ROLAND GARROS 2021

I've always said it should be best of three before the QF*

(* I have never actually said this)

its a reasonably wild outcome (not the part of novak coming back obv)
but of someone to crater like that w/ no injury (right?), no extreme heat or humidity,
after 2.5 ish hours of playing @ your top level

shows just the pressure of the situation is a lot to bear, i think

boss hitting from Sinner right now

Don’t have much confidence it will last though, Nadal being Nadal

yeah tough to get broken @ love serving for the set, but also not unexpected cuz rafa

felt so bad for sinner there - worked so hard to get back on serve from 4-0 down only to be broken to love :/

two fantastic, very close women’s quarter finals so far. both went down the wire: Zidansek beat Badosa 8-6 in the final set, and Pavlyuchenkova took out Rybakina 9-7 to advance to the semis for the first time after six failed QF attempts in the past ten years.

tsitsipas just went 2 sets up and lookin pretty dominant from the bit i've been able to watch. medvedev is a weirdo and could bounce back though. tbd.

breaking at 2-2 in the 3rd i thought medvedev ALMOST got the hook into the match he needed to turn it. good on tsitsipas though. good stuff.

great match by stef

Swiatek in real trouble right now - down a set and a break versus Sakkari.

Incredible performance from Sakkari, so solid and impenetrable on serve. Iga looks perplexed.

Wow at Sakkari just blowing this women’s draw wide open. Four first-time semi finalists!

Also the first time two Greek players have made the semis at the same Slam.

also a semi where the highest-ranked player is #17, can’t have happened too often?

i absolutely wish no ill physical will upon nadal or djokovic, but surely we're just a couple of years away from that kind of blown-open draw on the men's side, right? (fed wanted to retire at wimbledon, right?)

I think Fed will end his career in Basel which, given that it's just been cancelled again, means Oct 2022. I can see him giving Wimb two more goes, probably no more clay court tennis and a limited shot at the hardcourt Slams. I'd like there to be a proper handover - Tsitsipas beating Nadal here, Shapo / Medvedev / FAA / etc taking them out at QF or earlier in SW19 and Flushing Meadow. But I feel like it will only be injury that stops Novak and Rafa.

I kinda wish Musetti, as great as he is, had lost to Cecchinato cos if Novak was going to spray UEs around for two hours, I don't think Cecc would have folded and let him off the hook. Djoko was ultimately pretty fortunate to be up against a teenager who was redlining.

As for blown-open, I dunno. We already have a pretty stable second-tier on the ATP side, who would likely dominate latter stages of Slams for a bit. They're not, as a group, anything like as consistent as the Big Three came to be, but if we did a Logan's Run cull tomorrow, I think it would be pretty familiar names in 3-4 slots of each Slam semi line-up for a while.

i love that in your scenario you have tsitsipas beating nadal and not zverev and i hope you are correct! and i think you're right on about all of that.

But to completely undermine my point, the Big Three vanish at the QF stage of Wimb 2019 and we end up with Goffin-Bautista Agut and Querrey-Nishikori :) 8, 21, 23 and unseeded.

(Oh, please for a Greek double!)

best of 5 really cuts against a blown open mens draw

Definitely. In BO3, Isner takes out Nadal at RG 2011!

meanwhile, diego gets the 2nd set off rafa to level it !

Will pray for a miracle

Better pray for two, cos I don't like how this tournament turns out if Novak is still left tonight, and Rafa isn't.

the fine print of the tournament sez they sub in rafa's robotic looking statue if his human form gets knocked out so dont fret

https://cdn.insidesport.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/28145420/WhatsApp-Image-2021-05-28-at-2.53.51-PM.jpeg

Ha!

Don't get me wrong, I love Diego, but the time for an upset was the 2018 QF. He was a set and a break up and then it rained (and Novak was already out!). Still took Rafa four hours to beat him.

2-1 and a double break now. (Half-hearted "vamos").

From 3-4 in the third, Rafa won 37 of 44 points. That's not how my working days pan out (unless "closing tabs" is "accelerating to the finish line").

less than shocked at this result (at roughly 3-4 in the 3rd i went out to *play* some tennis, it's abt 90% humidity here today, we lasted abt as long as the coco/jabeur match)

Players to win more than 1 set @rolandgarros vs Nadal:

Djokovic 7
Federer 4
Soderling 3
Schwartzman 2
Isner 2

— enrico maria riva (@enricomariariva) June 9, 2021

that’s cumulative number of sets won?

Yep. Soderling (r4, 2009) and Djokovic (qf, 2015) actually beat him; Djokovic additionally stretched him to a 5-set semi and two 4-set finals. Federer took a set in four of his six defeats. Isner led two sets to one in the opening round in 2011.

The list of players who have taken one set probably isn't that long either.

novak is playing smart and patient vs berrettini

Because I had a spare 10min, here you go - the one-set wonders:

Grosjean
Puerta
Mathieu
Hewitt
Brands
Klizan
Ferrer
Sock
Goffin
Thiem

his dominance speaks for itself but seeing it that way is astounding

How do the draws work if Djokovic wins? Would it be Nadal playing him in the semi-finals?

Nvm, I see now. It is like a ladder and not lowest vs highest rank.

Turned on the last qf on right at the end - didn't realise there was still a curfew, and they cleared out the crowd at some point? Novak made up for it, with all his bellowing nonsense. No code violation for booting the hell out of that ad hoarding? Lucky there wasn't a line judge behind it, a la Nalbandian. Oh well, Rafa-Novak part LVIII. Hope Rafa can tie up the h2h.

couldnt watch the last set but berrettini gave away way too many pts w bad shot choices & errant slice backhands

rafa will beat novak

fucking loved that last set. krejcikova was tough as nails esp after getting screwed by the umpire on mp4.

starting to think stefanos might never get to a slam final :/

cmon you greek weirdo! break him here.

sigh. If Stef loses this, that’s probably it for me on the men’s side.

Not sure if it’s just nerves but he doesn’t look like himself from these past few weeks.

looked away for a couple of games and this took a wild turn!

FINALLY!

yes! i will continue watching the tournament!

Right I’m tapping out - Rafa and Djoko took eight minutes just to finish the first game lol

but its been wildly compelling already

looking like a first set breadstick to go w the bagel rafa put on nole last fall

all these saved set pts ! wow

novak has smartly played more offensive this 2nd set

the tide has def turned for djokovic here

this may be covered above, but shouldn't the 1 and 3 seeds be meeting in the final, not the semi?