one of the first Big Four Slam finals that I've watched in a vacuum, where there isn't a special record to break or milestone to reach.

they are both great players obv, but there's one thing for which i'll always despise rafa...
you win this slam every fucking year, they could just give you the cup for ever and be done with it and yet... would it kill you to learn to say more than "bonjour" and "merci" in french.

va te faire foutre ! (there's your first lesson in french)

(tbh i really admire the guy but for some reason this really pisses me off... but that's probably because opposite him is federer who can speak it perfectly. but he's swiss so he def has an advantage there)

Lolz he said Merci at the end there.

I love Fed more, the 2008 French was the worst final ever ever, but once he bet Soderling that was all that mattered.

i want murray to win a slam so bad

i like soderling too lol!

Soderling has replaced Roddick as the top player I will cheer against in every single match ever

i love roddick! http://teslastaging.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif

nah soderling is fun! i'll always love him for his blatant lies during his defeat against nadal (the 0 and 1 thrashing in Rome), pointing 2m away from where the ball had landed.

I love watching Roddick lose, and the past decade has been very good for that! Especially at Wimbledon! So many ways to lose.

i like andy murray, that said he's never winning a grand slam

Grasscourt season <3

I love Fed on court more, Rafa off court more. I think. It's a little unfair to hate on Rafa for not speaking French, he didn't grow up multilingual like Fed did and his English has in fact improved tremendously since he turned pro. One at a time.

And yeah watching Roddick lose is a constant joy I will never tire of. Including that heartbreaking Wimbledon final where Fed was a total smug asshole at the end lol. 16 jacket forever.

I'll always have a soft spot for Soderling for beating Nadal and facilitating Roger's win -- otherwise him and Rod are one dimensional (in their own ways)

But yes bring on the grass courts, looking fwd to my one day @ Wimbledon (thinking I'll go for the 2nd Monday for the first time), and I reckon Fed has one more Wimbledon in him.

And yeah watching Roddick lose is a constant joy I will never tire of. Including that heartbreaking Wimbledon final where Fed was a total smug asshole at the end lol. 16 jacket forever.

especially that final!

I don't think I hate Soderling as much as I hated Hewitt. Hate of Roddick tempered by desire to bone him tbh.

Yeah General Sod ranks pretty low on the list of players I hate. I think I even dislike Murray more. I tried - I just don't like him or his game.

Shame about everyone and their dog withdrawing from next week's tournaments.

multiple xp to Roz: yeah I realise it's unfair to compare him to Roger. And that my comment is more for the "small irrational things that make you angry" thread than this one. But still, he's won it 6 times in 7 years and he didn't have 10 mns to learn a couple sentences in French?

I'm not asking him to hold a debate on the relative merits of Lacan and Foucault or whatever, just to learn how to say "i'm your king, bow down to me you stupid frenchies who won't cheer for me. oh, and roger, i fucking pwn your ass" or something like that.

i was watching a safin champions tour match late last night from a few months ago - he's out of shape but GOD MISS HIM

they kept showing him in the stands on french tv. love that dude def.

roll. of. honour.

Men's singles: Rafael Nadal
Women's singles: Li Na
Men's doubles: Max Mirnyi & Daniel Nestor
Women's doubles: Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka
Mixed doubles: Casey Dellacqua & Scott Lipsky
Boys' singles: Bjorn Fratangelo
Girls' singles: Ons Jabeur
Boys' doubles: Andres Artunedo Martinavarr & Roberto Carballes Baena
Girls' doubles: Irina Khromacheva & Maryna Zanevska

- Give it up for the first Arabic female Slam winner, I believe! ONS ONE
- Despite the name the boys' winner is American. Or...perhaps because of the name? Where else would you find a Scando first name + Italian surname.
- Girls' doubles champ Zanevska is Ukrainian, but seems to be the first player of consequence to emerge from the academy of one Justine Henin. I hope she plays like her!

Hate of Roddick tempered by desire to bone him tbh.

― the smoke cloud of pure hatred (lex pretend), Sunday, June 5, 2011 1:33 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

:D

wow, Bjorn Fratangelo is a ridiculous name

Desire to bone him now tempered by amusement at how badly he's balding and how much he tries to hide it with the perma-cap.

this is easily the most ridiculous tennis name around right now

lol!

Nugnadda Wannasuk is probably better.

*Nungnadda

Tanaporn Thongsing

Petkorazzi & Maria

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/5800806649_3f3d5007fb_z.jpg

New rankings -

1. Caroline Wozniacki (1)
2. Kim Clijsters (2)
3. Vera Zvonareva (3)
4. Na Li (7)
5. Victoria Azarenka (4)
6. Maria Sharapova (8)
7. Francesca Schiavone (5)
8. Petra Kvitova (9)
9. Marion Bartoli (11)
10. Samantha Stosur (6)
11. Andrea Petkovic (12)
12. Svetlana Kuznetsova (14)
13. Agnieszka Radwanska (13)
14. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15)
15. Jelena Jankovic (10)
16. Julia Goerges (18)
17. Kaia Kanepi (16)
18. Yanina Wickmayer (22)
19. Ana Ivanovic (21)
20. Shuai Peng (25)
21. Flavia Pennetta (19)
22. Shahar Peer (20)
23. Dominika Cibulkova (23)
24. Alisa Kleybanova (24)
25. Serena Williams (17)
26. Maria Kirilenko (27)
27. Jarmila Gajdosova (26)
28. Daniela Hantuchova (29)
29. Ekaterina Makarova (33)
30. Roberta Vinci (31)
...
32. Venus Williams (30)
37. Nadia Petrova (28)
93. Heather Watson (117)
100. Sabine Lisicki (121)
101. Arantxa Rus (114)
150. Caroline Garcia (188)

1. Rafael Nadal (1)
2. Novak Djokovic (2)
3. Roger Federer (3)
4. Andy Murray (4)
5. Robin Soderling (5)
6. David Ferrer (7)
7. Tomas Berdych (6)
8. Gael Monfils (9)
9. Mardy Fish (10)
10. Andy Roddick (11)
11. Jurgen Melzer (8)
12. Viktor Troicki (15)
13. Richard Gasquet (16)
14. Stanislas Wawrinka (14)
15. Nicolas Almagro (12)
16. Gilles Simon (18)
17. Mikhail Youzhny (13)
18. Florian Mayer (19)
19. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (17)
20. Juan Ignacio Chela (34)
21. Alexandr Dolgopolov (22)
22. Juan Martin Del Potro (26)
23. Fernando Verdasco (20)
24. David Nalbandian (23)
25. Michael Llodra (24)
26. Sam Querrey (28)
27. Marin Cilic (21)
28. Milos Raonic (27)
29. Nikolay Davydenko (30)
30. Thomaz Bellucci (25)
...
35. Fabio Fognini (49)
45. John Isner (39)
82. Alejandro Falla (120)

this is easily the most ridiculous tennis name around right now

Not around right now it seems, but still: http://www.itftennis.com/womens/players/player.asp?player=100028795

"Advantage... um..."