Tennis

[Guest wonderbang]

Maybe it's just me but I can't see the pictures you posted...

Anyhow, we have ANOTHER US guy in the second round....wildcard Odesnik who took down Canas. That was a big surprise for me...I guess we ain't doing too shabby this year (I probably just jinxed them but oh well )

Jankovic looked really shaky in her first match....I thought she was a semi-favorite but it doesn't look like she's fit enough to win RG. Then again, she competes like crazy so anything can happen, e.g., first round of AO this year

[Guest dOotsiez]

Sometimes pros take a few matches to get into it, so maybe Jankovic will too. But then again, Jankovic plays way too many matches, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was burnt out from playing Rome. She reminds of Davydenko sometimes, so much potential, but prefers quantity over quality.

Surprised about Odesnik, but I didn't watch the match, so I'm not sure if it was him playing well or Canas playing badly. The scores were so close though, 3 tie breakers! Canas hasn't been cruising lately.

Marco Baghdatis out too. Aus open underdogs never go on to become anything special so much for the hype.

[Guest wonderbang]

that jankovic comparison to davydenko is peeeerfect. both of these players are due for an extended break though i doubt they'll do that out of choice....

anyhow, rg is really suffering from the rain today....so many matches still need to be completed....hopefully it won't get too bad getting to the end of the week....it seems all the grand slam tournaments suffer from rain at one point or another....just some (AO and Wimb soon) are smart enough to invest in a roof.

[Guest dOotsiez]

Yeah agree with what you said about Jankvovic and Davydenko needing a break. Most pros are complaining that they only get a week to prepare for French, but not Davydenko. The one week he has off, he flies to Austria to compete. And then flies into Paris hours before day 1. As we've seen from Miami, he totally has the potential to take on the top guys, but if he wants to make the Big 3 Big 4, he's gotta start pacing himself better, play more selectively, and act like he belongs with the likes of Fed/Nadal/Djoko. But it feels like he's not in it for the top spot, has neither the ambition nor the passion.

Round 1 is dragging on longer than I expected. More rain forecasts. Get yourself a roof Roland Garros. AO doesnt even need a roof, it's always on during Australia's drought season.

[Guest mistapooh]

the tennis channel is showing all courts free on live streaming (thanks to being Aussie, i'm "blacked-out" from the site ), so if you get sick of watching the Americans on tv, hop on the internet instead.

from memory, like 9 US players got out round 1 last year, ESPN must've been upset. I did have a look at the Blake match yesterday, he was looking hot in the second set and early 3rd set, and then.....oh well, he still won. Djokovic was really the match of the day, didn't expect him to be pushed by Greymelmayr, who at one point was leading 4-0 in the first set. He gave Fed a bit of trouble earlier on in Estoril as well.

Today's a good day, for me anyway, matches of the day

Fed v Querrey

Casey Dellacqua vs. Marion Bartoli - c'mon Casey!

Serra v Gasquet (shall be interesting to see how Gasquet's holding up, could potentially be the first upset at FO)

http://video.tennischannel.com/schedule.jsp

Here's the link to the streams. It's not live, but recorded matches for the day, I prefer it like this. Buffers extremely fast for me and no delays even if I skip around.

dOotsiez, you can get away with a proxy and watch it. I'm too tired to help, but it's not hard, google it.

[Guest wonderbang]

oh that's right dOotsiez! you can use a proxy to mask your ip address....then they don't know your internet connection is from outside of the US. thanks for the tip mistapooh.

anyhow, day one isssss taking forever.....poor nadal! this reminds of wimbledon last year where it took him a whole week to get past the first two rounds or something....this is why i'm not a rain-type of person. it ruins good tennis

[Guest dOotsiez]

it's annoying how behind the schedule they are. I did hear something about them wanting to renovate the courts though, so hopefully they'll consider a roof.

mistapooh I tried to change the proxy, either I'm not tehcnologically minded enough to do it right or TTC is too smart do you just get a US proxy number, and put it in? coz that's basically what I did.

bah before i figure out to do bypass the IP blackout, I'd prob have to stick to channelsurfing.net/ On the brighter side, Hewitt's through to the next round. Haven't got a lot of love for him, but you still stick with your country. Off to watch Rafa now.

