TENNIS: French Open - early days
May. 29th, 2012 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllAs advertised, here it is then, the French Open with its red clay, colourful players and distinctive 'ole'...on ITV. I can't say that I love the fact that it's sponsored by a betting agency and half the ads seem to be for other betting agencies. I'm feeling out the format and working out who the commentators are - Petchey's the only one who's crossed over from the Beeb, I think, of which I approve. I'm a bit less enthusiastic about Inverdale who is trying to put everything in a rather insular British (English) sporting context. Ah well, everyone seems to be polite to him.
I saw bits of games and wasn't much involved until tonight when I started watching the remarkable Williams match towards the end of the second set. Her opponent (French and thus the crowd's darling) had been playing well and deserved the tie-break I thought, but I assumed, as Williams took charge of it, that the former champion would steal it. I wondered what it must be like to serve 1-5 down in such a tie-break. Point by point, I supposed. And so it was, with many a contested line call - of course, on clay, it's a question of looking at the mark on the ground, not Hawkeye, so the umpire is more involved. Like the crowd, I was glad it was going into a third, but flummoxed by Williams's undoing. Some of her shots were preposterous (because they were misses rather than brilliant). Then there was the hinderance calls, the last of which was unfair, and it seemed as if cramp were the cause of it all. Of course, the crowd was well into it, and rewarded by an unbelievable marathon of a final game. Up and down serving, bad returning, balls on the line...the last point was almost anti-climactic. (Sharapova will be pleased and Williams will lift her head soon and fix her gaze on the grass.)
I hope Inverdale bought Mauresmo a drink or something after making her do simultaneous translation.
I've seen nothing to make me change my mind yet about the men's likely being contested by the top three - probably Djokovic vs. Nadal, which will be tasty given all the history. I'm not going to make a fool of myself and try to predict what will happen on the women's side, especially after Azarenka nearly went out too.
I saw bits of games and wasn't much involved until tonight when I started watching the remarkable Williams match towards the end of the second set. Her opponent (French and thus the crowd's darling) had been playing well and deserved the tie-break I thought, but I assumed, as Williams took charge of it, that the former champion would steal it. I wondered what it must be like to serve 1-5 down in such a tie-break. Point by point, I supposed. And so it was, with many a contested line call - of course, on clay, it's a question of looking at the mark on the ground, not Hawkeye, so the umpire is more involved. Like the crowd, I was glad it was going into a third, but flummoxed by Williams's undoing. Some of her shots were preposterous (because they were misses rather than brilliant). Then there was the hinderance calls, the last of which was unfair, and it seemed as if cramp were the cause of it all. Of course, the crowd was well into it, and rewarded by an unbelievable marathon of a final game. Up and down serving, bad returning, balls on the line...the last point was almost anti-climactic. (Sharapova will be pleased and Williams will lift her head soon and fix her gaze on the grass.)
I hope Inverdale bought Mauresmo a drink or something after making her do simultaneous translation.
I've seen nothing to make me change my mind yet about the men's likely being contested by the top three - probably Djokovic vs. Nadal, which will be tasty given all the history. I'm not going to make a fool of myself and try to predict what will happen on the women's side, especially after Azarenka nearly went out too.
