TENNIS: French Open 2016 mainly the finals
Jun. 7th, 2016 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI didn’t see the semi finals, but I understood that the seeds came through and the last zebra fell (a lot of the players wore zebra patterned clothes at the French this year).
Ladies final: as ever, I wanted it to be competitive and, er, supported Muguruza, although I thought Serena would win. We got an engrossing match. Yes, it was hard-hitting with little finesse (was the winnng lob the only example of a lob?) but I believe Muguruza won it mentally. That is, she was determined to play positively and stick to her attacking game-plan and therefore she did so. It helped that she had the weapons to mete out to Williams the treatment that Williams herself has produced over the years. Muguruza was also better about coming back when Williams managed to attack – after not winning a long game where she had several break points, you could tell those break points were playing on Williams's mind instead of her, as you’d expect from such a superlative server, thinking of winning her serve quickly and putting the pressure back on her opponent. Muguruza returned strongly, though, putting pressure on said serve in general. But Serena was also brooding after the loss of the first set, which wasn’t one sided.
Meanwhile Muguruza remained composed and determined. The last two points were a little weird after what had come before, but it’s good to see Muguruza realise the potential shown at Wimbledon last year (although getting seeded four here wasn’t bad, if she is to become a real rival to Williams, she needs to find this level at more than one grand slam a year. And improve her net play. She needs to improve vastly on that.) As for Serena, that’s three grand slams that have slipped out of her grasp – to three different players, and Muguruza seems to be the most promising in terms of offering a lasting challenge. Is she reaching the same stage as Federer has been in for the last couple of years, where you’re certainly good enough to be part of the conversation (everyone else would be happyish with semi-finalist and twice runner up) but keep getting beaten? Suddenly, instead of breaking more records, she’s stuttering. We’ll see how she recovers (and indeed young Muguruza) at Wimbledon.
Having said that, Serena was very classy in defeat.
John Inverdale was spectacularly useless, I felt, even at basic presenting – Navratilova and Courier had to guide him in relation to that, and not just the tennis stuff, on which he displayed the memory of a goldfish and the judgment of a one-eyed pontificator. (I exaggerate, but not by much.)
I couldn’t watch the men’s doubles – I think it’s a bit rich of them pretending to care when they haven’t aired a single doubles match up til now.
Men’s final: whew. Fascinating from the outset. Despite losing his serve, Murray came back and er, bossed the first set. It was impeessive, but tense. I’m not sure if the second set hinged on the one mistake (Murray could have broken early on), but Djokovic became a different player and, to some extent, so did Murray. With early breaks in set after set, Murray seemed unable to put together the game he’d forged in the first set, or to win key points, or get his first serve or...until right at the end, where he broke back one of his lost service games, leaving Djokovic knowing what it was like to be two points away from his dream. Doggedly Murray forced Djokovic to win the last game he needed instead of handing it to him (one wondered why he hadn’t found that fighting spirit in the second or third sets or earlier in the fourth, but the dominance of the world number 1 is probably the answer – he mostly obliterated Murray at the net.)
I didn’t see the speeches or the response to the anthem. If Djokovic hadn’t been playing Murray, but someone I didn’t support, during the match I would have felt differently about the scale of his achievement. He really has proved that he’s taken over from Federer and Nadal – it’s his era, as the fact that he has the rolling grand slam proves. It is a huge achievement. And he did win the French crowd over.
Ladies final: as ever, I wanted it to be competitive and, er, supported Muguruza, although I thought Serena would win. We got an engrossing match. Yes, it was hard-hitting with little finesse (was the winnng lob the only example of a lob?) but I believe Muguruza won it mentally. That is, she was determined to play positively and stick to her attacking game-plan and therefore she did so. It helped that she had the weapons to mete out to Williams the treatment that Williams herself has produced over the years. Muguruza was also better about coming back when Williams managed to attack – after not winning a long game where she had several break points, you could tell those break points were playing on Williams's mind instead of her, as you’d expect from such a superlative server, thinking of winning her serve quickly and putting the pressure back on her opponent. Muguruza returned strongly, though, putting pressure on said serve in general. But Serena was also brooding after the loss of the first set, which wasn’t one sided.
Meanwhile Muguruza remained composed and determined. The last two points were a little weird after what had come before, but it’s good to see Muguruza realise the potential shown at Wimbledon last year (although getting seeded four here wasn’t bad, if she is to become a real rival to Williams, she needs to find this level at more than one grand slam a year. And improve her net play. She needs to improve vastly on that.) As for Serena, that’s three grand slams that have slipped out of her grasp – to three different players, and Muguruza seems to be the most promising in terms of offering a lasting challenge. Is she reaching the same stage as Federer has been in for the last couple of years, where you’re certainly good enough to be part of the conversation (everyone else would be happyish with semi-finalist and twice runner up) but keep getting beaten? Suddenly, instead of breaking more records, she’s stuttering. We’ll see how she recovers (and indeed young Muguruza) at Wimbledon.
Having said that, Serena was very classy in defeat.
John Inverdale was spectacularly useless, I felt, even at basic presenting – Navratilova and Courier had to guide him in relation to that, and not just the tennis stuff, on which he displayed the memory of a goldfish and the judgment of a one-eyed pontificator. (I exaggerate, but not by much.)
I couldn’t watch the men’s doubles – I think it’s a bit rich of them pretending to care when they haven’t aired a single doubles match up til now.
Men’s final: whew. Fascinating from the outset. Despite losing his serve, Murray came back and er, bossed the first set. It was impeessive, but tense. I’m not sure if the second set hinged on the one mistake (Murray could have broken early on), but Djokovic became a different player and, to some extent, so did Murray. With early breaks in set after set, Murray seemed unable to put together the game he’d forged in the first set, or to win key points, or get his first serve or...until right at the end, where he broke back one of his lost service games, leaving Djokovic knowing what it was like to be two points away from his dream. Doggedly Murray forced Djokovic to win the last game he needed instead of handing it to him (one wondered why he hadn’t found that fighting spirit in the second or third sets or earlier in the fourth, but the dominance of the world number 1 is probably the answer – he mostly obliterated Murray at the net.)
I didn’t see the speeches or the response to the anthem. If Djokovic hadn’t been playing Murray, but someone I didn’t support, during the match I would have felt differently about the scale of his achievement. He really has proved that he’s taken over from Federer and Nadal – it’s his era, as the fact that he has the rolling grand slam proves. It is a huge achievement. And he did win the French crowd over.
