The 2005 French Open Thread

Serena Williams is also out, having played and lost one clay match so far this year. Justine Henin-Hardenne is on a three-tournament winning streak and therefore massive favourite. The Clidge was meant to be injured and barely able to hobble, but clearly she has been LYING if that first-round score is anything to go by!

In the men's, it's all about the Federer-Nadal-Coria axis. The possibility of match-ups between those three makes me very sad that I lack Eurosport.

Defending champion Nastya Myskina is in a terrible slump, apparently her mother has cancer, poor Nastya :(

Oh, is it not that time yet? It's never that time, is it?

Ava is now about to go on her first outing to a fish'n'chip shop. Up yours, Delors.

Sorry, back to the tennis.

Also - Marat's sister gets Razzled 6-3 6-3, and Hrbaty's the first men's seed to fall after a five-set monster with Tipsy Rave-up. This said, there's a lot of unseeded but still quite big names gone too - P-Dorn fell in four to The Stairmaster, Andy Pavv got Serrated 6-2 6-2 6-3, and perhaps most humiliatingly, Mardy Fish got X-Winged and won only four games into the bargain. Things are already looking a bit topsy turvy...

The top-half of the draw is naaasty too; RF has Henners, Moya, Bandy and Ancic, RN has Gaudio (the jammiest Slammiest winner since Arthur Ashe won the rained-out US Nationals by hastily-arranged tombola in '69), Grosjean and Gasquet. Roddick, already benefitting from the absence of Chewy, seems to have it easy. Come on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga!

It's quite something that Nadal is being considered favourite to win this despite the fact that this is his first ever Roland Garros. And he has never reached even a Slam quarter-final before.

On the subject of imbalanced draws, is it just me or is every contender in the women's draw crammed into the bottom half? By that, I mean JHH, Shaz, Mauresmo and Kuzzy. All the seeds in the top half have massive question marks over their form - Davenport hates clay and Europe and doesn't care; Clijsters has those multiple injuries; Myskina's gone already; Venus can only win tournaments in places like Istanbul these days. Dementieva might even be favourite to reach the final again!

I'm very sad about Nastya and her mother, I hope she takes some time off from tennis. I don't think playing in this emotional state is benefiting her at all. Can I just post a picture to remind us all of happier times?

ihttp://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/694/sp05.jpg

Oh, and the IBM Scoreboard now requires a Flash plug-in and doesn't seem to work properly even after I download it. They've retained that pig-ugly font too.

Pixieman is out - down in four to Andreeeev. Bea Arthur(s) a set down to Richard Melzer.

Ferrero Rocher and Saffie through with few problems, on our way to a grand third round showdown there!

Gassanova's been Nieminated 7-5 in the first too... double hmm...

Flicka wins himself a coterie of new fans by edging out the hometowner 7-5 in the tie-break.

Agatha a set and a break down now.

Aitch-Tee and Calatrava come back out to resume their match from last night. Calatrava wins a couple of games to take the decider 6-3. They go back in again.

Elsewhere, Jiffy Ljub's close to going two sets down, Tommy R's looking cosy after a crapper of a start against Lucky Lucz, and Flicka's gone a break down again at 4-3 in the 4th - PHM serving...

Women's saw Israeli giantkilling tag team Smashnova and Peer work their magic on Jankovic (#15) and Bartoli (#28) respectively.

Not lacking shocks outside of that though - Surely Voney getting past JieJie Allin is some kind of achievement? V-SPAD straight setted Costa del Bert, Guga got gazumped by Daviiid Sanchezzz, and Force 9 Gael got taken to the Ass Cannery.

Oh, and Greggers is out.

(for those still watching - HT got past Callie Travers 6-4 in the fifth.)

Currently, Mpaperfolding is being given a Sprem donor, and is a set and a break up. Sister Slump is at one set all against Zuluaga, and GG Allin's the first into the third round as Tursunov retires without striking a ball...

On court now, Shinobu's in 5-3 down against Jasper, Hey Ya's gone a WHOMPING two sets down against Vicky Han, Zulu's staging a mini-fightback against Venus - from 4-0 down back to 4-3 and serving, Diva's taken her first set on a tie-break, and Nalbs is on the verge of wrapping up against Ver Dyke.

