Roland Garros 2011: Men's Champion

I give you the Clay GOAT: Rafael Nadal who tied Bjorn Borg's record of six wins at Roland Garros.



You go bite that tasty Coupe de Mousquetaires.



Doesn't this victory dismount resemble something else?



It's the same dismount of his bestie whom he beat when he won this title in 2009.



So glad to see that these two are still going strong.

Roland Garros 2011: Women's Champion

Something about winning this tournament makes you do this.



They're building clay courts in China as we speak for lots of little girls. Congratulations Nails!





The woman she beat was only the defending champion. There's something about Franny that just makes you want to smile and hug her.



Absent Henin and the Williams sisters, I think woman's tennis is doing just fine.

Roland Garros 2011: Appeal to FFT

To French Federation of Tennis,

I'm aware that the International Tennis Writer's Association has asked the authorities not to publish transcripts that follow the matches after Roland Garros within a 24-48 hour limit. I'm also aware that the decision has been made not to publish the transcripts at all.


While I understand the reasons given by the ITWA (see a publicized copy of their
letter here), I think the response not to publish transcripts at all is short-sighted and overshoots the mark for a number of reasons.


1) The most important reason is that Roland Garros 2011 is a part of modern tennis
history. These transcripts are a primary source. This year there are plenty of
stories that could form material for a book (or part of a book): Nadal's attempt to equal Borg's record, Djokovic's streak, Federer's 2nd Roland Garros to cap a career, Murray's breakthrough Slam, Na Li's breakthrough Slam as the first Chinese woman and/or Schiavone's repeat. Ironicially, some member of the ITWA would no longer be able to go to a publically available official source after the event has concluded such as the Roland Garros website. As you might be aware, when a writer is working on
a book, they do not always have the luxury of traveling to collect primary sources.


2) As I understand players do not always trust the media to represent their words
accurately, and feel that their words are taken out of context. This is especially
true of players who tend to speak discusively and at length (e.g. Federer, Nadal, Schiavone, Henin).

Publically available transcripts would hold the press accountable for responsible journalism as it would be easy to compare what the journalist wrote with what the player actually said. Furthermore, players that are not necessarily stars of the game and not given a lot of mainstream media attention would also have a bit more spotlight.

This issue with accurate representation of the players does come down to the ATP & WTA having a stake in these interviews. In honoring the request of the ITWA, it's not entirely clear if the player's unions have been consulted for their opinion on the matter. I have volunteered reasons for why the player's union would not simply accept the ITWA's request by embargoing all transcripts.

3) Finally, these transcripts are getting leaked to other sites (a la WikiLeaks). Fans that want to see these transcripts are hitting those sites instead of Roland Garros, which ought to be getting those site hits. There is no guarantee that
those sites are accurately representing those transcripts. I believe it is in your interests to be the ones presenting the official stamp of approval on those transcripts on the Roland Garros website. It is in principle no different
from addressing a black market: the best way to control such a marketplace
is to present yourself as the official source of such information.

I write these things as a concerned & informed tennis fan. I also work for a large entertainment company. I know that intellectual property rights for entertainment products are a subtle issue. What is needed is an output deal that would satisfy
the interests of all the stakeholders (ITWA, ATP, WTA, the publicists at
Roland Garros, etc.). I believe a 24-48 hour embargo is reasonable to allow
journalists to get their stories out while it is hot, but an indefinite embargo is not reasonable at all.


Cheers,






















In conclusion, an output deal is needed that would satisfy all the parties.

Roland Garros 2011: Transcript Gate

The decision of Roland Garros to acquiesce to the International Tennis Writer Association's request not to publish interview transcripts is gravely mistaken on a number of levels.

Now to be fair, to my best understanding, ITWA only wants the transcripts not to be published within 24 hours of the match because these post-match pressers are their primary source while the news is still hot. Nor have they asked for videos of the post-match pressers to be delayed for publication. Roland Garros has simply chosen not to post the transcripts at all. Nevertheless a significant number of tennis fans are not happy with the Roland Garros (and the ITWA) for what is perceived to be the "suppression of information."


First and foremost it seems clear to me that ITWA does not have any property rights over such transcripts. The tournament does. And they have only acquiesced as a favor to them. Roland Garros' decision not to publish any transcripts at all (for now) is overcooked.

Second, the assent to the ITWA's request was justified as allowing official journalists to provide "relevant quotes" of the post match interview. Unfortunately, trust between many fans and journalists is not exactly at high point, because there have been numerous instances of so-called professional journalists who have made fairly egregious mistakes. Even more worrisome is the frequency with which quotes taken out of context and/or the quotes "used" to drive a predetermined story line.

