What he definitely didn’t:
“I can play better than Victoria.”
They’re better?
They’re faster—sure, at first.
They’re the fresh tennis balls of Babolat.
It’s goodbye, Dunlop. A new sphere dawns.
French balls at the French Open. Did you expect less?
Shouldering a heavy workload at the French Open? All that running and sliding and now this…
A song-and-dance about nothing, you say?
Well, let’s give the musical some lyrics and a tune.
Here’s to ballsy folk at Roland Garros.
This year’s French Open is not about Roger Federer. Was it ever? Except for that little aberration in 2009, with Rafa missing.
It’s centres on that Serbian upstart Novak Djokovic and that muscled monster, Rafael Nadal.
Who’s Roger, indeed?
Strasbourg 2010 and Amelia Island 2008 were her only clay court trophies of 22 on the WTA Tour.
But not now. With her victory over Samantha Stosur at Rome on Sunday, the Siberian staked her claim to the French Open this year.She stalked her adversaries and crept up on her prey, unsuspecting. Beware—Maria, the huntress, is on the prowl.
You think that maybe he’s vulnerable , that maybe, just maybe, the challenge of Djokovic and the younger brigade is too much to push back; it’s just too much pressure to hold on but then along comes clay season, and Rafael Nadal rises to the occasion, undulating effortlessly to the top.
“You can’t touch me here, I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” is what the Majorcan sings out, scything through the field like a knife through melted butter.
This Sunday, it was the Barcelona Open making it two out of two for the Spaniard on his favourite surface this year.
Once again, it was his compatriot David Ferrer who succumbed to the No. 1’s might.
Our beloved tennis players are eminently quotable. They can rise to the occasion and serve up wonderful sound bytes – some terrific , some terrible – when accosted at their press conferences and when grilled at interviews.
A sampling from the articulate geniuses.
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Samantha Stosur cuts a striking, even imposing figure on court with her trademark baseball cap and dark shades.
She brings to the tennis court her unique persona and style.
She started out as a doubles player and was ranked No. 1 in the world with Lisa Raymond.
Samantha Stosur is the Australian No.1. She goes into the US Open ranked No. 5, her highest ranking ever at Flushing Meadows.
If 2009 marked the rebirth of Stosur in her singles avatar, 2010 confirmed her status as a challenger to beware of.
2009 saw her reach the French Open semis and 2010 saw her go one better reaching the finals only to cave in to an uninhibited Schiavone. Ironically, it was Schiavone she knocked out in the first round at the 2009 edition of the French Open.
2010 has been her best year ever on the WTA tour. Her career high-ranking of five has come on the back of her stupendous showing at the French Open. This period also includes seven successive quarter-final appearances, a record of sorts.
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Image via Wikipedia
If you were a newbie following women’s tennis when Jennifer Capriati won the Australian & French Opens in 2001 and followed it up with the Australian Open again the following year, you would not have been surprised to see her at the pinnacle of women’s tennis, holding the No. 1 ranking.
But as avid followers of the game can testify, there is a very interesting and heart-warming story behind Capriati’s success.
Capriati was a prodigy—a teen prodigy no less—and made her professional debut on March 5, 1990, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
Success was quick to follow!
She reached the final of her debut tournament at Boca Raton, Florida, losing to Gabriela Sabatini in the final.
She reached the finals of her next tournament as well, losing to none other than, in her own words "the lege", Martina Navratilova.
Quote of the day:
Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student. – George Iles
There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded or cornered tiger and Nadal was a wounded tiger who had been licking his wounds ever since he was diagnosed with acute tendinitis in his knees in 2009. After being out for the most part of 2009 and unable to defend his 2008 Wimbledon crown, Nadal decided that it was time to ration out his appearances in the clay court season this time around. A little bit of rest and recuperation for his much abused knees could do no harm!
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Image by martin jančovič via Flickr
“And the mighty oak came crashing down, not with a single wield of the ax, but with multiple incisions made by a crafty little customer.” If Stosur was the mighty oak, Schiavone was the craftswoman who used all the skill and guile at her disposal to bring the more powerful Samantha to her knees; she was surgical in her demolition job making Stosur seem pedestrian for the most part of the match.
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