Just to balance the 'useless' showing of our players this year in singles - no wins in R1 whatsoever - the French FFT and press are also up in arms and having a huge soul-searching crisis because only French 4 men have made it through R1 (and one was from an all-French encounter). On top of which, none of the four are really very likely to go much further (Paire and PHH being possibles, maybe, but Gaston and Bonzi are complete outsiders)
This is the lowest success rate since 2000
(NB it's been coming - the ageing nature of the top French tennis players can hardly be called a surprise and, in fact, the French are not very good at clay - the top two- thirds of the country only play on hard courts - but it's still come as a 'scandalous' shock)
Bouncy's verdict in today's Metro on Mats Wilander's comments about Andy after his defeat by Stan the Man on Sunday:
Too soon for Andy Murray to retire while he's got the Wil to fight
MATS WILANDER is a former world No.1. He won three French Opens, his first as a 17-year-old in 1982. He won three Davis Cup titles and is probably the least remembered truly great player of all time. Which is odd. It may be something to do with the fact he isn't Bjorn Borg, the man he took the Swedish baton from directly. He won seven majors, more than Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Jim Courier. He has four more slams than Andy Murray. Clearly Mats is a tennis authority and has every right to speak his mind. His employers this week are Eurosport and they have an expectation he share his honestly held opinion. That is what he did after Murray (pictured top) lost to Stan Wawrinka, saying: 'I would love to hear him say why he is out there. He needs to stop thinking of himself and start thinking about who he was. Does he have a right to be out there taking wildcards from young players?'
This has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including Murray who reproduced Wilander's thoughts on his Instagram page and just said, 'Love this,' in response. I thought Mats was clumsy in expressing these thoughts and I don't agree Murray being in the draw is taking a place from anybody who deserves it more than he does. Murray's record speaks for itself and there is no tournament director in the world who would not want him in their draw. What Wilander said in a roundabout way about motivation is all the more intriguing. Given Murray's epic journey back from having a new hip and given his age, the 33-year-old must be asking himself the same question after such a one-sided match.
His old foe Wawrinka was fantastic, hitting more than 40 winners in heavy conditions against a brilliant defensive player. Murray didn't play well, he served poorly and was unable to get into the match. That happens and you don't quit when you suffer a setback. The question is how many years will Murray want to try to get back into the top bracket? Can he do it as the big titles shift to a younger generation? If we have learnt anything about Andy over more than 15 years, it's that if there is a way, then he has the will to find it. I can't help but imagine he has a big run in a major event left in him.
Should he quit? That's entirely up to him. He enjoys the dressing room, he loves the fight during matches and he gets a kick out of winning. Play on, Andy. You're a long time retired.
And now France is going into even greater meltdown as there's only going to be one French male player in the third round....a real low historically (only the 5th time, I think, that it's ever been that bad)
I kind of see both points of view but on balance it isn't a deimated field for me, just decimated seeds.
Yes, a lot of seeds have fallen. But go beyond the very clear top 7 in the rankings - Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, Federer (absent) , Medvedev (out), Tsitsipas and Zverev - were we really ever looking for that much from the rest? - starting from (7) Berrettini WR 8 then Monfils, Bautista Agut, Shapavalov et all. So with 5 of the top 6 seeds through to R3, however many seeds have fallen, most of the real meat is still there and that's why I don't really have the feeling of a decimated field
Ii'm a bit meh with regards to most of the seeds and whether that much dustinguishes them from the rest of the top 50 and probably beyond.
So arguably not so shocking, particularly in this stange year that we are all living through.
I kind of see both points of view but on balance it isn't a deimated field for me, just decimated seeds.
Yes, a lot of seeds have fallen. But go beyond the very clear top 7 in the rankings - Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, Federer (absent) , Medvedev (out), Tsitsipas and Zverev - were we really ever looking for that much from the rest? - starting from (7) Berrettini WR 8 then Monfils, Bautista Agut, Shapavalov et all. So with 5 of the top 6 seeds through to R3, however many seeds have fallen, most of the real meat is still there and that's why I don't really have the feeling of a decimated field
Ii'm a bit meh with regards to most of the seeds and whether that much dustinguishes them from the rest of the top 50 and probably beyond.
So arguably not so shocking, particularly in this stange year that we are all living through.
I didnt say I was shocked! https://www.google.com/search?q=decimated+meaning&oq=decimated.&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l4.4364j1j7&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
A large proportion of the seeds have been removed in line with the definition above...
It's a pity Aljaz Bedene wasn't still representing Britain because he's reached the 3rd round singles in Paris. At least it would have covered over some of the cracks performance wise.
I think having Bedene still representing Britain would actually give us a false sense of accomplishment. We'll be taking credit where credit is not due as he is not a product of the British Tennis system . And who knows, he might not have even reached that far in the French Open if he was still representing GB!
-- Edited by cya on Thursday 1st of October 2020 07:23:22 PM