ROLAND GARROS 2016

fed out!

aw

not surprised tbh

Fed out = aw
Woz out = lol

fed out!

Is the apocalypse coming soon?

Oh god will people stop being so sentimental about Federer, srsly. From Twitter reactions you'd think this was never expected to happen ever

Much sadder about Bencic being out and apparently seriously injured at her age. Old players being injured is just how it's meant to be.

Monfils out as well :/

:/

Ostapenko and Kasatkina both seeded on their RG debuts, whoa. Kasatkina wasn't even ranked high enough to get into qualies last year.

Buyukakcay's just qualified to become the first Turkish woman to play a GS singles MD in history. Chance for a double debut with Soylu playing later, too.

Serena-Vika QF haha yes

Buyukakcay's just qualified to become the first Turkish woman to play a GS singles MD in history. Chance for a double debut with Soylu playing later, too.

Double debut happened, and Marsel Ilhan came through for Turkey on the men's side too!

IMO Chirico, Buyukakcay and Siniakova should have all got WCs ahead of the local scrubs and Arina fucking Rodionova so it's good to see them all make it through Qs.

Kiki Bertens just won Nürnberg as a qualifier. Weirdly enough her only other title (Fès 2012) came as a qualifier too. First Q to win a WTA title since Vandeweghe, 's-Hertogenbosch 2014.

Lucic-Baroni could make it two Q titlists in the same day, she's in her second Strasbourg final 19 years after her first, which she lost to Graf. Graf said after the '97 match that Mirjana was better than she'd been at 15 ;_;

Strange match in Nice. Pretty level under 4-5 in the first set, when Zverev had an ill-timed nosebleed, came back from the timeout and basically handed the set to Thiem. Thiem went up a break and Zverev looked out of it, Thiem played a horribly loose game and Zverev rode the momentum to the second set with Thiem holding his shoulder. And then after a MTO Thiem comes out and loses 5 points in the decider. This was his first title last year and now it's his 6th. Not that he should have been here at all given how heavy his clay schedule's been, and that's going to cost him if he makes the projected R4 match vs Rafa at RG...

yeah I agree but it's not like he exhausted himself in Nice - his first three matches took 3 hours combined. Maybe he would have withdrawn if he had played a longer match.

PICKS!

(1) Serena Williams d. Timea Babos
(Q) Sorana Cirstea d. (WC) Océane Dodin
(22) Dominika Cibulkova d. (12) Carla Suárez Navarro
(5) Victoria Azarenka d. (28) Andrea Petkovic
(29) Daria Kasatkina d. (3) Angelique Kerber
(15) Madison Keys d. Monica Puig
(9) Venus Williams d. (23) Jelena Jankovic
(8) Timea Bacsinszky d. Irina Falconi
(25) Irina-Camelia Begu d. Kateryna Bondarenko
Madison Brengle d. (10) Petra Kvitova
(13) Svetlana Kuznetsova d. (Q) Cagla Buyukakcay
(4) Garbiñe Muguruza d. (27) Ekaterina Makarova
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni d. (6) Simona Halep
(11) Lucie Safarova d. (21) Samantha Stosur
(19) Sloane Stephens d. (16) Sara Errani
(30) Barbora Strycova d. (2) Agnieszka Radwanska

S.Williams d. Cirstea
Cibulkova d. Azarenka
Kasatkina d. Keys
Bacsinszky d. V.Williams
Begu d. Brengle
Kuznetsova d. Muguruza
Safarova d. Lucic-Baroni
Stephens d. Strycova

S.Williams d. Cibulkova
Kasatkina d. Bacsinszky
Kuznetsova d. Begu
Stephens d. Safarova

