ROLAND GARROS 2015

"pure athlete" ?

code for "he's BLACK"

lol not lol

In the responses the only players mentioned as contenders for "pure athlete" status were James Black and Yannick! But the Yannick responder has deleted, apparently! wtf

Kyrgios just hit a tweener lob O_O

Meanwhile Schiavone is losing to Mitu

Fran started well but has gone a bit flat. Mitu has a nice neat game and her FH is a weapon

How many times are we going to be told Kyrgios is "just what the game needs"?

Inconsistent, too full of himself, an ok game but not enough back-up

he's clearly incredibly talented

& fun to watch

He's ridiculously talented imo. Obviously he's inconsistent, he's still so young but far ahead of everyone else his age. And he has far more dimensions to his game than someone like Raonic. I don't see how he won't be a multi-Slam champion, and I don't have anywhere near that confidence in any of the other touted kids like Coric, Zverev, Tiafoe etc. He's an arrogant little fuck but I don't find that as objectionable (yet) as I did with Hewitt, it's just a young ppl thing. Players like Murray will always be his kryptonite though

fwiw I see a lot more hunger to win in him than I ever did in Monfils, so despite his wildness and showboating I don't think he's in danger of going down that route

iirc Murray was stringing a lot more section of good-to-great play at around 20/21 but the physical aspect was letting him down.

I suppose its reaction to the hype. He'll win slams - though that's a reflection on the next generation coming through as much as K's talent - but its hilarious seeing this one great one shit shot off the court 'approach' against 'this guy is the future'.

Wait, while I'm stuck without a TV in Stockholm, Petra won in straight sets? I'm just going to not watch her for the rest of the tournament :D :D :D

Should also be remembered that Kyrgios has played an unusually light schedule in his first year on tour due to injury and this is his first season on what will likely be his worst surface, and he's notched up his first final and a win over Federer on it. In general he has v few losses I'd call bad, let alone stretches of them. He's ranked far ahead of everyone else born in 1995, as well as everyone born in 1994 and 1993.

Murray serving crap, wins 2nd 6-2. xp

It's sort of interesting that the leading 1996-born players - Coric, Chung, Kokkinakis - are far more consistent and solid than Kyrgios, but nowhere near as flashy. So it'll be interesting to see how those rivalries develop.

lmao, I didn't realise Petra hadn't reached the second week of any non-Wim Slam since the USO 2012.

*continues to ignore her*

SARA in the 4th round <3333

flick cross court from M :-D

if Fran had to have a comedown after her Sveta heroics I'm glad it was to Andreea Mitu, who was in tears afterwards - she was contemplating retirement this time last year...

Who'd have thought Mitu would be the last woman from her country standing.

Sad for Fran though. Maybe she'll just fuck the haters and keep playing anyway.

K dances the dance and clowns around and hits hard. Basically everything but take a set. Dispatched in straights ktxbye.

More fun than the last five to ten next big things though.

ferrer came back to crush bolleli 4th & 5th sets wow

vika :)

quality level here is a+

matching sic strong return of serves to match their outfit color schemes, not sure what more i could want

yeah i wasn't expecting vika to play this well

omg @ the result,i had to go out @ vika up 4-2 second set

nice gamesmanship by serena at the end of the 2nd set

I went out with Vika up 4-2 as well, lol - had thought the match would turn before that but Vika kept winning games despite Serena hitting her trademark match-turning winners. Funny how their matches always follow the same struggle pattern. Total opposite to how her matches vs Ma$ha feel but the same result.

Your last 16s:

(1) Serena Williams vs. Sloane Stephens
(17) Sara Errani vs. Julia Goerges
(4) Petra Kvitova vs. (23) Timea Bacsinszky
Andreea Mitu vs. Alison Van Uytvanck
(7) Ana Ivanovic vs. (9) Ekaterina Makarova
(19) Elina Svitolina vs. (29) Alize Cornet
(28) Flavia Pennetta vs. (21) Garbine Muguruza
(13) Lucie Safarova vs. (2) Maria Sharapova

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (20) Richard Gasquet
Jack Sock vs. (6) Rafael Nadal
(3) Andy Murray vs. Jeremy Chardy
(9) Marin Cilic vs. (7) David Ferrer
(5) Kei Nishikori vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili
(14) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (4) Tomas Berdych
(8) Stan Wawrinka vs. (12) Gilles Simon
(13) Gael Monfils vs. (2) Roger Federer

H2Hs:

Williams 4-1 Stephens (1-0 on clay, 2-0 this year)
Errani 2-2 Goerges (Errani leads 1-0 on clay)
Bacsinszky 1-0 Kvitova (1-0 this year)
Mitu 1-1 Van Uytvanck (Van Uytvanck leads 1-0 on clay)
Ivanovic 1-1 Makarova
Cornet 2-0 Svitolina (1-0 on clay)
Muguruza 2-0 Pennetta
Sharapova 4-1 Safarova (3-1 on clay)

Djokovic 11-1 Gasquet (2-0 on clay)
Sock 0-0 Nadal
Murray 6-1 Chardy (1-0 on clay and this year)
Ferrer 3-2 Cilic (1-1 on clay)
Nishikori 3-2 Gabashvili (1-0 on clay and this year)
Berdych 7-2 Tsonga (1-0 on clay and this year)
Wawrinka 3-2 Simon (2-0 on clay)
Federer 8-4 Monfils (4-2 on clay, Monfils leads 1-0 this year on clay)

I LOVE that one of Mitu and Van Uytvanck will be a Slam QFist. Will predict:

Williams, Errani, Bacsinszky, Van Uytvanck, Ivanovic, Cornet, Muguruza, Sharapova
Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Ferrer, Nishikori, Berdych, Wawrinka, Monfils

i thought about backing Makarova e/w a few days ago and literally couldn't find her name listed on oddschecker

Svitolina's tough but I'm not really wowed by her raw talent

Svitolina had three points for 6-2 5-2, inexplicably let Cornet off the hook and here we are at 4-4. This is how Cornet epics are born

Goodness. Svitolina takes it on her 6th MP after blowing a 4-2 40-0 lead and choking for the match twice

Too bad Svitolina is unable to provide any resistance to Ivanovic

Tsonga's started so well!

sad Berdych :(

Tsonga really owning that recede

Distracting everyone from it via very snug shorts

Berdych always lets these matches go so meekly

Lex why do you think Fed is going to lose against Monfils?

Kei through just now btw.

Tsonga breaks in the 3rd, to serve for the match.

and doesn't - on we go.

Berdych went on to win the set on TB and this is great now. Blow-by-blow.

The only thing is we may not get to see Fed-Monfils today

fkn hell man. So another hour, another Tsonga break, another service game for the match.

Blasts it to the QFs!