TENNIS: French Open: Finals (finally)
Oct. 18th, 2020 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllA week after the event!
Women’s final
The experts were unsure who would win, I was favouring Kenin because of experience, and supporting her because I’d seen more of her play. But looking back, especially at how easily Swiatek had come through the draw, that seems silly now, doesn’t it? Swiatek said at the end that she wa stressed, but it didn’t show in her play. She was composed when she came out, her shots firing like artillery and she was soon up 3-0. Kenin found a way to handle her, and got the score back to 3-3, when things were briefly competitive, but Swiatek re-established herself, took the lead again and kept it, leading in the second – I don’t know what to say about Kenin’s injury time out. But it was all the young Pole, and it wasn’t just the speed and spin of her big shots. Truly, this has been the the drop shot slam. How few points Kenin was able to win in the second set said it all.
Depending on how Swiatek copes with this huge elevation in ranking and status – what a first title to win!- she could be a potent threat at the top with what came off her raquet. She dismantled two grand slam winners in this tournament and a finalist from last year. She’s only nineteen and there are aspects of her game she could work on. Of course, as for Osaka, Kenin and Halep, it’s going to be a strange reign as a Grand Slam champion with very little tennis for the rest of the year and questions over the future in general, while women’s tennis remains in churn.
I only got choky when I saw her hugging her masked coaching team and family, with the realisation of how the pandemic has impacted everything (seeing the clips of Mary Pierce’s victories, one remembered how decimated the crowd were too.) As always, I like the fact that they play the champion’s national anthem at the French.
And then the men’s final, and a sense of disbelief, frankly for most of it. As a Nadal fan, I honestly wasn’t expecting what ensued. I’d thought it would be a six-hour slugfest involving brilliance and doubt about who would prevail. Djokovic had seemed stronger in the opening rounds, but Nadal had had less tennis, and then Nadal had won more easily in the last round…but that knowledge couldn’t have prepared us for what we saw.
In one way, the points seemed competitive, games often went to deuce and yet, Nadal kept winning them. He was playing the big points better, and the stats about Djokovic’s serve helped explain some of it. Without that foundation, how could his game flourish? Still, the first set was stunning.
Would Djokovic reset? Well, his first serve got in more, but the answer was ‘not really’. Nadal was on to the drop shot, using tactics and finding ways to win the point with brilliant shots. The outcome of the second set was much the same.
Djokovic did find a way to win games in the third, but as the set drew to its conclusion, he was still going for drop shots, still making errors and seeming rather desperate, while Nadal didn’t let up much. He nullified a top player and although it wasn’t the match the scoreline suggests, the scoreline wasn’t lying either. The way he won the match and his THIRTEENTH FRENCH OPEN, a hefty chunk of his 20 grand slams, said it all. The manner of how he defeated his great rival, even if it was on his court, was remarkable at this stage in their careers.
Women’s final
The experts were unsure who would win, I was favouring Kenin because of experience, and supporting her because I’d seen more of her play. But looking back, especially at how easily Swiatek had come through the draw, that seems silly now, doesn’t it? Swiatek said at the end that she wa stressed, but it didn’t show in her play. She was composed when she came out, her shots firing like artillery and she was soon up 3-0. Kenin found a way to handle her, and got the score back to 3-3, when things were briefly competitive, but Swiatek re-established herself, took the lead again and kept it, leading in the second – I don’t know what to say about Kenin’s injury time out. But it was all the young Pole, and it wasn’t just the speed and spin of her big shots. Truly, this has been the the drop shot slam. How few points Kenin was able to win in the second set said it all.
Depending on how Swiatek copes with this huge elevation in ranking and status – what a first title to win!- she could be a potent threat at the top with what came off her raquet. She dismantled two grand slam winners in this tournament and a finalist from last year. She’s only nineteen and there are aspects of her game she could work on. Of course, as for Osaka, Kenin and Halep, it’s going to be a strange reign as a Grand Slam champion with very little tennis for the rest of the year and questions over the future in general, while women’s tennis remains in churn.
I only got choky when I saw her hugging her masked coaching team and family, with the realisation of how the pandemic has impacted everything (seeing the clips of Mary Pierce’s victories, one remembered how decimated the crowd were too.) As always, I like the fact that they play the champion’s national anthem at the French.
And then the men’s final, and a sense of disbelief, frankly for most of it. As a Nadal fan, I honestly wasn’t expecting what ensued. I’d thought it would be a six-hour slugfest involving brilliance and doubt about who would prevail. Djokovic had seemed stronger in the opening rounds, but Nadal had had less tennis, and then Nadal had won more easily in the last round…but that knowledge couldn’t have prepared us for what we saw.
In one way, the points seemed competitive, games often went to deuce and yet, Nadal kept winning them. He was playing the big points better, and the stats about Djokovic’s serve helped explain some of it. Without that foundation, how could his game flourish? Still, the first set was stunning.
Would Djokovic reset? Well, his first serve got in more, but the answer was ‘not really’. Nadal was on to the drop shot, using tactics and finding ways to win the point with brilliant shots. The outcome of the second set was much the same.
Djokovic did find a way to win games in the third, but as the set drew to its conclusion, he was still going for drop shots, still making errors and seeming rather desperate, while Nadal didn’t let up much. He nullified a top player and although it wasn’t the match the scoreline suggests, the scoreline wasn’t lying either. The way he won the match and his THIRTEENTH FRENCH OPEN, a hefty chunk of his 20 grand slams, said it all. The manner of how he defeated his great rival, even if it was on his court, was remarkable at this stage in their careers.
