OT - French Open
Anyone watching the French Open?
The Tsonga - Djokovic match that just ended was incredible. Tsonga played so well coming back from a set down, and the crowd was cheering him on the entire way. Djokovic had to fight off 4 match points in the 4th set but Tsonga was dead tired and couldn't fight his way back into the last set.
Overall, the men's side of the tournament has been great, the usual top players advancing but some really great matches being played. On the women's side, well, it's the usual mess that women's tennis has been lately.
Thoughts?
Tsonga is a guy that has a lot of the tools that for some reason doesn't win these long matches, I want him to and think he is capable of winning far more, but still Djokovic is just on a TEAR!
It seems like there are so many guys with an outside shot, who push the big 4 to the brink. Just like my favorite player Gasquet, who rolled over Andy Murray 6-1 then dropped 3 straight sets. Clearly Tsonga is a phenomenal player, but the dropoff from numbers 1-4 to number 5 is just incredible.
Wow, so I was just trying to give Murray some credit since he just dismantled Gasquet...but in reality I completely agree with you. I actually despise Murray more than any other player on tour, hence this facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Murray-is-a-Weasel/180954491942768
Not a big fan of Murray either. So I don't feel THAT bad that he happens to be playing at the same time as 2 of the best ever and Djokovic.
Djokovic may qualify as an all-time great himself with a couple more Slams.
I think it has clearly been a top 3 for some time. Murray hasn't been able to crack that group on a consistent basis his entire career and putting him in a group with them just doesn't seem right. There is also a very clear gap after him as well.
Cannot wait for the Djokovic - Federer showdown on Friday. Come on Roger!
I would love to see Federer take Djokovic down. He has been my favorite player for years and it has been hard to see him go on this recent drought. The problem is Djokovic is just playing so insane lately I can't see it happening. I hope I'm wrong though.
The fact that anyone would call this a dought is a testament to how incredible his career has been. The guy is I think 53-4 since the US Open with 7 titles, and just played his 32 consecutive quarterfinal at the slams. Obviously he hasn't been winning the slam titles lately, but he's still right there for being the top player on tour.
Roger is (dare I say?) getting old compared to the other guys. Roger is 30 (so am I), so technically he is still very young, but for tennis players, getting to their 30s is usually the downturn of their careers. I feel that Roger still has about three good years left in him though, but after that, he won't be a factor.
People were saying the saying thing before Federer produced a masterclass performance against Djokovic at the French open last year. That was probably one of the best matches he has ever played.
As stupid as this may sound, I have taken an interest to tennis after playing the Grand Slam Tennis 2 on the PS3.
I was the same way except my game was Virtua Tennis for the good ol' Dreamcast back in the day.
Now I find myself watching all the majors in part because it looks so good in HD. I think tennis, golf, and hockey benefit the most from HD and it definately impacts my viewing of the first two.
I was all about Racket Attack for 8-bit Nintendo.
...back in my day, my brother and I took an interest to tennis by finding some old rackets in my aunt's basement and then heading out into the street to hit tennis balls back & forth.
And yes they were wooden rackets too. Damn I must sound old.
The first Top Spin on Xbox was my game of choice. For one semester during my freshman year of college I got myself ranked in the top 100 in that game on Xbox live. Didn't know a dang thing about the real life version of the game I was playing, but a for a few short months, I was quasi interested in tennis and also one of the best in the world at playing it online...
I have been watching on TV on the weekends and listening to the matches using the French Open iPhone app. I have become a big fan of tennis over the past couple years and yes, the Tsonga/Djokovic match was incredible. I can't believe Tsonga had so many match points and could not capitalize. Just goes to show why Novak is the number one player in the world. I'm hoping the semi-finals are (again) Murray, Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic. Nothing beats a Federer/Nadal match, however, the Djokovic/Murray match at the 2011 U.S. Open was fantastic.
A set is up to 6 games, but you have to win by two games. If a set reaches 6-6, a tiebreaker is played, which is one single "game" up to 7 points (again win by 2). To win a mens match in a major like the French, a player needs to win 3 sets, so it is best of 5 sets. If the 5th set is tied 6-6, there is no tiebreaker, the players just continue until someone wins by 2 games (except in the US Open, weird I know), hence why there are marathon matches like John Isner's back at Wimbledon.
Tournaments start with 128 players, so Djokovic and Federer have now won 5 matches to reach the semis, and will need to win 7 to win it all. At this point, they showed a stat where Djokovic has now been on court for around 15 hours of playing time. The tournament runs from Sunday-Sunday over two weeks.