[Guest wonderbang]

maybe you can try a web-based proxy?

anyhow, so far no large upsets just yet...then again, not many matches have been played....i'm crossing my fingers hoping for a better second week and that my favorites go through!

sharapova almost lost it in the first round! much closer that i expected.....i can't believe she hit SEVENTEEN double faults....i know it was a windy day but that was very uncharacteristic of her (of anyone outside of dementieva lol).....i swear the women's side is wide open. no one seems to be playing exceptionally well (maybe serena only)...

on the men, the big 3 are looking good, particularly nadal. it's going to take a lot to bring him down and i don't see anyone doing it besides novak in the semis or fed in the final.....i hope i didn't jinx them though!

[Guest dOotsiez]

I was surprised that Nadal's first set yesterday went to 7-5. I think he underestimated Bellucci. But apart from that, I agree. don't think anyone is capable of winning against him on clay. out of the 21 matches he played at the RG, he's won all 21, and lost 6 sets only 3 of those sets went to Federer, but now Fed's gotta try and take 3 in one go. If I were him, I'd go see a sports psychologist.

Sharapova's serve was baaaaad yesterday. Plus she's actually incapable of sliding on clay. Well it's not like she hasn't warned us that she feels like a cow on ice on clay. Match to watch out for in the second round: Safin v Davykeno. c'mon Safin

Some channels on justin.tv are stealing TTC's live streaming, so provided they continue to do that, I can watch through there. Who are the male commentators on TTC? what a bunch of boressss. And kept pronouncing Mahut 'MAH-HOOT'.

YAY Dellacqua def Bartoli. 3 aussies to the second round, it's not a graveyard afterall. GO CASEY!

[Guest wonderbang]

lol...i watched dellacqua's match too and thought she played pretty well. bartoli's ranking is totally going to plummet in a few weeks time.

as for the commentators, i have NO IDEA but they are indeed boring. the thing i noticed so far is that they don't talk too often (most of the time there's only one) so it's not too distracting for me...........yet.

[Guest dOotsiez]

I think commentators make a huge difference. The Brits on Eurosport are much more witty, and creative with their vocabulary, so provided that I can find someone who streams Eurosport, I always stick with them.

A really good day of matches coming up. Will be trying to catch Davydenko v Safin!!!! Hewitt v Fish - hope he fries him. and Federer v Montanes. Think the rest of my faves are pretty safe, prob switch around to catch Nadal, Sharapova, Dellaqua and Stosur in action too, or at least have the scoreboard up on the my comp. Guilty guilty... tennis is the best procrastination from exam revision. lol.

Not exactly the glamour trio, but ...

[Guest wonderbang]

lol what a nice picture.....hewitt is in action right now.....unfortunately stosur went down easily but dellacqua is through though!

i've catched glimpses of the commentating on eurosport from youtube clips but never enough to make a judgment. you're right though....commentators do make a difference.

[Guest dOotsiez]

Hewitt's playing well given his recent injuries, but 'uh-oh' to meeting Ferrer next round.

I knew the upsets were coming - Blake lost to some guy from Latvia whose name I can't remember, Mauresmo out, and Nalbandian out too, def by Chardy. Where's the Nalby that was creaming Fed, Nadal and Djokovic last year?

Jankovic sustained some injury on her arm, so it should be interesting to see how that works out, but I'm inclined to count her out now, given her injury and her draw.

[Guest wonderbang]

nalbandian comes and goes......like a safin almost.

hewitt is doing really well for not playing in awhile. i think he came in to RG without any expectations and it has helped him so far. gulbis is that talented latvian you were talking about....he had some good wins last year too and is always dangerous because he has a lot of firepower....like a berdych if that helps.

mauresmo totally wilted.....retirement must be jumping in her head...jankovic is injured (when is she NOT?) but she always seems to find a way to win....she's been cutting it close though and you think sooner or later it'll catch up to her. she has a tougher next round against cibulkova who did well on clay this year (though before that i knew nothing of her)...

should be interesting heading into the end of the first week although schedules were completely screwed up with the rain and all. roof, roof, roof......