I see there's a Roger-Vasselin in the doubles - the son, I would presume, of Christophe R-V who (I think) dumped out Jimmy Connors in the '83 event before barely winning a game off Wilander in the semis. That makes me feel old, but it doesn't take much thesedays. Getting up out of a chair, for instance.

Henster has blown an early break against Little Jack.

Nadal-Fed appears to have just started. I have resigned myself to missing it. Early bets? I say Fed to win by the skin of his experience.

Caught the first two games on the plasma screen in the window of the fancy bookies on Kingsway; didn't look quite as much of a dork as I usually do, gawping into their shop, as half a dozen others were standing tight to the glass too, escaping the thunderstorm. First point was terrific - Federer following in a forehand approach, Nadal blazing a winner down the line. This is going to be good.

Multiple text updates from Pam on the X68 home. Arrive in time to see Federer smoothly go 5-1 up in the 2nd. From that point on though, he's far from convincing. Squeaks home in that set then falls 2-4 behind the third. Breaks back impressively enough but RN breaks again on his third oppo at 5-4. Fourth set is a horror-story - Federer getting less than 30% of his first-serves in and every down-the-line forehand from the forecourt is netted. Nadal gifts him an early break, but despite leading 3-1 and having two points for 4-2, Rodge looks determined to piss it away - an inexcusable backhand slap into the tape at game-point off a Nadal drop-shot attempt sees the start of some really abject play. It ends, appropriately enough, on another RF forehand error at around 9:15 Paris time. Gloom all round.

It had its moments, this match, but RF was too far below his best for it ever to catch fire. A shame. Nadal will have plenty of opportunities to win here but I wonder whether Federer will look ruefully on this day like Edberg (collapsed vs Chang in '89 f), Sampras (a couple of qfs and a '96 sf catastrophe vs Kafelnikov) and Becker (three semis) before him - his best shot gone. Nah, I don't believe that either.

hope it goes all the way. x-post = I like federer but I don't want him to dominate the game, this is a good result.

JCF is actually kind of similar except he doesn't smash rackets in the process, he just looks lost and bewildered and makes me want to hug him.

I think Safin and Dementieva have possibly played together! He's played with Myskina and Kournikova which must surely also be candidates.

They're both playing out of their skin.

And now...I must go out for the day. Over to the VCR. And you guys.

And yes, his shorts are very silly.

great end to the french esp since yesterday's final was such thrash.

And now comes the sad realisation that we shall probably see neither of these two players in SW19. The way Nadal moves seems so dependent on having a loose top-surface to slide across one wonders how he can prosper on other surfaces (but he's already shown some form on hardcourt).

Nadal is Christmas in Catalan. Has anyone mentioned that yet? It brings useless knowledge to new depths.

I did not see this, but my dad described Mr Christmas as "brilliant".

I felt sorry for Puerta - if he'd got that diving volley at the end of the fourth set the whole game could have been different.

That was very funny - I think he was aping young Chris Bailey's style; CB made the same exclamation after Canas saved a match point vs Puerta in the quarters with similar outrageous elan - but probably to a viewing BBCi audience of less than five figures. At least Mercer doesn't expectorate all over the mic like old Bill Threlfall - "What a volleyuurgh-huuurgh-yaargh!"

Nadal definitely needs Trinny & Susannah in his life.

After a long period of indecision, I have decided to come out in favour of the male capri pant.

It's not as much fun supporting the underdog when they're a convicted drug cheat :(

I was under the impression that the BBC could've screened the final but just didn't. They happily switched all of Tim's matches to BBC2 last year. my brother informs me that BBCi will screen other rounds of the aus open next year, and not just the final as before, so now I'll be able to watch some tennis in the early hours.

xp

You now get E4 on Freeview, y'know. It's rubbish.

E4 is indeed rubbish though, you're right.

However - the BBC sports site is streaming live footage from the Stella Artois... think I will be starting that rolling tennis thread then.