French Open Today

The men

No major upsets, but some interesting matches just ahead.  They include:

1) Bernie Tomic vs Borna Coric.: Two young players; the first a little nuts, the second very driven, and both quite talented.

2) Davbid Ferrer vs Juan Monaco:  Ferrer is a bit more vulnerable than a few years ago, and Monaco is a great clay court player.  He won the US clay court championships earlier this year.  Expect some long points!

3) Raonic vs Mannarino:  Mannarino is kind of a tough out to face early.  Should be interesting to see how Raonic handles it.

4) Jack Sock vs Dustin Brown.  Sock has that great forehand and is quite a lot of fun to watch.  Brown is a fantastic shot-maker and shows that you can be extremely entertaining to watch without acting like an idiot.

The women

Kerber and Azarenka out.  Kerber went down to Kiki Bertens (current rank, 58) as her spotty play since winning in Australia continues.  Azarenka retired in the third set against Karin Knapp with, guess what?  Another injury, this time to the right knee.  Azarenka is a walking orthopedics textbook. 

Interesting upcoming matches:

1) A. Radwanska vs Garcia.  Aggie should prevail, but Garcia is very dangerous and is playing on her home turf (should I say “dirt”?).  Could be fun to watch.

2) Louisa Chirico vs Venus Williams.  How far has Chirico’s game developed?  We might get a feel for that in this match.  Venus is not on her best surface, but is obviously a top player.  A couple of things about Venus: One of the interesting features of Sjogren’s Syndrome, with which Venus has been diagnosed, is that it often simply disappears.  Venus’ play over the past several months suggests she has been fortunate enough to have this condition subside.  Also, don’t worry about retinal exhaustion if you watch Venus.  She’s traded in her blinding outfits of 2015 for more visually soothing garb.

3) Eugenie Bouchard vs Timea Bacsinszki.  Bouchard has a world of talent but has struggled to maintain her form.  She now suggests that her problems are psychological, and has apparently developed some issues with excessive weight loss.  When a young female pro tennis player isn’t eating, attention should be paid.  Bacsinszki is a very dangerous player, seeded 8.   Expect her to win, but it will be interesting to see how Bouchard is doing.

4) Taylor Townsend, who had to play her way to a wild card, is still in it.  She can really hit a tennis ball!  She will play Elina Svitolina, seeded 18, a very tough opponent.  One might expect clay to be a good surface for Townsend.  Let’s see.

French Open Second Day Highlights

The Men:

Finished:

Kei Nishikori completed his dominant performance against Simone Bolelli.

Stan Wawrinka survived an entertaining slugfest with Lukas Rosol.  Rosol can be dangerous, as Rafa Nadal will attest to.

Marin Cilic was upset by Marco Trungelliti of Argentina (ranked 166).  Several umpire overrules contested in this one.

Jack Sock won the 5^th set against Robin Haase.  Sock received loud jeers after he yelled exultantly upon attaining a match point.  The fans were off base on that one.  There’s nothing wrong with being happy about reaching match point in the 5^th set of a major, and the point was not won on a bad error by Haase.  The fans should know that Jack Sock has shown a very high level of sportsmanship throughout the year (more on that later).

Unfinished

Andy Murray got down two sets to love against Radek Stepanek, then won the third set and is up a break in the 4^th.  Hard to believe Murray could go out to Stepanek, given the stages of their respective careers, but Stepanek is an experienced, crafty player, and nobody in the French Open is a bad player.  That one will be followed closely.

The women

Finished

Garbine Muguruza dropped a set (set #1) for the first time against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.  She had a chance to break back late in the first set, but forgot something:  When you have a better forehand, better backhand, better serve, better net skills, and comparable court coverage ability compared to your opponent, you should build points and work for easy openings rather than going for lines early in points.  Despite her amnesia, though, she prevailed. 

Nicole Gibbs went on to lose to Heather Watson.  Gibbs couldn’t find a shot with which to hurt Watson in the third set.

Halep and Radwanska breezed.

Some good wins for American women:  Sloane Stevens beat Margarita Gasparyan, Coco Vandewegh beat the hard hitting Naomi Broady, and the big one: Shelby Rogers beat Karolina Pliskova, a bad loss for Pliskova.

