French at Last
Sorry I forgot to blog about the French Open. I have tivo now so I was able to get all the tennis that was on espn2 and nbc EXCEPT the final match with Fedderer, because the cable card in the tivo is tempermental and my tv doesn't always work. It picked the mens final not to work.
Anyhoo, we started the French with Nadal coming off some loses due to injury. We were very worried, but we neededn't have been because he looked so great. Fedderer on the other hand was looking iffy right from the start. Good news for me a huge Nadal fan. On the women's side we had lots of talent but no front runners. Dani Safina is number one, but she's so new to winning and the French is so tough. She was my favorite all the way through, but she lost in the final. The Williams sisters played well, but Venus was out, I think in the third round and Serena out in the semi's. They played doubles as well, many times on the same days as their singles matches--so not fair. Also, the crowd was against Serena in the first or second round--again, so not fair. She lives in Paris; she loves the French.
On the mens side, Nadal's matches, even when he blew away the competition were great. Roddick looked terrific until his last match. Gonzo was in to the semi's, but they didn't televise his matches. Fed seemed to struggle, but pulled out when his opponents ran out of steam. It seems like any top player can play great for a few sets, but the champions have deeper wells. There were a lot of five set matches. Safin says he is retiring after the French and so they showed his last match. He was Urs' favorite player (and he is also Dani Safina's older brother).
Then came Soderling--cocky, arrogant, a little bit mean. Nadal knew to be on his guard, but Soderling played the match of his life, while Nadal was having an off day. Nadal was out in the second week early. He had a really great line that went something like, you have to lose some bitter battles, to be able to savor sweet victories. I think I added the alliteration to my memory, but the gist is the same. Surprisingly Soderling followed up by winning the semi-final and he was in the final against Fedderer. Again, I didn't get any of that match, but it must have been short, because NBC replayed the Nadal/Fedderer Wimbolton final from last year to fill time (that I saw when I finally rolled out of bed later on in the day--no I did not get up at 6 a.m. to watch Fedderer and Soderling, but if it had been Nadal... I probably would have made the effort.)
Next up, the grass.
Anyhoo, we started the French with Nadal coming off some loses due to injury. We were very worried, but we neededn't have been because he looked so great. Fedderer on the other hand was looking iffy right from the start. Good news for me a huge Nadal fan. On the women's side we had lots of talent but no front runners. Dani Safina is number one, but she's so new to winning and the French is so tough. She was my favorite all the way through, but she lost in the final. The Williams sisters played well, but Venus was out, I think in the third round and Serena out in the semi's. They played doubles as well, many times on the same days as their singles matches--so not fair. Also, the crowd was against Serena in the first or second round--again, so not fair. She lives in Paris; she loves the French.
On the mens side, Nadal's matches, even when he blew away the competition were great. Roddick looked terrific until his last match. Gonzo was in to the semi's, but they didn't televise his matches. Fed seemed to struggle, but pulled out when his opponents ran out of steam. It seems like any top player can play great for a few sets, but the champions have deeper wells. There were a lot of five set matches. Safin says he is retiring after the French and so they showed his last match. He was Urs' favorite player (and he is also Dani Safina's older brother).
Then came Soderling--cocky, arrogant, a little bit mean. Nadal knew to be on his guard, but Soderling played the match of his life, while Nadal was having an off day. Nadal was out in the second week early. He had a really great line that went something like, you have to lose some bitter battles, to be able to savor sweet victories. I think I added the alliteration to my memory, but the gist is the same. Surprisingly Soderling followed up by winning the semi-final and he was in the final against Fedderer. Again, I didn't get any of that match, but it must have been short, because NBC replayed the Nadal/Fedderer Wimbolton final from last year to fill time (that I saw when I finally rolled out of bed later on in the day--no I did not get up at 6 a.m. to watch Fedderer and Soderling, but if it had been Nadal... I probably would have made the effort.)
Next up, the grass.
posted by KathrynVH @ 10:02 AM
1 Comments:
At June 14, 2009 at 9:39 AM,
Marcel said…
Due to circumstances, the only match I watched was the final. Soderling, to me, looked like he had lucked into the final. He was no match for Federer even when Federer was not playing his "A" game.
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