[Guest dOotsiez]

More top seed casualties - Serena's out too. dismal, dismal state of women's tennis. I felt nothing really when Henin decided to retire since I was never a fan of her, but now it's starting to hurt. the women's side has been completely decapitated, and I think it's more than likely that we'll have some unseeded final or something equally as anti climatic.

hmm...Jankovic does seem to pull through alot of matches despite with her injuries, but then again, she's a bit of a drama queen so sometimes she's prob not as badly injured as she present herself to be. still if she goes against an in-form Ivanovic, me thinks she has a slim chance if she's not 100%.

a lot of male players comes and goes - Nalby, Gasquet, Murray, Baghdatis... talented enough to beat the top 3 if they want to, but lack the conviction and passion that men like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic consistently display. Hewitt, in this respect, deserve some respect. He plays tennis with a lot of conviction and that wins him more matches than just his skills. If he wins against Ferrer next round, he'll be back in my good books again

are there still any americans left in RG? aus media never covers these things.

[Aziraphale]

^ I don't like Serena, so I'm glad to see her out. I'm sorry that Henin isn't at Roland Garros this year still a bit of a shock that both Belgians aren't in the game anymore. Anyway, as for the Americans, I see Ginepri (v Serra) and Odesnik (v Djokovic) still in the draw for the third round. Venus has yet to play today.

[Guest dOotsiez]

Really? I love Serena's game, although it's not spectacular on clay, but then again, no one is at the moment. Oh yeah, forgot about Odesnik. hoping that he'll do an Anderson a la Miami, but maybe that's just my wishful thinking.

I wouldn't rule out Kim Clijsters for a comeback. I sense it may be soon. Bold predictions heh? Henin on the other hand is gone for good (or bad really). The relief on her face when she announced her retirement made me feel so sad for her.

[Guest thina215]

I LOVE TENNIS hah. im such a soccer person, but other than that i love tennis to. sports are soo much fun and i like to play tennis with my friends

[Guest wonderbang]

More top seed casualties - Serena's out too. dismal, dismal state of women's tennis. I felt nothing really when Henin decided to retire since I was never a fan of her, but now it's starting to hurt. the women's side has been completely decapitated, and I think it's more than likely that we'll have some unseeded final or something equally as anti climatic.

hmm...Jankovic does seem to pull through alot of matches despite with her injuries, but then again, she's a bit of a drama queen so sometimes she's prob not as badly injured as she present herself to be. still if she goes against an in-form Ivanovic, me thinks she has a slim chance if she's not 100%.

are there still any americans left in RG? aus media never covers these things.

Sigh. I love Serena's game too (what would I do for that serve....) so I'm disappointed she's out. Srebotnik played consistent and aggressive when she needed to be. Game plan worked out for her.

Jankovic IS a total drama queen. I have a love-hate relationship with that one. She makes really witty comments and she's funny in a self-deprecating way but she can totally overexaggerate things to the max. She won the first set against Cibulkova so watch out! She might be limping to the RG finals

With Henin, (yes this may sound mean) but I didn't feel THAT much either when she retired. I respected her as a player but was never drawn to her as a fan. I just hope she has a better after-tennis life now.

[Aziraphale]

Wow, both Williams sisters out. I just checked the scores and Pennetta beat Venus in straight sets. But clay isn't the Williamses' forte, so that's not totally unexpected. As for Clijsters... didn't she just have a baby recently? I don't think she'll do a Davenport anytime soon. Henin... I enjoyed watching her play and she was always so sweet to the Paris crowd, it was a pleasure seeing her win there. Ah well.

I'm neutral about Jankovic. Women's tennis seems a lot duller now that both Henin and Clijsters have quit. I was watching mainly for them. Never liked Serena and Venus, there was something about them that just irked me.

Btw, what do you guys think of Gulbis? Think he can go far?