S.Williams d. Kasatkina
Kuznetsova d. Stephens

S.Williams d. Kuznetsova

(1) Novak Djokovic d. (31) Federico Delbonis
(14) Roberto Bautista Agut d. Borna Coric
Juan Monaco d. Victor Estrella Burgos
(25) Pablo Cuevas d. (7) Tomas Berdych
(4) Rafael Nadal d. Marcel Granollers
(13) Dominic Thiem d. Pierre-Hugues Herbert
(12) David Goffin d. Nicolas Almagro
(6) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d. Ernests Gulbis
(8) Milos Raonic d. (29) Lucas Pouille
(10) Marin Cilic d. (23) Jack Sock
(16) Gilles Simon d. (22) Viktor Troicki
(3) Stan Wawrinka d. (30) Jérémy Chardy
(5) Kei Nishikori d. Fernando Verdasco
(17) Nick Kyrgios d. (9) Richard Gasquet
(19) Benoît Paire d. Kyle Edmund
(2) Andy Murray d. (Q) Laslo Djere

Djokovic d. Bautista Agut
Monaco d. Cuevas
Nadal d. Thiem
Goffin d. Tsonga
Raonic d. Cilic
Wawrinka d. Simon
Nishikori d. Kyrgios
Murray d. Paire

Djokovic d. Monaco
Nadal d. Goffin
Wawrinka d. Raonic
Murray d. Nishikori

Djokovic d. Nadal
Murray d. Wawrinka

Djokovic d. Murray

Genuinely nearly fell asleep doing the men's bottom half but the women's bottom half doesn't seem nutty enough by half.

Strong chance that Garcia repeats her 60 30 Cibulkova choke against Radwanska!

Azarenka/Knapp R1 is a rematch of the 2007 R1, which Knapp won 61 61, lol.

tuned in to see Petra hit three DFs to get broken at 4-4 in the third set

Kovinic fucked up a gimme deuce point at *5-4 and Kvitova ran away with it.

this Paire match is everything you would expect

so many dropshits

Muguruza a set down to this year's worst slumper, Schmiedlova :o

and Rosol is rosoling vs Wawrinka

Lisicki just tried to run around a FH and hit it literally straight into the ground in front of her. I played tennis on a hangover yesterday and hit many bad FHs and none were as bad as that

Errani losing a clay court match to Pironkova o_O

Dimitrov's meltdown was quite funny. Fourth straight loss, third straight RG R1 exit. This Nike tweet was probably ill-advised https://twitter.com/Nikecourt/status/734053660049580032

Buyukakcay became the first Turkish woman to win a Slam match!

Osaka/Ostapenko was a pretty interesting battle of the 1997 generation, Osaka dealt with the damp clay conditions better than I expected. Ostapenko needs a better serve.

Pavlasek/Carballes Baena was probably the highest quality match no one watched

I am dying at that Nike tweet

I mean, there are so many possible accurate answers to it

Sexpanek continuing what he began in Madrid. That's an upset I could get behind

oh god he licked his contact lens before he put it in his eye oh god oh god

wow step is 37! hadn't realized he was so old

I have never been more disgusted at anything I've seen on or off a tennis court

come on radek

lol @ Murray

Siegemund-Bouchard on court 15 with the worst quality stream smh

Coric grinding down Fritz w ease atm, only blip so far was a minor choke serving for the set

Kerber a set down to Bertens...

Bertens is fun to watch

Fran is starting to do her thing vs Kiki

so many matches to watch right now :/

Fran/Kiki was more of a mess than I thought it would be. Fran apparently can't hit overheads these days.

CSN/Siniakova is fun...

gosh what a MP save by Kerber

but on the third plays an inexplicable dropshot and is out

That was some comeback from Pouille today - resumed down 3-5 in the fourth vs Benneteau, saved 7-8 SPs (I lost track) across three separate games then came back from 1-3 in the TB to win, and with really strong tennis too. Weird to see him seeded suddenly after his surprise Rome run but he dealt with the pressure well.

Not sure if I've ever seen a man as physically imposing as Groth made to look so helpless in any context as his "match" vs Nadal

Knowing Satanrenka has been ~extremely injured~ again I actually put a fiver on her to lose to Knapp at 20-1. That first set was thus extremely to my liking but I fear the next won't be.

