The Grass

So very sad.  Nadal lost to who?? Rosol?  Never heard of him.  Five sets.  Sure, the grass is Nadal's worst surface, but still.  He played so well at the French--he was practically unstoppable.  To lose to the 100th seed player that I never heard of is very very sad.

And then Fed challenged to five sets today by Benneteau?  Unheard of.  What's the world coming to.  Fish is through, but his health is still a question mark.  Roddick is through but this is still early.  Next he meets Ferrer.  David Ferrer is tough, tough, tough.  And then even if he wins that, Del Potro is in that section of the draw.  With Nadal out of the bottem half of the draw, it is wide open for Ferrer or Tsonga or Murray to finally get to a final.  But then they will meet Federer or Djokovic (probably Djok), so that will be that.  Actually, if Verdasco wins his match today, next he meets Fed--that should be fun.

On the women's side, Maria Sharapova had a bit of a scare with her serve and she needed three sets to get though the second round.  Sloane Stevens is out and so is McHale, so the American's are not faring well.  Serena is still hanging on, but Stosur, Li and Venus are out.  I think Lepchenko (our new American) is still alive (but she is in Serena's portion of the draw, so even if she wins, an American is out).  Clijsters is looking really good.  But if she wins, then she'll meet Maria and I want Maria Sharapova to win, so Clijsters will just have to retire without another slam.

I am liking my direct tv coverage--during live play, they have six channels devoted to the various games.  So I get to watch Petrova, while everyone else is watching the beginning of the Federer match.  That was fun.  I get to channel surf during breaks in play until it rains and then the only play is on Center Court under the roof.  I don't like the roof, but I don't like rain delays more, so there you go.

No tennis on Sunday, but we will be in the thick of the quarters and round of 16 on the Fourth of July, so there's lots more tennis to come.  Yea!

The Clay

Well I awoke this morning to coverage of Sharpova's quarter final match.  She is looking great.  Kvitova, her next opponent, looks strong, but not as strong as Maria.  The way the French Open is structured, the two quarter finals for each section were played at the same time.  Therefore, yesterday you could either watch Fedderer/Del Potro OR Djockovic/Tsonga, but not both.  Unfortunately, I tuned in after the matches were over to hear a hoarse Darren Cahill describe how absolutely wonderful both matches were.  Yes, Federer and Djockovic came through, but it wasn't easy.  Del Potro went up two sets to none forcing Federer to come from behind in five sets.  Tsonga really took it to Djockovic and even got to a few match points.  I didn't get to see all of the matches, but my imagination fills in what must have been very exciting matches.

This morning, I saw the women and I was very happy to see Maria power through and Kvitova win.  Kvitova has the game to beat Maria, but Maria has more depth of weapons and experience.  I don't think she'll have any problem beating Kvitova, if her serve doesn't desert her.

The other women's semi-final is Errani vs. Stosur.  I don't know.  I really like Sam Stosur and so I'll want her to win, but Errani is such a scrappy, determined player.  She is either in over her head, or she'll be real trouble for Stosur. 

I saw on line that Nadal beat Almagro.  Not unexpected.  And that Ferrer beat Murray.  Well look at that.  David Ferrer is a very dynamic player.  I'm not sure what his record is against Nadal, but that could be a very good challenge for Nadal.  After his disappointing draw (as far as any real challenge--he hasn't dropped a single set this slam), he finally has some real competition.  On the other hand, I thought Verdasco was going to give him trouble last year and Fernando folded.  We'll see.

So Errani v. Stosur and Kvitova v. Sharapova tomorrow, then Fed v. Djok and Ferrer v. Nadal on Friday, then (hopefully I predict) Stosur v. Sharapova on Saturday and Djok v Nadal on Sunday.  What an awesome line up.

Tennis Weekend

Well there were few surprises this weekend.  I have to say that I enjoyed having John McEnroe as the commentator on NBC, but I can't say that I enjoy any of the commentators on the tennis channel (except when John McEnroe is a guest commentator).  The tennis channel has about a three hour feed a day and then they replay that same three hours over and over.  That was not good, since I had to wait for the dvr to see the matches and the dvr only saves five shows at a time.  All five were the same, knocking out the previous days coverage.  Oh well.

So I didn't get to see Cilic play, but I noticed that his haircut was the same as Adam--then the next time I saw Adam, he had shaved his head.  But I digress.  I also did not get to see Federer, but he seems to be through his matches without too much trouble.  Next he faces Del Potro.  Del Potro has been challenged so far, so Federer should be able to win, but oh, it would be nice to see Del Potro hit his stride again.  I did see Djokovic play a little against Seppi.  I've never seen Seppi before, but I've seen his name in the draws for years.  Djokovic looks good (he looks skinny actually--maybe he's taking a page from Fish's book).  He faces Tsonga next.  I've seen a lot of Tsonga (Tennis Channel must love him or something).  His match against Wawrinka and Wawrinka's match against Simon--all nailbiters, but Tsonga's not impressing me like he has in the past.  He looks kind of laid back and not taking it all too seriously.  I don't think Djokovic will have any trouble getting past Tsonga.

On the other side of the draw, I saw the Mathieu/Isner match--wow.  Mathieu is definitely getting a second wind to his career.  He's been around a while and he played really well--finally running out of gas after the Isner match.  I hope that I have the Murray /Gasquet match on dvr, but it looks like after the first set, Murray came through easily.  I would like to catch the Almagro/Nadal match, but I have no worries for Nadal.  Murray on the other hand faces Ferrer.  That guy is tough.  Murray has been complaining about a back injury.  If he's not 100%, he may have trouble getting past David Ferrer.  And Ferrer is a better match against Nadal--that would be his first real challenge in the slam.

On the women's side, I was sorry to see that Li Na is out.  She's looked pretty great so far, but all of the women are so unpredicable.  The number one seed Azarenka is out to the number 15 seed that I never heard of.  Sam Stosur took out the nineteen year old American Sloan Stephens--too much experience on Sam's side.  But look for Sloan Stephens in the future--she plays really well.  Italian Sara Errani is playing particularly tough, beating former champions, Ivanovic and Kuznetsova.  She remindes me of Schivone and Bartoli--so determined.  Kvitova and Kanepi are also playing well, so Sharapova will need to keep up her A game for the next couple of rounds.  I really like Kvitova--she always looks so happy after the match.  But look for Sharapova to get through them all.  I have liked Sharapova this slam and I think she has a very good chance to win this.  That would be really good, because she has been working so hard to get back after her injury several years back.  She won on clay in Rome, so that bodes well for her chances here, but Errani or Stosur will not go quietly into that good night, so we shall see.

The commentators have been talking about the olympics and how player's qualify.  Each country can send it's top four players.  Only four.  They automatically qualify if they are seeded in the top 56 in the world.  Spain has six men that are in the top 56, but they can only send their top four.  USA has the Williams sisters who are NOT in the top 56 and a bunch of very young players.  It will be very interesting to see the rankings after the french.  Lepchenko has recently become a US citizen.  She and Stephens went the farthest for American Women, so they are going to get a bump in their rankings.  I cannot imagine Serena or Venus not making it on the Olympic team, but it could happen.

I also heard an interview with Bob Bryan.  He was discussing why Marty Fish is not in the French.  Apparently he has heart trouble and that his doctors are not sure when he will be cleared for play.  Just awful after his stunningly wonderful showing last year.

So I am hoping that Sharapova and Nadal win the French, but I am really hoping that Serena can pull it all together and make the Olympic team.  I think gold looks really good on her.