Live from Paris
Almost 6 pm here in Paris on Sunday, May 27th and unfortunately not much has happened. Only one match was completed, as 22nd seeded Marat Safin destroyed Fernando Vicente 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. And since I slept until 1pm, I didn’t actually see any tennis (notice how the subject says “Live from Paris,” and not “Live from Roland Garros.” Hopefully tomorrow will be the latter.
Since I can’t really write about today’s tennis, and no one wants to hear that the Red Sox currently hold a 11.5 game lead over the Yankees, I’ll make a couple of bold predictions instead. To start, I think Federer will play Nadal in the finals (not so bold), and that Federer will win (a bit bolder). I also think that James Blake will be the first American in who knows how long to make the quarterfinals (extremely bold). He should not lose to Karlovic in the first round, Bjorkman or Luczak in the second, and while 28th seeded Philip Kolschreiber is a very talented player, I believe Blake will take him down as well. It gets a bit tougher in the round of 16, when he matches up against Berdych or Moya. I just think that if Blake makes it through three rounds, he will have the confidence he needs to dispatch either. Then he would play Nadal, and while JB has a good record against Nadal, it is all on hard courts and I just can’t see him grinding it out with Rafa.
On the Women’s side, first seend Justine Henin couldn’t have been too happy with her draw, as she faces a quarterfinal matchup with Serena Williams, which I think Justine would ultimately win, but considering Serena has been the best female player on tour this year, I’m sure there were other players Henin would rather play that early. The most intriguing quarter final matchup is Sharapova against hometown hero Amelie Mauresmo. I hope Mauresemo can overcome the nerves she tends to feel in Paris and make it this far, because I think she would take Sharapova down if they do indeed meet up. I’m going to get a little bit more creative with my Women’s pick that I did with my Men’s, and pick Jankovic to play Kuznetsova in the finals, with Kuznetsova taking the title.
Even with the rain today, our clients seem to be enjoying themselves and are hopefully recovering from any jet lag. We had a terrific welcome dinner last night for our early rounds group at A La Petite Chaise, the oldest restaurant in Paris. The food was amazing, I strongly recommend the French Onion Soup, and our special guests Guillermo Vilas and Francoise Durr happily discussed tennis and answered any questions our clients had. I’ll be back with another update sometime tomorrow, hopefully after I’ve actually watched some tennis.