I've watched this for 5 minutes and Azarenka has hit the ground with her racquet more times than she has hit the ball in court

I no longer care, I cashed out in-play and took my $75 and if Knapp seals the deal that's the cherry on the cake.

wait who am I kidding, Satanrenka losing is always something I care about

Sort of hope she gets through bc I like Sevastova, her R2 opponent, more than Knapp

If Azarenka's knee felt fine at the end of that set it definitely doesn't now. I don't know why she's insisting on continuing...

So she can shorten her career, presumably. No complaints here.

Seriously though, her fitness team must be negligent.

lol @ the crowd laughing at her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0n2A1gkoiA

Pereira/Pliskova and Mathieu/Giraldo made for simultaneous late-night classics there. polysyllabic grunts and immense stylistic contrasts in the former, beef and hormones and the home crowd in the latter. Pereira won 9-7 in the third and Mathieu won 6-3 in the fifth

Osaka just saved Halep from Lucic-Baroni...but maybe Osaka could be the bigger problem! I'm so impressed with her. She's played two Slams, made R3 and beaten a seed in both, and this RG run is even more impressive given that she's such a red clay novice (never played on it before last month and her power game is unsuited to it to say the least). First post-Williams player of note to skip juniors entirely?

lol @ Murray, redux

Bourgue PEAKED when serving for a 2 sets to 1 lead. goodness. those dropshots and that BH DTL.

Bourgue definitely not peaking, Murray survives fuckery again

Elsewhere, Simon has retrieved a 4-6 1-6 14 deficit vs Pella to take the third set...

Pella has lost his break lead in the fourth set as well, lol

Pella served for the match and was broken, then lost the TB, lol

So Simon, this match

The Beck/Bondarenko MP was pretty special. Longest rally of the women's tournament so far.

http://video.eurosport.de/tennis/french-open-frauen/2016/french-open-2016-annika-beck-verwandelt-irren-matchball_vid788145/video.shtml

Good to see some coverage of the Turkish milestone too - http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/5597927/title/turkish-delight-in-paris

from 1-4 down Bacsinszky has been ruthlessly exposing every one of Bouchard's flaws. Seven games in a row

Timea's backhand is such a great shot

even her forehand looks good lol

Nine games in a row lol

BAGEL HA

I was expecting Bacsinszky to drag by bringing Bouchard to net with her dropshots and exposing Bouchard's terrible volleying but she hasn't even needed to do that

all these errors off moonballs <3

Putintseva has started GROWLING after winning big games! I love her

the #comeback is on :/

Putintseva wins the first point after an umpire dispute and we get three kinds of fistpump in different directions and five C'MONs

Not sure what Bacsinszky thought she was doing in that last stretch but Bouchard is bad enough that it didn't matter

Petko losing by that scoreline makes me wonder how terrible Robson must have played

Robson is nowhere near WTA level and for her own sake these protected rankings and WCs need to run out soon

Gulbis in R3 without losing a set o_O

GGL-Thiem is a fun match right now

Thiem really peaked in the last few games, lots of great BH to BH rallies

lol @ Tomic, down SP with an open court, tapping the overhead literally into Coric's hitting zone

Try as I might, I cannot name another tennis player who wears his or her newfound privilege so boldly as Bernard Tomic. I detest him and cheer every time he loses.

Imagine if Tomic and Vandeweghe started dating

Opposite end of the spectrum - Serena's current opponent, Teliana Pereira.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/sports/tennis/brazilian-tennis-players-success-follows-a-childhood-of-obstacles.html?_r=0

Didier Rayon, who ran the academy, became a mentor to Teliana. He said he did not think anyone in the upper echelons of tennis “ever started as poor as Teliana.”

Cornet is such a ridiculous person. The time-outs, the staggering, the exhortations, the drama, the falling to the ground as though she'd just won the RG final rather than the RG R2. Would love to know what Maria said to her on the handshake to accompany that stern finger-wag

NAOMI OSAKA

First set over Halep! Doing to her exactly what Lucic would have done.

Osaka fell off but goodness, that was her seventh red clay match EVER and she pushed a former RG finalist to three sets.