Third, the players themselves should be protected. It is THEIR words that should be faithfully represented for all to see, rather than filtered through the lens of the all-too-human official media. Some players such as Justine Henin and Roger Federer have a speaking style which is more discursive. They speak in paragraphs rather than sound bites. It actually is important to read or hear what they said in its context.

Finally and most importantly, a historic tournament like Roland Garros needs to publish to these interview transcripts as they are a primary source of modern tennis history. Tennis nuts often go back to a website like Roland Garros for an interview transcript to try to recall what a player said often a few years back.

For views advocating a similar view as I do, see:

• The Stolen Word: Controlling The Transcripts
  


• The Silence of the Slams
  

UPDATE: Transcript gate has blown up to be a bigger emotional issue (on both sides) than it ought to be. I've amended my original post to be more reasonable and fair-minded to both sides. But the basic point is still the same: failure to publish interview transcripts is wrong.

Roland Garros 2010: Men's Final

Folks hoped that Sodal would turn into a close tight match. But given Rafa's form on the red stuff this spring, it's no surprise that the King of Clay returned to his throne (6-4 6-2 6-4).

In the opening set, the expected tone was set: Sod was hitting hard. But Rafa's phenomenal defense meant he could chase down a lot of Sod's bullets and use his heavy topspin shots to move Sod around side to side. Unfortunately since Sod often had to hit shots on the run, he couldn't his feet set to unleash his forehands and tended to make an unforced error. Sod went down an early break in 1st set to Rafa after he let a very volleyable passing shot go. On another point, Sod had control off an crosscourt FH, which Rafa got back with a BH lob. Then despite Sod's overhead to Rafa's BH, Rafa was able to get it back at Sod's feet with his FH forcing an awkward half-volley which allowed Rafa to volley it away for a winner. Yeah, I'd do a fist pump too if I made a point like that.

By the third set, it looked like Sod was mentally worn out from trying to hit a couple winners just to win a point (or his legs fried from chasing down Rafa's DTL forehands into an open court).

From the stats, Sod couldn't play a clean enough game to threaten Rafa: the net gain of unforced errors to winner clearly favored Rafa (-4 vs. +9) and confirmed my observations of Rafa's defense: el hombre was just a backboard. The key to me was the return of serve. Sod was having trouble threatening Rafa's serve whereas Rafa was able to get enough opportunities receiving Sod's serve and convert the break points.

	Soderling	Nadal
Unforced Errors	43	16
Winners	39	35
1st Serve %	51/91 (56%)	67/86 (78%)
Aces	7	7
DF	4	1
1st Serve % Pts Won	33/51 (65%)	49/67 (73%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	22/40 (55%)	11/19 (58%)
Break Points Won	0/8 (0%)	4/12 (33%)
Net Approaches	14/20 (70%)	4/8 (50%)
Total Receiving Points Won	22/85 (26%)	35/87 (40%)
Total Service Points Won	52/87 (60%)	63/85 (74%)
Total Points Won	81/177 (46%)	96/177 (54%)

Since the Greatest Shanker of All Time had a crappy spring season (Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Estoril) and failed to maintain his semifinal Major appearances streak, Rafa deservedly ascends to the World #1 spot.

Roland Garros 2010: Women's Final

Franny played freely with nothing to lose and served out of her mind to take the
Coupe Suzanne Lenglen back to her home of Milan (6-4 7-6 [2]). Franny played clutch by approaching the net to come up with the goods at key moments. As expected Sam served well except at key moments where it seemed she let up just a moment. She never seemed to relax and was broken in two of her service games facing triple break points. Franny is obviously late in her career (age 29) and this is realistically her only chance to win a major.

	Stosur	Schiavone
Unforced Errors	28	19
Winners	25	26
1st Serve %	42/65 (65%)	46/71 (65%)
Aces	3	6
DF	1	1
1st Serve % Pts Won	30/42 (71%)	35/46 (76%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	13/22 (59%)	15/24 (63%)
Break Points Won	1/2 (50%)	2/7 (29%)
Net Approaches	11/18 (61%)	14/15 (93%)
Total Receiving Points Won	21/71 (30%)	22/65 (34%)
Total Service Points Won	43/65 (66%)	50/71 (70%)
Total Points Won	64/136 (47%)	72/136 (53%)

It was pretty obvious from Sam's concession speech that she was holding back tears. No, I don't think she choked either. Hopefully she can take away positives from this as she obviously has the game to come back and win a Major on another try.

Roland Garros 2010: Men's Semifinals

Ladies and Gentlemen: Roland Garros will bring you Sodal.