Unfinished

Nothing very dramatic here.  Varvara Lepchenko is likely to lose to Ekaterina Makarova.  No shame in that.

French Open First Day Highlights

Schedule truncated by bad weather.  Here’s what did happen:

The Men:

Finished:

Nick Kyrgios beat Marco Cecchinato in straight sets.  A good sign for Kyrgios was that he controlled his temper fairly well and stayed focused after being hit with a questionable verbal abuse misconduct warning for speaking rudely to a ball boy(!).  Regardless of whether the warning was justified, Kyrgios deserves credit for not going completely off the rails (he did get pretty angry).  Nick’s brother watched from the friends box.  After what that guy said about Donna Vekic, I can’t help getting a little nauseated every time I see him!

Benoit Paire survived a 5-setter against Radu Albot.  He shouldn’t let matches like this one be so close.

Unfinished:

Nishikori is dominating Bolelli and looking very tough.

Sock is into a fifth set against Robin Haase.  Sock is a lot of fun to watch and a good sport.  Hope he wins so we can see him again!

The women

Finished:

Petra Kvitova prevailed in 3 sets against Danka Kovinic, ranked 57.  A typical Kvitova match, where she looked unbeatable for a set and a half, then dropped her level abysmally to lose the first set and find her opponent serving for the match in the final set.  Luckily for Petra, Kovinic took a very short ball at 5-4 deuce and, instead of putting it away to gain a match point, hit it softly to Kvitova’s forehand.  Petra promptly hit the passing shot, went on to break serve, and turned her game back up to ultimately win.  Kvitova can never dominate the tour if she persists with this “Jekyll and Hyde” pattern of play.

Lucie Safarova, a finalist last year, looked strong in a straight set win.  That’s nice to see, as she has been beleaguered with health problems that have hampered her play for quite some time.

Unfinished:

Nicole Gibbs is in a third set with Heather Watson.  Gibbs is beginning to show signs of strong play. 

Svetlana Kuznetsova is also in a third set with Yaroslava Shvedova, a physically strong player who is largely unknown to the casual fan.  She’s good though.

Roger - out but not over

Roger Federer has withdrawn from the French Open with lingering back issues, but insists that he remains as "motivated as ever" to continue his career.  This withdrawal ends a streak of 65 straight majors that he has participated in.

Is this "Roger, over and out" meaning that his career is over, or is he just out of this slam?  Right now I think we should take him at his word - that he is out of this one, but his career is not over.  More than likely he is thinking ahead to the heavy summer schedule which adds the Olympics to the regular tour stops.  Winning the Olympics in singles has always been a dream of Federer's and he probably wants to make sure he is completely healthy for that competition.

Still, this withdrawal reminds us all that Roger's legendary career will not last forever, and will end sooner than we all would like.  The best thing for us all to do is enjoy his remaining matches to the fullest, knowing that we are not likely to see another like him for a very long time, if ever.

An added note:  Gael Monfils is also out with a viral infection.

Improving the challenge system- the umpire challenge.

When Hawkeye first came along and the players were allowed to challenge line calls, many players were skeptical of being made “responsible” for calling lines.  Now that players are accustomed to Hawkeye, however, their main concern is the opposite: they feel that they don’t have enough challenges per set (they are allowed three incorrect challenges, one extra in the event of a tiebreak).  The desire for more challenge opportunities is perfectly understandable given what’s at stake for players and the desire of fans to see matches won by the right player rather than by errant line calls.   With these issues in mind, the following change in the challenge system is proposed:

In situations where a close shot will either be a clean winner or an error – that is, when the opposing player has no chance to reach the ball, the umpire should have the option of calling an “umpire’s challenge” so that Hawkeye can be used to determine if the ball was in or out.  The umpire should be allowed an unlimited number of these challenges per set.  If the umpire is sure the line call was correct and doesn’t wish to challenge, the player then has the option of using one of his own three challenges. 

In these situations, it would never be necessary to replay the point in question, so the game would not be held up, and the controversy that sometimes arises when points need to be replayed would be avoided. 