*ignores Petra forever*

(BAGELLED BY SHELBY ROGERS??????)

0-6, 7-6, 0-6

Of course

aaaaan Rafa's out, wrist injury

rafa out!

https://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/736205516314005505

Tsveti <3 this run came completely out of nowhere!

also lmao @ stephens

Pironkova always peaking with no warning, lol

Stephens plays so reactively for someone who actually has power

That point was better than advertised

damn tsonga has to retire up 5-2 first set

going 3rd venus/cornet

So, out of Granollers - Thiem, Gulbis - (Goffin or Almagro), one will make the semis... And, of the five, only Gulbis has a major semifinal to his credit. Huge opportunity here. I had predicted Goffin to lose to Nadal in the quarters, so I suppose I'd stick with him, but this seems like Thiem's spot to lose.

Venus putting Cornet out of everyone's misery is much appreciated.

I read on a disreputable site that Kvitova blamed her loss on her period. Smh, why am I a fan of this woman.

Serena/Mladenovic was the first match I have seen in full this year, and it was very good. If Granollers makes a semi, I will quit watching tennis, he is gross.

I hadn't read that about Kvitova, but I know Jankovic did exactly that a couple of years ago. And if Petra is taking cues from Jankovic...

Bertens vs Kasatkina now 8-8 in third set. Bertens was finished but Kasatkina suddenly can barely move. Serves like a child does and plays Chang vs Lendl type high balls. Both absolutely knackered.

(Bertens has already missed 5 mp's)

10-8 for Bertens

so disappointing for Kasatkina, she had such a great shot at the SF!

Thiem making a Slam SF was only a matter of time, Goffin's reached two Masters SFs this year too. Those two would be far from random SFists.

your last 16s!

(1) Serena Williams vs. (18) Elina Svitolina
(12) Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Yulia Putintseva
Kiki Bertens vs. (15) Madison Keys
(9) Venus Williams vs. (8) Timea Bacsinszky
(25) Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Shelby Rogers
(13) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. (4) Garbiñe Muguruza
(6) Simona Halep vs. (21) Samantha Stosur
Tsvetana Pironkova vs. (2) Agnieszka Radwanska

That's really not a bad line-up at all. Predicting Serena, CSN, Keys, Venus, Rogers, Muguruza, Halep, Pironkova.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (14) Roberto Bautista Agut
(11) David Ferrer vs. (7) Tomas Berdych
Marcel Granollers vs. (13) Dominic Thiem
(12) David Goffin vs. Ernests Gulbis
(8) Milos Raonic vs. Albert Ramos Viñolas
(22) Viktor Troicki vs. (3) Stan Wawrinka
(5) Kei Nishikori vs. (9) Richard Gasquet
(15) John Isner vs. (2) Andy Murray

so 12 of the top 16 made their allotted second week spot and 2 of the 4 who didn't were injured. Men's tennis! Predicting Djokovic, Berdych, Thiem, Goffin, Raonic, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Murray to continue the lack of excitement.

Muguruza's BH today >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

RAONIC OUT YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Also while I don't want it to happen I have this idea that Troicki might beat Wawrinka.

massive inside out DTL BH for gasquet to take set 1 off kei

damn richard!

gasquet a game away from the quarters

what a horrible final game from Kei, not even trying to make him play

weirdly for someone who's only fairly nerdy about tennis I can remember watching Shelby Rogers' run in Bad Gastein a couple of years ago, beating CSN and Errani. funny to see her reaching a slam QF after apparently not having done much since

Stosur is feeling it this year, huh

also what's going on with Pironkova

I wish I was at home watching all of this

I didn't see Sunday's play so the mystery to me is how Radwanska went 6-2 3-0 up on Pironkova in the first place if Pironkova was playing anything like this. Well, Aga finally seemed to get into it at 0-4 down but it's too late now I think.

Very pressed about the prospect of a Stosur run.