Sod took five sets to defeat Big Berd as fuzz littered the red clay (6-3 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-3). The statistical difference seems to be that Sod got more of his first serves in, where it was more likely that he would win the point. It was pretty obvious that Berd lost his legs in the fifth set as he could not put in a first serve in his last two service games.

As would be expected from two big hitters, the unforced error count and winner count was high.

	Soderling	Berdych
Unforced Errors	63	41
Winners	62	42
1st Serve %	91/145 (63%)	75/150 (50%)
Aces	18	21
DF	8	5
1st Serve % Pts Won	69/91 (76%)	56/75 (75%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	27/46 (59%)	35/70 (50%)
Break Points Won	6/13 (46%)	4/12 (33%)
Net Approaches	12/17 (71%)	4/10 (40%)
Total Receiving Points Won	59/150 (39%)	49/145 (34%)
Total Service Points Won	96/145 (61%)	91/150 (66%)
Total Points Won	155/295 (52%)	140/295 (48%)

As expected, Nadal cruised over Melzer (6-2 6-3 7-6 [6]).

It's fairly obvious from the stats that Rafa was all over Melzer's serve and that Melzer could not get much of a toehold into Rafa's serve.

	Melzer	Nadal
Unforced Errors	32	24
Winners	29	37
1st Serve %	72/99 (73%)	65/85 (76%)
Aces	3	4
DF	2	4
1st Serve % Pts Won	41/72 (57%)	49/65 (75%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	10/25 (40%)	11/16 (69%)
Break Points Won	2/3 (67%)	5/8 (63%)
Net Approaches	19/35 (54%)	13/19 (68%)
Total Receiving Points Won	25/85 (29%)	48/99 (48%)
Total Service Points Won	51/99 (52%)	60/85 (71%)
Total Points Won	76/184 (42%)	108/184 (58%)

From the way Rafa has been playing, the only question is how long Sod can slow him down from walking away with the La Coupe des Mousquetaires.

Roland Garros 2010: Women's Semifinals

The finalists are surprising. Stosur was one to watch out for but had to beat Allez Bitch, ReeRee and Lady JaJa. Franny was not really on the radar screen of most.



Kudos to Franny who outplayed (ever so slightly) a gimpy Demy in the 1st and only set (7-6[3] retire). I thin toward the end of the set she made the adjustment to hit heavier topsin shots so that she played excellent defense as Demy kept trying to break down her one-handed backhand. A real bummer for Lena who has been always been the bridesmaid at a Slam, but never the bride. The injury to her left calf that she sustained in her earlier rounds caught up to her and she might miss Wimbledon.

	Schiavone	Dementieva
Unforced Errors	12	24
Winners	12	15
1st Serve %	60%	71%
Aces	1	2
DF	2	4
1st Serve % Pts Won	20/27 (74%)	23/35 (66%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	7/18 (39%)	5/14 (36%)
Break Points Won	1/4 (25%)	1/1 (100%)
Net Approaches	8/10 (80%)	6/7 (86%)
Total Receiving Points Won	19/45 (42%)	14/43 (33%)
Total Service Points Won	29/43 (67%)	26/45 (58%)
Total Points Won	48/94 (51%)	46/94 (49%)

Noting spectacular from the statistics side, as would be expected from a set that goes to a tiebreaker.



I was not entirely surprised that Sam terminated Lady JaJa (6-1 6-2). Yeah, that kick serve and heavy topspin FH does wonders on clay. WTA, take notice! When your second serve is a weapon, you really have nothing to fear.

	Stosur	Jankovic
Unforced Errors	16	22
Winners	18	9
1st Serve %	61%	74%
Aces	7	2
DF	4	1
1st Serve % Pts Won	25/31 (81%)	13/24 (38%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	8/16 (50%)	7/11 (60%)
Break Points Won	5/10 (50%)	1/5 (20%)
Net Approaches	4/6 (80%)	4/6 (67%)
Total Receiving Points Won	26/46 (57%)	18/51 (35%)
Total Service Points Won	33/51 (65%)	20/46 (43%)
Total Points Won	59/97 (60%)	38/97 (40%)

From the stats it is pretty obvious that Sam was all over JaJa's first serve. It's a pretty good bet that in most of the points, Sam took immediate control.

Sam has been playing very consistent and steady clay-court tennis, and plays better offense than Franny. Tactically, Sam should adjust to attack Franny's FH with an inside-in FH or BH DTL. Franny will need to hope that her high bouncing topspin shots or BH slices can frustrate Sam. But none of that from Henin really frustrated her. From the way Sam has been playing, I think the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen is on her racquet.

