Early French Open Ramblings
- Kudos to James Blake, who defeated Rainer Schuettler on Sunday in straight sets to become the first American male to advance to the second round at Roland Garros since 2006.
- Special kudos to 106th ranked American Wayne Odesnik, who has the upset of the tournament thus far. Yesterday, he took down 29th seeded and clay court specialist G. Canas in three straight tiebreakers, in a match that almost lasted four hours.
- Venus Williams is going to have to play far, far better than she did when she outlasted her first round opponent, a relative unknown from Israel, in three grueling sets.
- Jonathan Essyric, a young Frenchman who went down to Andy Murray in the first round in a five setter, will make a name for himself amongst his compatriots, and it will be soon.
- Both Tsonga and Gasquet defaulted before play began, upsetting their hometown crowd, citing various physical injuries. However, methinks Gasquet’s injury is more mental than anything.
- Nicole Vaidisova should take some time off. Watching her lose in the first round the other day was painful, because everyone knows her potential is so great, but I think she is starting to buy into people calling her a failure. She is only 19, she has plenty of time to recover, she just needs to believe in herself again.
- Watching Guga play his final match on Sunday, in obvious pain, only makes me think even more negatively about Henin’s abrupt retirement. Kuerten did not have to subject himself to getting throttled on Court Philippe Chatrier (where he won three French Open titles), but he did anyway, to show appreciation to the fans that supported him throughout his career. Tennis, and tennis fans, are a huge part of who Kuerten is, and he gave tennis something back on Sunday.
- Hopefully the rain will stop and I can post more as the week goes on.