ROLAND GARROS 2021

kinda want to know what exactly her 'obligations' were -- does she have to answer every question? is there a minimum time she has to be out there?

anyway yes, press conferences are stupid, the questions are usually inane (*especially* to women), and the reporters think they're entitled to have players write their stories for them

The entire thing is a debacle and horseshit

I’m more disgusted with tennis as a whole than I ever have been, including when they desperately tried to make Anna Kournikova into the world’s greatest singles player

Her statement is heartbreaking. Did think about what her team are doing? She does need people she trusts to know her and perhaps act as intermediaries between Osaka and the cunts that run the tour.

Liew's piece is good.

The organising bodies handled this terribly - she warned them ahead of time and said she was willing to pay the fines. There were so many ways they could've sorted this out privately with her or her team without threatening a default.

tbh the sheer amount of athlete/manager press conferences is a big reason why sports journalism in general is so shitty.

Most sports reporters are stuck in an endless routine of match reports >> post-match press conference >> post-match analysis that they never actually get the time or resources to write or pursue bigger stories. As a result, they get way too reliant on the presser either to generate stories or to get soundbites for the story they've already written.

Pretty much the main point of these is so that people look at the cardboard full of logos in the background.

It's been disappointing to see other players not backing her. Djoko I expected but Swiatek was like pretty similar too. Putting that down to age.

the french tennis federation guy reading a prepared statement then refusing to answer questions says it all. bullies and bottlers.

i don't mind sloane stephens but so nice watching carla suarez navarro take the opening set on her return.

agree

i like sloane also but in a way she is the perfect opponent for csn's 1st match back

I've warmed up to Sloane somewhat but my default reaction to her is still "lol"

also the media junket is wreaking more havoc on the women's draw than court play

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/31547121/petra-kvitova-withdraws-french-open-injured-ankle-fall-media-availability

Venus Williams. "I know every single person asking me a question can't play as well as I can and never will, so no matter what you say or what you write, you'll never light a candle to me. So that's how I deal with it. But each person deals with it differently."

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) June 1, 2021

more press conference absurdity:

Sadly, after Alexander Zverev’s 1st rd media conference, my Roland-Garros media pass was revoked. My appearance in a supermarket (meant as a joke) was regarded as unprofessional

Apologies to Alexander, the FFT, Roland Garros organisers, family, fiends, colleagues and supporters

— Jonathan Pinfield 🎾 (@tweetsbyjp) June 2, 2021

for context, he dialed in to the virtual presser from the supermarket which actually got a smile and a laugh from zverev. Apparently asking sexist and racist questions is ok, but dialing from a grocery run? TOO FAR.

incred battle btwn garin/mcdonald

tough defeat for mcdonald after having match pts in the 3rd and a bunch of break pts in the 5th

hes the first american to lose today i believe.. all these players won

collins
serena
keys
isner
giron
opelka

Is it bad that I kind of wish Barty had withdrawn for injuring herself at a press conference?

Nadal. "I'm not celebrating my birthday. 35 is not good. I wanna be 25 again".

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) June 3, 2021

this ruud/adf 5th set is a real roller coaster

davidovich fokina advances - 4h 35m match

this was the game to close it out, each guy oddly fell/slipped @ unusual times

15:0, 15:15, 30:15, 30:30, 40:30BP, 40:40, 40:AMP, 40:40, A:40BP, 40:40, 40:AMP, 40:40, 40:AMP, 40:40, 40:AMP, 40:40, A:40BP, 40:40, A:40BP, 40:40, 40:AMP

^^loved it... that final set had everything

ADF needed five match points and an underarm serve to close it out lol

Badosa vs Bogdan just now has been my favourite match of RG this year so far. Phenomenal stuff.

It was terrific. Hard to complain when we get 12hr of free-to-air coverage a day in the UK with ITV4, but it's a single channel with no alternate feeds and they often just chase the big names, which can mean you miss things like this. Thankfully there was nothing else they could have shown!

Also: I like the camera angle on Simonne Mathieu. There’s one court - court 6? - which has featured a lot in the coverage this week and that’s terrible. Ultra wide but pitched too low so a third of the screen is below the near baseline.

Musetti is something else. Through 6-3 in the 5th vs Cecchinato.