One of the concerns over excessive challenging is that it might slow the game down.  However, a look at football challenges and basketball replay checks shows that everyone is willing to take a few seconds more to make sure the right call is made.  Hawkeye in tennis is much faster than the other examples mentioned here, and as technology improves, it should get faster still.   In reality fans actually enjoy their sense of anticipation as they await the posting of the Hawkeye image.

So let’s have more fun, and get it right more often too!

FRENCH OPEN PICKS – THE WOMEN

Most likely to succeed

1) Serena Williams.  Although she hasn’t played much this year, she is still far and away the best player on the women’s tour, a status corroborated by her recent Italian Open win.  Her only possible vulnerability stems from her difficulty in getting up for every match.  According to Chris Evert, who should know, the chance of being “flat” for a match increases with age, and Williams is getting on in years.  Given that she’s playing for an historic 22^nd grand slam win, she is likely to be paying attention, and thus, she is the odds-on favorite.

2) Victoria Azarenka.  She played outstanding tennis at Indian Wells and Miami, and might have been the number one choice to win the French had her problems with injury not surfaced yet again.  She retired from a match in Madrid and went out pretty meekly in Rome with back issues.  This is a “wait and see” situation, but when healthy this year, she has dominated opponents, and took out Serena Williams in the Indian Wells final.

3) Angelique Kerber.  Now that she’s won a major she knows what it takes. She is a fabulous defender with a very good down-the-line forehand.  Her lefty serve also gives her a slight bonus. 

4) Garbine Muguruza.  Still a young player, she is very strong physically, has a great serve, and her ground stokes on both sides are very powerful.  She moves well for her size.  In 2014 she blew Serena Williams off the court at the French Open.  Her play at the end of 2015 was also awesome.  She has two weaknesses:  plantar fasciitis, which has hampered her on and off this year, and the propensity to check out from matches emotionally and mentally.   When she’s fully engaged she’s very dangerous and great to watch.

They have a chance

1) Simona Halep.  One of the great defenders in the game with tremendous skill at redirecting the ball from the baseline.  Her play has been a bit inconsistent this year, but her performance in 2015 clearly shows her to be a real threat.

2) Petra Kvitova.  When she plays her best, she can beat anyone, anytime, anywhere.  The problem is, she doesn’t always play her best.  Grass is clearly her favorite surface, but she has the power and skill to prevail at the French.

3) Agnieszka Radwanska.   She is perhaps the most fascinating player to watch on the women’s side.  A great defender who understands court geometry and who knows how to put her opponent in uncomfortable positions.  Her lack of a finishing shot has always been a problem.  I think a faster surface is really better for her than clay, but she is so good she has to be considered in the mix.

Long shots

1) Svetlana Kuznetsova.  She won the French Op;en in 2009 and the US Open in 2004, so she knows what to do.  She has had a bit of a resurgence this year.  An awesome forehand, a good serve and a good mover for her size.

2) Madison Keys.  Tremendous power is her calling card.  She likes clay, and this year’s clay court swing indicates that she may finally be harnessing that power by going for winners at the right time instead of all the time.  She still has a tendency to over-hit her forehand.

3) Karolina Pliskova.  The second best serve in the game, with powerful groundies that remind one of Thomas Berdych – easy power!  She is not the most agile player, and has a habit of letting nervousness cause her to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Her outstanding play in Fed Cup may herald a coming out party for her at the French.

Dangerous floaters

1) Caroline Garcia.  Currently ranked 55.  This player has extraordinary talent but can be inconsistent.  Stay away from her when she’s on, though.  The French Open is her home major.

2) Daria Gavrilova.  Currently ranked 45.  If you want to see someone who leaves it all out there in every match, watch Gavrilova!  Not the biggest or strongest player, but an awesomely intense competitor who has beaten some very highly ranked opponents.

3) Christina McHale.  Currently ranked 65.  An intelligent player with a terrific forehand who showed in Italy how dangerous she can be. 

Others to keep an eye on

Eugenie Bouchard, Sloane Stevens, Johanna Konta, Jelena Jankovic, Dominika Cibulkova.  These players all have the potential to excuse anyone from the tournament.  Bouchard’s victory over Kerber in a tight match in Rome puts her on the list.