ROLAND GARROS 2016

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 Maybe he would have withdrawn if he had played a longer match.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

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.