Swiatek-Kontaveit is very high quality. Bit of an awkward match up for Iga - Kontaveit hitting big on returns and not letting her get any rhythm on her serve. first set TB!

Amazing that Swiatek managed to pull that off given that Kontaveit hit 23 winners to 11 UFEs in that first set. Just really excellent tennis.

fucking hell @ nadals bqckhand to win set 2 vs cam

sad state of affairs that the only coverage in the US rn is nbc who is showing serenas match from yesterday afternoon & fed's upcoming match in only on peacock ~

It’s not on The Tennis Channel?

it was this morning but tennis channel coverage signed off shortly after 1pm when mertens/sakkari ended iirc

i know humidity is high in paris right now, but there is something to be said about federer sweating less compared to koepfer. it looks like federer uses his energy more efficiently, while koepfer is a lot stronger and uses muscle power a lot more

this 1st set fed/koepfer has been p high level by both

koep is gaining confidence

i wonder how many sets like this koepfer will be able to endure

seems like he can endure as long as he needs to

feds level is dipping, if he loses this 3rd set its hard to see him enduring 2+ more hrs to come back

love mcenroe constantly making digs @ peacock

cant blame koepfer for boiling over a bit now, hes played p great & fed has played houdini 2 be up 2-1

I didn't fancy Fed to get past Berrettini and now I don't think the winner of this will take a set off Mario.

koepfers defense has really been wildly good

yea this is def good for matteo

I have no idea why I called him Mario! It's late. (Later still in Paris - first post-midnight session?)

Actually, UK commentator has just reminded me of the Nadal-Sinner QF last year, which was a 1:26am finish.

great match, rog willed himself to that win

incredible. this is the andy murray tweet again:

Im not bothered by the outcome of this match at all. Just seeing Federer at 39 off the back of 2 knee surgeries playing to an empty stadium at 12.30am getting fired up is inspirational to me. Do what you ❤️

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) June 5, 2021

At times that was as rough as Fed was for 2+ sets vs Sandgren in Melbourne 18 months ago (which, at the time, seemed to come a little out of nowhere, after a pretty great 2019). I think days like this are inevitable at 39, and he found some magic right at the end.

Welp

The Roland-Garros tournament organisers have learned that Roger Federer has withdrawn from the fourth round of the tournament. #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/BncPpTLUzl

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 6, 2021

It’d be pretty funny if last night’s scheduling mess turned out be Fed’s final match at RG

id think its more likely than not to be his last

somewhat surprised he didnt wait until tomorrow to make this decision, makes me think it must be more than fatigue

womens bottom half, one of these gals will be in the final

rybakina/pavlyuchenkova

badosa/zidansek

Davidovich Fokina - Delbonis has been fun. ADF serving for it now.

Musetti is legit

fuck

That was a marathon!

Was expecting Novak to come out like this.

Naturally… I never believe it whenever Djoko looks tired or weary

Wins the 3rd. Tsitsipas won't be handed the thing.

yeah this is going the distance

tbh I didn’t expect Tsitsi to get this far in the first place so he’s already surpassed expectations. But it’ll be super awful if he loses from here :/

trainer called for stef sigh

can’t call the trainer out for your brain unfortunately

rip

what bums me out about this is that Novak isn’t even playing all that well? Tsitsipas is just not at the level he was in the first two sets.

Hang in there Stef!

:(

wish I could say this wasn’t expected but…

this is my fault for having turned it on in the third set

My stream just froze lol

Feels like a blessing

Damn it.

fucking gutted for stef ;_;

nourish your sensations. pic.twitter.com/7qk3kYsqv4

— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) July 23, 2018

Gotta say I get a bad feeling for Stef from how much of a procession this felt like in the 5th set.

Hope I'm wrong.

Felt completely different from his match against Zverev, where it always seemed like he would win even after losing the 3rd and 4th sets. Zverev of course isn’t Novak though.

I still think Tsitsipas is too good not to get one eventually - he’s only 22 anyway. But maybe not this year - this is going to sting for a long while :/

ffs Tsitsipas’ mic isn’t working. RG continues to be the worst.

welp. gotta endure that damn heart-throw routine again.

― andrew m., Friday, June 11, 2021 9:22 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

hopefully for the last time

― andrew m., Friday, June 11, 2021 9:22 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

goddammit