Weeks 21-22 - French Open - Roland Garros Men's Main Draw (Clay)

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

RE: Weeks 21-22 - French Open - Roland Garros Men's Main Draw (Clay)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

What a great evening of tennis, Robert and his eccentricity vs Kyle unveiling his fear hand to the uninitiated. Sat with the kids screaming at the tele, his dedication and appetite to become an elite player shone through. Andy Murray in the crowd, there was a lot of what is good about UK tennis going on today.

Very happy for Kyle but really enjoyed Robert, almost as much as Kyle enjoyed his second serve.

Aljaz has the potential to add a bit more depth in terms of UK interest around the slams and ATP tour, excited about Wednesday and indeed next week with hopeful Andy still going strong and Katie Swan giving the juniors a crack. Who knows Hev may also be onboard.

With a bit of luck days like today will also give some inspiration to the likes of Liam and James for the grass court season.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

This has probably been posted somewhere but I can't find it.

asaptext.com/fft/media/rolandgarros2015/

Promptly-updated interview transcripts from Roland Garros. There are interviews with all five Brits on there, and some of the others are interesting in their own right.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Had to leave the match with Kyle down in the 4th...fantastic that he came through :D

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Some people should really not be allowed to report on tennis matches. This is taken from the Express writeup on Kyle's match.

His opponent was a 35-year-old Frenchman ranked 558 in the world and in truth a player who knew this win would take him into the worlds top 100 should possibly have not made such heavy weather of things.

I get the feeling this guy knows NOTHING about tennis at all. The rest of his report is not much better.

Spectator · All-time great

Ah, the tabloid press. Were I a tennis player, I would try very hard never to look at it. Inflating players' reputations one minute, condemning them the next ... and often, with some notable exceptions, doing so without much apparent sense of the game at all. I think this is badge of honour, BiS (or BiB).

-- Edited by Spectator on Tuesday 26th of May 2015 04:27:14 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I love the tabloids, it's comments like that that you have to savour. Perfect draw for Kyle, he must of learnt so much. Lovely to hear that having played Starace a couple of weeks back, similar vintage, canny, passionate crowd, he was prepared.

I know others don't agree but I feel those Marsaille, Miami, chennai wild cards are now beginning to show their worth. Kyle also made the point that this time, after playing through qualifying in the stralian he new what to do in the first round. So pleased he finally got to go to five sets and hung on in there, very excited for him but obviously much more to do.

I think he is probably 18 months away from having the stamina to get through the first week of a slam, really looking toward to Wednesday although I think big Nick will be an altogether different challenge and have too much for him for the time being. Over the next decade I think they will be seeing a lot of each other and it won't be until they are 23/24 that we will begin to get an idea of who will prevail in the long term. Very early days, a subtlety that will undoubtedly missed by the tabloids.

Great day yesterday, bring it on.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And yet in the Hull Mail you have gems such as this:

It feels so good," Edmund said.

"In the fourth set I went to the toilet and decided to give it a real go."

EddietheEagle · County player

Was this such a journalistic gaffe? After all, the rankings supposedly don't lie. Robert hasn't exactly shined of late and that serve of his was an open invitation. Edmund was also a firm pre-match favourite on the betting exchanges.

indiana · Tennis legend

Hey, at least pleased to see that Kyle's R1 win will take him into the top 100. I had rather doubted that, thinking it would take a R2 win, and even then not guaranteed though probable.

So, it"s good to see that someone has assessed it all and knows how possibly relevant results will go here and in two weeks of challengers

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Eddie, the rankings do often lie as an indicator of a player's true relative ability for different clear possible reasons. They just factually order players based on their ranking points gathering over the previous 12 months.

Now, in this instance, I'm not up on Robert's form, but there is certainly more about him than "a 35 year old Frenchman ranked 558 in the world" would indicate, factual as that may be.

RJA · Hall of fame

EddietheEagle wrote:
Was this such a journalistic gaffe? After all, the rankings supposedly don't lie. Robert hasn't exactly shined of late and that serve of his was an open invitation. Edmund was also a firm pre-match favourite on the betting exchanges.

I said before the match that I though Kyle was favourite but Robert played better than I expected. Yes his serve was poor but on clay that isn't always a killer and his all round game was pretty good. I am not overly excited by the fact that Kyle won this match but I was very impressed with how he won it. After losing the 4th set in a horrible fashion, going to a 5th set for the first time in his life and in front of a hostile crowd a lot of young players would have wilted.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

EddietheEagle wrote:
Was this such a journalistic gaffe? After all, the rankings supposedly don't lie. Robert hasn't exactly shined of late and that serve of his was an open invitation. Edmund was also a firm pre-match favourite on the betting exchanges.

Well, of course Edmund was favourite. But Robert has been injured (hence the big drop in rankings) and the journalist could have posed the question (at least to himself) as to how Robert had made the main draw in the first place i.e. it wasn;t from a wildcard but from beating three people pretty well-ranked.

i.e. the journalist may not be completely wrong but it is just a question of what you chose to focus on.

I prefer the toilet theory.

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
Yes, Eddie, the rankings do often lie as an indicator of a player's true relative ability for different clear possible reasons. They just factually order players based on their ranking points gathering over the previous 12 months.

Now, in this instance, I'm not up on Robert's form, but there is certainly more about him than "a 35 year old Frenchman ranked 558 in the world" would indicate, factual as that may be.

Indeed. While Robert only just came through qualifying winning all his matches in 3 sets he was up against players ranked 107, 236 and 142. Not exactly an easy route or results one would expect from a typical player ranked 558. He also has experience at this level that pretty much no player ranked 558 would have and it was only 18 months ago that he reached the 4th Round of the Australian Open and took a set off some guy called Murray.

EddietheEagle · County player

Point taken about the ranking. The journalist did qualify his opinion by using the word possible so I don't see what he wrote as farcical.

I thought Edmund's level dropped markedly during the fourth set, particularly at the start when the opportunity was there to effectively wrap the match up.