Djokovic struggling so much about RBA!

about? with

this rain is so lame

enjoying CSN/Putintseva very much right now! angles and spins and passes <3

I love Putintseva so much

Bertens is cruising, beating Keys 7-6, 6-3

Bertens and Bacsinszky served those matches out so well

Agreed!

PUTINTSEVAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! First Slam QF!

I have seen her blow a gazillion leads through becoming too passive so serving out to love with clinical and calm tennis was a bit of a curveball

lmao Djokovic down a break to RBA in the fourth.

Women's QFs set:

(1) Serena Williams vs. Yulia Putintseva
Kiki Bertens vs. (8) Timea Bacsinszky
Shelby Rogers vs. (4) Garbiñe Muguruza
(21) Samantha Stosur vs. Tsvetana Pironkova

Three first-time Slam QFists, two players out of the top 100. IMAGINE a Putintseva/Bertens/Rogers/Pironkova SF line-up!

Williams 2-0 Putintseva (1-0 on clay, 1-0 this year)
Bacsinszky 1-0 Bertens (via retirement while trailing)
Rogers 0-0 Muguruza
Stosur 4-1 Pironkova

RBA is now 0-6 in Slam R4s - highest number of R4 showings without a QF among active ATP players. Mathieu and Troicki are next with 5. Llodra, Monaco, Seppi, Goffin and Granollers have 4, though the latter two can change that if they win today.

The equivalent record on the WTA is held by Goerges with 4 R4s. Cornet, Daniilidou, Dellacqua, Razzano and Vesnina have 3.

Thiem into his first QF :)

Goffin into his first QF :)

given that my platonic ideal of a tennis match is a little player dismantling a bigger, more powerful player with defence and smarts and placement, I v much enjoyed Goffin beating Gulbis.

Men's QFs at last.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (7) Tomas Berdych
(13) Dominic Thiem vs. (12) David Goffin
Albert Ramos Vinolas vs. (3) Stan Wawrinka
(9) Richard Gasquet vs. (2) Andy Murray

I'd far rather have Thiem/Goffin there than Nadal.

Djokovic 23-2 Berdych (2-1 on clay, 2-0 this year)
Goffin 5-2 Thiem (1-1 on clay, Goffin 1-0 this year)
Wawrinka 6-0 Ramos Vinolas (4-0 on clay, 1-0 this year)
Murray 7-3 Gasquet (2-1 on clay)

lol @ Murray

go richard

lol @ Gasquet's collapse after that net cord

second bagel set of the tournament for Murray, lol

Stosur's game is a goddamn eyesore even when it's working

Thiem and Goffin playing in front of a 95% empty Lenglen, though the Lenglen line-up is unquestionably the better one day

lunch time in paris, I presume

really want to see a thiem-nole semi, their match in miami (?) was great

yeah Thiem/Djokovic would be more popcorn but Thiem's written before about how much trouble he has with Goffin's game, as evidenced by that hidden bagel Goffin dropped on him from 2-4 down I guess

xp yea I think that was Miami, thiem had sooo many break chances that match I recall

Thiem so agitated out there. Did so well to turn up the power from a set and 3-5 down but just dumped a smash into the net at 5-3 up in the TB...

Djokovic's attempts to be likeable are so awkward

Berdych has now lost 25 straight sets to the top 5, and 29 of his last 30 matches against them

Very impressive mental victory for Thiem. He was being talked of as the pre-match favourite - against an opponent he was 1-5 against (in finished matches), and for his first major SF. Ran away with it at the end.

Putintseva!

Once she realised Serena's BH was off she targeted it relentlessly, and her passes were very on point

Serena responds to going down a set by...stopping moving her feet altogether in the next game.

Moving her feet again and hitting actually good dropshots.

Kiki's in the semi's :)

KIKI

picked a good day to miss the tennis, huh

excited about the Serena/Garbiñe final at least!

so clutch from Garbine so far

apart from all the double faults...

That was such a brilliant match by Muguruza

Hell of a win. Looked like a star out there.

Wow, nice one!

Can't believe that was Muguruza's first clay final, let alone title, and only her third title overall. And so funny that the only set she lost was to Schmiedlova in R1 - Schmiedlova being in the biggest slump on the WTA this year (a 1-14 win-loss tour record now, I think).