Roland Garros 2010: The Other Semifinalists

In the match of the day, Superhero prevailed over ReeRee by showing heart (6-2 6-7 [2] 8-6). She played a tight game in the second set where she had a chance to serve out the match at 5-4 but let ReeRee back into the match for a third set. ReeRee had a match point in the 3rd set on Sam's serve but Sam saved the MP on an FH DTL approach shot that forced an error from ReeRee. One would have expected Sam would have wilted but she didn't. She came up with the goods even though she wasn't certain she would have a second chance to win the match.

After losing that game, yeah, things kind of stepped up a notch from her. Yeah, I didn't know if I was gonna get another chance.
That third set just kind of hung in there, and I was behind the whole time serving second. Just tried to hang in and wait for another opportunity.
Then I got one at 6 All, and thankfully I took it.

The first set established the tone of the match with Sam dictating the rallies with her forehand, kick serve and backhand slice. The backhand slice negated a lot of ReeRee's power and clearly bothered her.

Jankovic quietly triumphed over the unseeded Shvedova (7-5 6-4).

It was long five-set battle, but the more mentally tough Melzer came back from the dead to beat the Djoker (3-6 2-6 6-2 7-6 [3] 6-4)

Not entirely a surprise, as the Djoker needed to put this one away quickly or else he would have to depend on his dodgy serve getting him out of the fifth set. Which it didn't.

Melzer will face the Clay Monster who prevailed over his fellow Spaniard Nico.

While it was a tight three-setter (7-6 7-6 6-4), perhaps Nico could have taken a set off of Rafa as he did in Madrid.

Roland Garros 2010: Surprise Semifinalists

The biggest surprise, by far, is the end of TMF's record of 23 consecutive appearances in Grand Slam finals courtesy of General Sod the Evil One (3-6, 6-3, 7-5 6-4).




Many (like Bozo, FYB and Killer) think that Sod's ability to hit big was the sufficient condition for his win and keep Fed on his heels. As Killer put it, Sod played Red Line tennis for three sets and shot the moon.

I'm in the minority (with Fed incidentally). While I think Sod had to play his game (hit big), I don't think that was enough to bet Fed. From the match statistics, everything was even except for breaks of serve. I think that the net gain of winners to UFE favored Fed (+13 to +7). Perhaps the forced error advantage to Soderling (+9) washes out those Fed's UFE/winner advantage for a measly +3 point advantage. In conclusion, it's not hard to guess that the difference in the match got down to break points.

	Federer	Soderling
Unforced Errors	27	42
Forced Errors	48	39
Winners	40	49
1st Serve %	64%	64%
Aces	12	14
DF	2	5
1st Serve % Pts Won	56/76 (74%)	59/81 (73%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	23/41 (56%)	25/39 (64%)
Break Points Won	2/7 (29%)	4/9 (44%)
Net Approaches	13/17 (76%)	18/30 (60%)
Total Receiving Points Won	42/126 (33%)	40/119 (34%)
Total Service Points Won	79/119 (66%)	84/126 (67%)
Total Points Won	121/245 (49%)	124/245 (51%)

A key point was set point on Sod's serve in the 3rd at 4-5 where Fed replied to a Sod overhead in the deuce corner (by the fence) with an overhead. Then Soderling hit a backhand overhead reply crosscourt to save set point. After a rain delay in which the umpires waited a point to suspend the match while it was pouring, Fed double faulted on his serve to hand Sod a break point which he converted with a FH approach shot.

Afterwards Fed had this to say:

Q. In any case, before the stop you had a set point, so it could have been another story, or he started playing flat?

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, best of five set matches you always get chances, and I definitely had those at, what was it, 5 4, Love 30? I mean, he missed a forehand that was close to go up at Love 30, and then he had a forehand that just touches the line a little bit to go maybe Love 40 instead of, you know, 15 30. So that's obviously a big change.
The backhand smash he hit he catches with the frame a little bit, you know. I mean, that was kind of a hard shot to hit, I thought. That kind of shot from my side with the smash and stuff is very unusual.
So hit it well, you know. But he played aggressive and kept on coming. When the conditions got more heavy when we came back from the rain delay, he played well, you know.
That was a tough set for me to lose after having those chances and being up 40 15 on my serve when I came back.

One other consequence of Fed losing in the quarters is that he will loses the chance to break Sampras' record at the number of weeks holding the #1 ranking this summer if Rafa wins the French. Rafa will displace Fed as #1.

