TENNIS: French Open 2019 R3&4
Jun. 4th, 2019 07:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllRound 3
On Friday, I came home to find a handful of games had been played in Konta’s match, and then watched her control her opponent. She couldn’t have asked for that to have gone better.
What I saw next of Wawrinka and Dimitrov’s match was entertaining, though both were very far behind the baseline very often. But the grand slam champion edged it to be two sets up.
On Saturday, the women’s side was more interesting than the men’s. Halep got through a match smoothly for once against an injured opponent. ITV had learned nothing from two days ago, and put on Djokovic winning easily (which was on in the background, rather than something I watched) before switching to the shock of the tournament so far: Osaka’s game imploding as she lost. The run of three Grand Slams was too much, and we were reminded of how young she is and inexperienced on clay.
I finally saw Serena Williams play for the first time – her outfit during the warm-up seemed impractical, and it took me a while to realise the skirt was meant to look like that. I hadn’t seen or heard of Sonya Denin before, but she was impressive, with the speed and depth of some of those balls. She’s rough-edged, having tantrums over the line calls that the rote thanking the fans couldn’t quite wipe out, but her play on the big points was solid. Granted, apparently, Williams has only played nine matches this season, coming back from injury, and it isn’t as easy to just play yourself into winning form for her these days.
Denin is one of a wave of young players who are making a breakthrough in this tournament that I hadn’t really heard of before, don’t yet know, and haven’t sorted out in my mind. Exciting times in women’s tennis.
Round 4
I did not expect Konta to win so convincingly. Not that I saw it, I had Wawrinka vs. Tsitsipas on, dipping in and out of it (and later Paire vs. Nishikori). The matches were exciting in terms of the tennis and drama, but I wasn’t enough of a fan of anyone, though Tsitsipas is very promising, if he can sort out his ball toss and serve. Wawrinka and Nishikori’s next opponents (Federer and Nadal) will be pleased both went to five sets.
It’s Monday of the second week, so I was pleasantly surprised to be able to watch a whole match (and then only watched the last two and a half sets properly). For once, I wasn’t supporting Del Potro. Perhaps it was because I thought for a bit that he’d won the first set, or perhaps Khachanov reminded me of Liam Hemsworth. Del Potro did that thing where he looked exhausted but then played magnificent tennis, but his Russian opponent played smart – I suspect DelPo would always win him at his best – and got through to the quarters of a slam for the first time.
On Friday, I came home to find a handful of games had been played in Konta’s match, and then watched her control her opponent. She couldn’t have asked for that to have gone better.
What I saw next of Wawrinka and Dimitrov’s match was entertaining, though both were very far behind the baseline very often. But the grand slam champion edged it to be two sets up.
On Saturday, the women’s side was more interesting than the men’s. Halep got through a match smoothly for once against an injured opponent. ITV had learned nothing from two days ago, and put on Djokovic winning easily (which was on in the background, rather than something I watched) before switching to the shock of the tournament so far: Osaka’s game imploding as she lost. The run of three Grand Slams was too much, and we were reminded of how young she is and inexperienced on clay.
I finally saw Serena Williams play for the first time – her outfit during the warm-up seemed impractical, and it took me a while to realise the skirt was meant to look like that. I hadn’t seen or heard of Sonya Denin before, but she was impressive, with the speed and depth of some of those balls. She’s rough-edged, having tantrums over the line calls that the rote thanking the fans couldn’t quite wipe out, but her play on the big points was solid. Granted, apparently, Williams has only played nine matches this season, coming back from injury, and it isn’t as easy to just play yourself into winning form for her these days.
Denin is one of a wave of young players who are making a breakthrough in this tournament that I hadn’t really heard of before, don’t yet know, and haven’t sorted out in my mind. Exciting times in women’s tennis.
Round 4
I did not expect Konta to win so convincingly. Not that I saw it, I had Wawrinka vs. Tsitsipas on, dipping in and out of it (and later Paire vs. Nishikori). The matches were exciting in terms of the tennis and drama, but I wasn’t enough of a fan of anyone, though Tsitsipas is very promising, if he can sort out his ball toss and serve. Wawrinka and Nishikori’s next opponents (Federer and Nadal) will be pleased both went to five sets.
It’s Monday of the second week, so I was pleasantly surprised to be able to watch a whole match (and then only watched the last two and a half sets properly). For once, I wasn’t supporting Del Potro. Perhaps it was because I thought for a bit that he’d won the first set, or perhaps Khachanov reminded me of Liam Hemsworth. Del Potro did that thing where he looked exhausted but then played magnificent tennis, but his Russian opponent played smart – I suspect DelPo would always win him at his best – and got through to the quarters of a slam for the first time.
