Weeks 21-22 - Roland Garros men's main draw

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Weeks 21-22 - Roland Garros men's main draw

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

First set to Rafa 6-4, but Andy looks well in the match now and needs to carry that into the 2nd set because I don't think anyone comes back from 2 sets down against Nadal

airsmashers · County player

Rafa wins 6-4 7-5 6-4

Certainly no disgrace for Andy, I'm sure he will be very happy with the tournament overall

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Difficult in the wind. Played ok. Needed to do more damage with the serve but I guess the wind was a factor. Shame about the bps. Rafa played brilliantly on many of them but once or twice Andy had control of the rally but refused to attack the net when Nadal was on the defensive; a key one at 1-2 in the first set when Andy could have moved up the court to drive volley a Nadal forehand after a big backhand crosscourt, but instead stayed back and within a few shots Nadal had control of the point. In most of the matches against Nadal Andy's bp conversion record has been way below his return points won percentage; this time it was 17% compared to 38% overall.

A few too many careless errors especially soft backhands teased down the line that landed inches out. Backhand crosscourt is a serious weapon but the accuracy isn't there at the moment. Plenty of good tennis but not quite enough of it. Played a poor game at 4-5 in the first set yet still had 2 bp chances though Nadal saved one with a brilliant serve and volley play. 5-5 in the 2nd set was a mix of brilliant and dire. Had his drop shot crept over the net at 40-30 then perhaps it would have been a different match.

-- Edited by kundalini on Friday 3rd of June 2011 04:54:42 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

A lot of positives to take from this match but, and this is a big but he simply has to cut out the mental lapses if he is going to take the next step. At 5-5, 40-15 he played some sloppy points at a time when you cannot afford to do so.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Wow. Well done Fed

indiana · Tennis legend

johnnylad wrote:
Wow. Well done Fed

Absolutely tremendous match, certainly the better quality one of the day.

At least Roger saved the match going over till tomorrow. Absolutely ridiculoous to start 2 Grand Slam men's semi finals on a clay court at 2 pm. Gee, OK the first match was pretty long but it was actually over in 3 sets. Someone here remarked that it seemed pretty dodgy to start at 2 pm well before the event.

Wimbledon with more light and a quicker surface and general pace of play starts its semis at 1 pm. Ok, they may schedule some other doubles match afterwards which may or may not get on court, but they give the men's semis much more of a chance.

Not a drop of rain and such high profile matches as Djokovic vs Del Potro ( only 2 sets played ! ), Monfils vs Ferrer and Murray vs Troicki went over to the next day and they were damned lucky today. The schedulers might like to consider that Grand Slam tennis is about testing the very best over the best of 5 sets played in one day ! The semis in particular should surely be scheduled earlier than 2 pm in the future, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Re Andy. he has had his best ever French Open, helped by the draw but not helped by his injury issues. Today he played pretty well but ultimately not consistently well enough against a not top form Nadal who just over the course had that bit more, though I think Andy will look back on a few of these BPs as moments that should have been seized but weren't.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I'm not disappointed, because I felt expecting Andy to win against Rafa on Rafa's best surface and his own worst, with a sprained ankle, was expecting too much. I'm looking forward to their next match on hard though - as long as Andy doesn't go into another slump because he lost.

I'm not making excuses - but either the sprain or the tight strapping he wore because of it definitely hampered his movement laterally to the right, and so much of his game depends on his great retrieval skills. If they meet at Wimbledon I'm not certain how it would go, as Rafa is good on both natural surfaces, but on hard. . .

indiana · Tennis legend

Re the tournament generally I have definitely seen more of the French Open then ever before this year and I must say I have very much enjoyed a lot of the play.

In the men's matches I actually do very much enjoy there being more stategy involved in winning a point on the so called devil dirt as players fight for position and authority in rallies, and there has usually been clear strategy involved rather than just keeping the point going.

In particular today's Federer vs Djokovic match I thought was a classic.

If it is not sacriligeous to say so, to me the latter stages have been more interesting than generally at Wimbledon, some of whose matches are to my mind sometimes overpraised.

RJA · Hall of fame

I always think that clay court tennis between two average players tends to be very, very dull (there are exceptions) but that clay court tennis between two good players can be very interesting and a lot of fun to watch.

indiana · Tennis legend

I must admit I have not really watched much clay court tennis at all between what would be seen a s average players. But I can certainly imagine that what you say RJA is very true. Could maybe be a borefest with some.

I did say "latter stages" in my comparison with Wimbledon when we have a level players competing on both sides of the net that have the skills to make the match trully interesting and enjoyable to watch..

The Federer vs Djokovic match was probably quite exceptional, and I have heard commentators this morning putting it up with or next to the Nadal Wimbledon final victory vs Federer that finsihed in the gloom. However, as i said, I have enjoyed what I have seen of quite a number of other matches from Roland Garros.