Q. As you look inside yourself, what is worse for you: having been beaten in quarterfinals and have no chance to win another Grand Slam title, or let the chance open to lose the No. 1?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, you just take the defeat as it is. You don't think of the consequences. I guess most disappointed I am that I can't defend my title here. I really felt like my tennis was good enough to come here and do it again, but that was not the case today.
So it's more the disappointment in having maybe not delivered my very best performance today, conditions and opponents didn't allow me to.
And, yeah, then you move on. You know, you move on to the grass and forget a little bit.

Big Berd continued to show good form by triumphing over Head Banger (6-3 6-1 6-2).





Kudos to Franny who triumphed over Caro (6-2, 6-3) to earn her first semifinal appearance in a Grand Slam.

Caro gave all credit to Franny:

She played well. She played with a lot of spin. She didn't make a lot of mistakes. She played aggressive. She was playing better than me today. I was always one step behind.

By using a lot of spin, Franny actually beat Caro at her normal retriever-style tennis.

Franny will face LenaD who triumphed over a gimpy Nads (2-6, 6-2, 6-0). This is tough to believe after the clay-court season LenaD had been having.

Roland Garros 2010: The Queen of Clay Has Fallen!

Sam broke Allez Bitch's streak of 24 consecutive wins at Roland Garros (2-6 6-1 6-4). While I thought that Allez Bitch had an excellent chance to win the French Open, I didn't think she was the overwhelming favorite. Tennis is a game of probabilities, and even champions who are supposed to win can lose. She had a couple things against her: a dodgy/inconsistent serve and a draw from hell. Sam was one of those obstacles she had to but could not surmount. All credit to Sam, as she played her game. JuJu praised Sam's game yesterday.

She has beautiful qualities on clay because she plays kind of a man’s tennis. I mean, she has very heavy balls. She is a very powerful girl.

The keys to the match, in my opinion, were whether Sam could maintain her nerves when she got ahead. After JuJu handed Sam a service break at 2-1 with a double fault, Sam had the match on her racquet but gifted the break back with two double faults. Sam finally made a crucial hold at 3-4, and then broke JuJu's service game.

How did Sam get the momentum? From what I saw, Sam had a more reliable 2nd serve that would keep her ahead in the points, and Sam's fearhand was doing a better job of dictating play especially out of an inside-out shot to the backhand. In the 3rd set, JuJu kept trying to thread the needle of getting the ball into Sam's weaker BH but refused to go for the BH DTL (or inside-in FH) when Sam was so clearly favoring her FH in ad crosscourt exchanges.

	Henin	Stosur
Unforced Errors	29	33
Winners	14	26
1st Serve %	56%	54%
Aces	4	2
DF	7	7
1st Serve % Pts Won	32/45 (71%)	29/44 (66%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	14/29 (48%)	21/30 (70%)
Break Points Won	3/7 (43%)	4/6 (67%)
Net Approaches	6/8 (75%)	15/19 (79%)
Total Receiving Points Won	31/81 (38%)	35/81 (43%)
Total Service Points Won	46/81 (57%)	50/81 (62%)
Total Points Won	77/162 (47%)	85/162 (52%)

From the stats, there is no question that Sam was the better player. Sam was able to use her forehand to get to net more frequently and effectively, and was able to defend her second serve more effectively. Hopefully, this will give JuJu some time to work on her 2nd serve.

Sam will face ReeRee to play for a place in the semis. On clay, Sam has a better chance since it will be harder for ReeRee to overpower her opponents. Sam will have to maintain her nerves against ReeRee's gamesmanship. And she should since she has the firepower to keep up.

Roland Garros 2010: Middle Sunday

Caro wore down Flavs with her usual brand of Golden Retriever tennis (7-6 [4] 6-7 [5] 6-2)

She'll face another Italian: Franny, who frustrated MaKiri by keeping a billion balls in play (6-4 6-4)

JuJu survived Shrieka's ice stare and fireballs to play Sam for a place in the quarters to take the 3rd set after play was suspended last night (6-2 3-6 6-3).

BTW, Tigs noticed Masha's new tic. Instead of combing her hair before she serves, she clenches her fist before she receives serve.


Demy had a relatively easy match over Scheepers (6-1 6-3).

She'll face Nads who demonstrated improved defence to "upset" Vee (6-4 6-3).

In the battle of big fast guys who are supposed to be the future, Sod handed a beatdown to Cilic (6-4 6-4 6-2).

Sod will try to get his first official career win over the Greatest Shanker of All Time, who beat his friend and compatriot Wawa (6-3 7-6 [5] 6-2)

Big Berd feasted on Muzzard who has not had a great clay court season.

He'll face Head Banger who advanced due to the retirement of Jo Willy because of a hip injury.