TENNIS: French Open men's semi finals
Jun. 5th, 2010 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI was waiting for a package to be delivered, so I sat through it all (give or take one doze towards the end of the first semi-final). I think it had more to offer than the women's equivalent this year. And so we get the Nadal-Soderling rematch. In the final. As we couldn't have the Federer-Nadal, this offers its own excitement, definitely. I decided it was what I wanted, as in I supported Soderling in his semi, for a superficial reason. You know those embarrassing pre-match interviews, where the interviewer has to come up with an all-encompassing but bland question and the players clearly just want to get on the courts? Soderling smiled at the end of his, and the nice smile did it for me.
Having said that, Berdych lost the first set. He was slightly the better player until that loose game, and then? Well, the commentators pointed out the truth, they were too much the same type, there were patches where one played well, patches where one played loosely and the other was more consistent. Because I am ultimately supporting Nadal, I didn't mind that it went to five sets, but if Berdych could pull it all together more (despite how his form dipped, Soderling was there mentally enough to take his chances) he's a really exciting player.
For all that it was shorter, and Nadal looked like the winner from early on, the second match offered more entertaining tennis. Fierce Rafa (some of the shots were 'scary' - and I hope he retains this form on Sunday and on through the grass season) meeting Meltzer who came up with interesting shots. Nadal nearly lost the third - I don't know what all that grinning after double-faulting to lose his service game was.
I know they're both debuting, but I hope the women make a match of it and I'll be supporting Stosur (which may not be fair on Schiavonne, but I've seen more of Stosur overall).
Having said that, Berdych lost the first set. He was slightly the better player until that loose game, and then? Well, the commentators pointed out the truth, they were too much the same type, there were patches where one played well, patches where one played loosely and the other was more consistent. Because I am ultimately supporting Nadal, I didn't mind that it went to five sets, but if Berdych could pull it all together more (despite how his form dipped, Soderling was there mentally enough to take his chances) he's a really exciting player.
For all that it was shorter, and Nadal looked like the winner from early on, the second match offered more entertaining tennis. Fierce Rafa (some of the shots were 'scary' - and I hope he retains this form on Sunday and on through the grass season) meeting Meltzer who came up with interesting shots. Nadal nearly lost the third - I don't know what all that grinning after double-faulting to lose his service game was.
I know they're both debuting, but I hope the women make a match of it and I'll be supporting Stosur (which may not be fair on Schiavonne, but I've seen more of Stosur overall).
