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French Open 2019

TurtleDude

warrior of the wetlands
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The women's draw has been littered with upsets as #1 Naomi Osaka gets beat by a doubles specialist today, and young American Sophia Kenin thrashes #10 (but usually favored) Serena Williams to go along with #2 Pliskova being beat as well. So who do you pick-Defending champion Halep, last year's almost winner, Sloane Stephens,? 2018 Semi finalist power hitter Madison Keyes? or someone else? Garbine Muguruza had a great win over Svitolina (one of the earl favorites) and now faces Sloane. This might be where the winner comes from.


In the men, most of the favorites are still around. Though Nadal lost to three really good players on clay this year-including probable soon to be world #1 Tsitpas as well as Clay aces Fogini and Thiem, he won the Italian beating Stefanos and then Novak. Will Federer or Novak get their second French? (they are the two who have won during the era of Nadal).
 
I'm on the Halep or Ash Barty train and for the men i'm on the Fed express.
 
Serenity said:
I'm on the Halep or Ash Barty train and for the men i'm on the Fed express.
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Barty was someone I had seen play doubles in Cincinnati, last year was the first time her singles match was played on the main stadium and she had a decent tournament-and seemed to improve into the Asian Swing last fall. She won a couple matches as the #16 seed and then lost to top seed Halep in a pretty close match. Halep is always tough, but she is flying under the radar, for the most part-at least on the Tennis Channel and NBC coverage. Though the French Open site had a really nice in depth interview about her, her love of Paris and some glamor shots of her as well. I think if everyone plays their very best, Stephens or Keys have the most weapons, but mentally, Halep is stronger than those two. Stephens should have won last year but Halep was too tough mentally.

Roger just had an easy win. Tsitsipas and Stanimal are having a brutal match of crushing forehands and two of the sweetest slingshot single handed backhands in history. Rafa just started and is up a break on Londero (yeah I don't know him)
 
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I started following Halep more closely initially because of the Cahill connection. She's great.

I'm always torn between Fed and Rafa but I lean a little more to Roger if they meet up for sentimental reasons. I'm a fan of both, I've seen them play some great tennis here over the years.
 

I tend to favor Raga a little more because I like the fact he never plays down to an opponent and is the consummate sportsman. So is Federer, that is true. I have never heard Nadal give an excuse when he lost or spewed the phony "I got lucky" after he thrashes someone 1 and 1. There is really nothing to criticize either about. Federer was a hot head as a junior but he sure shed that reputation when he hit the big time. For some reason, the Spanish men are almost uniformly class acts. Spanish men-Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Jose Higueras and Manuel Orantes in the 70s, all routinely won the award for best sportsman on the tour. You almost never see them berate a line judge, smash a racket or disrespect an opponent. I think one of the reasons why Nadal is so good, is that when his uncle knew Rafa was going to be a professional, he asked Carlos Moya to mentor the boy, and Moya was about the classiest man on the tour in the late 80s and mid 90s. And Nadal is smart and he paid attention to his teacher.
 
anyone else watching this 5+ hour match between Tsitsipas and Stanimal? Stanimal has saved 8 or more break points this fifth set and is at double match point. He wins-he plays his best friend on tour-Roger
 
Stanimal wins after the chair calls a close ball in-a ball Stefanos let go
 
Serenity said:
I'm on the Halep or Ash Barty train and for the men i'm on the Fed express.
Click to expand...

good call on Barty as she whipped the more talented but far less mentally strong, Madison Keys but Halep got frog stomped by the 17 year old American Anisimova (sadly completed before I turned on the tube-hope to see a rerun). From what I recall AA was born in the USA but her parents were athletes in the USSR.
 
TurtleDude said:
Will Federer or Novak get their second French? (they are the two who have won during the era of Nadal).
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Wawrinka also took one.

I think Nadal wins #12 over Thiem after he upsets Novak tomorrow.
 
Serenity said:
I'm on the Halep or Ash Barty train and for the men i'm on the Fed express.
Click to expand...

I love Federer, he is the ultimate tennis player and the ultimate long term survivor in a world where young supposedly would crush the older players but he came back with a vengeance. He is still a threat in any tournament he plays.

Sure, Nadal is also older but I have always been more of a Federer supporter.
 
Anagram said:
Wawrinka also took one.

I think Nadal wins #12 over Thiem after he upsets Novak tomorrow.
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I took pick DT to beat Novak and Rafa to beat Federer.

I think DT has had more wins over Rafa on clay than anyone else.

Roger has never beat Rafa at the French but Rafa has beaten Roger at Wimbledon.
 

Both men are pure class. I tend to like Nadal slightly better because his game style I think is more the product of extremely hard work. Roger does stuff that comes from his gifts.
 
Well Rafa really rode herd on Roger and to almost no one's surprise is in the final. Ash Barty-The top seed in the semis, beat A2 in three sets-even though she lost the first set after being up 5-0. She will take on another unseeded teenager in the final-a girl who took out former top ten player Johanna Konta of Australia/GB in two tight sets. Konta was my pick to play Ash even though she had never done well at the French.

Dom Thiem and Novak's match was suspended due rain at a set a piece with DT up a break in the third. This only will help Rafa.

Women play tomorrow. I am hoping for the French pair of men to beat the upstart Germans-Jeremy Chardy is on the French team and one of the really good guys in tennis. In 2012, he got into the main draw of the Cincinnati masters as a "lucky losers" and my son got to toss the coin for on of JC's matches. Chardy was super nice to my kid.
 
I don't follow womens tennis as much as I used to, not as partial to the uniformity in style as back in the old days. I have only seen a few of the name players such as the Williams sisters and Sharapova and Dementieva. Now I have seen Fed and Nadal and Djokovich and a few others as well. Fed has a truly all court game, with classical strokes and an incredible flair. Its just a beautiful game the way he plays it, very 'old school' and yet with modern equipment and athleticism. Whats not to love. No hope against Nadal on clay. Never really was. That man dominates clay as no one ever has before, including Evert, and Borg.

See, I told you I was 'old school'.
 
Congrats Australia. And DT won as I predicted. Let us see what he has left in his tank against a rested Nadal after playing 2.5 tough sets today.
 
Not enough apparently
 
Clay is the most popular surface for tennis. Most of Europe and South America is mainly clay. In the USA, most of the nicer clubs feature clay courts-so much easier on 60 year old guys like me.

Nadal just won his TWELTH French Open: on the surface that most of the top players grew up on. Clay takes away the ability of say a guy with a huge serve to beat a better player. On clay, you beat a guy by outhitting him and out thinking him-and most importantly, by being fitter.

I believe Nadal winning 12 times this tournament, is arguably the greatest achievement in individual athletic history.
 
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