Serena played less nervously than I thought she would - unlike the AO or USO where a crafty counterpuncher exacerbated the pressure she felt, Garbiñe just outgunned her and outclutched her. Garbiñe kept digging herself holes with those DFs but she was so, so good on BPs. She played the whole tournament like she expected to win and when she did she acted like it was just job done - no tears or being overcome, just how things naturally should be. Essentially both reprised the form they'd shown throughout the past fortnight, neither went up or down a gear.

FINALLY Petra is no longer the youngest active Slam champion, that was getting a bit embarrassing. FINALLY someone from the younger generation steps up.

And I still think Serena will get #22 for sure. Sight decline maybe but that's far from "over".

I tweeted a poll yesterday re: which underdog had the better shot at the upset between Muguruza and Murray and was shocked to see so many people vote Murray. It's hard to say how much of a mental block Novak has about RG right now, and if the men played best-of-3 I might factor that in more, but...no, too hard to see.

Expect Serena to get #22 AND #23

Wonder what effect Murray's recent win at Rome might have had but yes Djoko is too dominant.

Crushing start by Djokovic

What a break back!!

andy is making djoko work v hard for every pt

breaks again! 3-1

yeah - Djoko is using drop shots to win rallies, so far

murray playing fantastic to start

A few UEs from D's racket

whoa, novak missing a few forehands too

murray is getting to EVERYTHING

almost worry he's going to wear himself out on novak's service games

Under a lot of pressure - took everything to just hold

Now its Murray's turn to try and hold

Epic game

Murray to serve for the set

oh dear..

RG lap this shit up all day long.

2xsps saved

UE for the set

So should that have been 30-0 or 15-15? The call came when exactly?

Anyway, Murray did great after the bullshit booing

#godRally

what a fantastic rally

:)

Novak's turn to block - this is punishing to watch

fuck a drop shot andy

fuck's sake

fkn df

Showed a lot by getting two BPs to stay afloat in the set

4-1, D has cut the UEs..and he has missed a couple of drop shots but he doesn't need them now to get through Murray, who started this match on an incredible spell - and may have peaked?

andy looks gassed

Djoko looks unplayable now. Anyone would look tired.

Terrific angles, coverage, athleticism...2 SPs

or - showing who is the boss

Got Novak to deuce but actually it was fine from (thought andy could've made more of the last pt). The decisive moments are now here..

some astonishing tennis from Novak here - 2 BPs

awful at the net from Murray for the break - decisive indeed..

novak finding that other gear no one else has

What a beautifully angled shot near the net for 4-1 in the 3rd - if you are going to dominate the men's game and make it a borefest play the game like this.

Novak holds all four slams - even if he doesn't beat the all-time slam record of Federer's (and given the state of the tour its looking shaky) this is a unique, perhaps once in a lifetime achievement.

Four in a row on three different surfaces is the greatest ATP achievement of the open era imo

Match was pretty dull aside from a fire start by Murray and the dramatic wobble at the end which obviously didn't matter. I don't think Djokovic was unplayable by any means - occasionally excellent but Murray was barely competitive for most of the last hour.

Roll of honour -

Men's singles: Novak Djokovic
Women's singles: Garbiñe Muguruza
Men's doubles: Feliciano López & Marc López
Women's doubles: Caroline Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic
Mixed doubles: Martina Hingis & Leander Paes
Boys' singles: Geoffrey Blancaneaux
Girls' singles: Rebeka Masarova
Boys' doubles: Yshai Oliel & Patrik Rikl
Girls' doubles: Paula Arias Manjón & Olga Danilovic

ESP with the women's singles, men's doubles and girls' doubles; FRA with the women's doubles and boys' singles; SRB with the men's singles and girls' doubles; SUI with the mixed doubles and girls' singles. Danilovic is the first 2001-born Slam champion, her dad is a famous basketball player I think. I saw her at Les Petits As last year and she was impressive even then.