French Open 2012

RosyLily · 21-05-2012 11:27pm #1

Qualifying for this year's French Open begins tomorrow at 10am. The men's qualifying draw has been released; the women's qualifying draw will be released tomorrow. Main Draws will probably be announced on Friday.

Prize money is up this year. The winner of the Men's Singles and Women's Singles Titles will receive €1.25m each (2011 was €1.2m). Winners of the doubles will get €340,000 per team, whereas the Mixed Doubles winners will get €100,000 to share.

PaddyPower have installed Rafa Nadal as 8/11 favourite for the Coupe de Mousquetaires, followed by Novak Djokovic (2/1), Roger Federer (7/1), Juan Martin del Potro (16/1) and Andy Murray and David Ferrer (both 25/1). BTW, they have Soderling at 200/1?!?! Obviously have no idea that he's out indefinitely.

On the women's side, Serena Williams is tops at 5/2. Behind her are Victoria Azarenka (4/1), Maria Sharapova (13/2), Na Li (9/1) and Sam Stosur (10/1). Quite surprised that Masha is third; I would have put her ahead of Vika.

Unfortunately, there is no Irish interest this year. Boo-urns!!:mad:

TG4 has coverage of the tournament, for anyone with no Eurosport. Also, ITV will show matches.

afatbollix · 21-05-2012 11:30pm

Its on ITV this year not the BBC. ITV will show the finals while ITV 4 will show 6 hours of live a day.

I know Eurosport will have the 2 channels showing matches live all day for the two weeks.

RosyLily · 21-05-2012 11:48pm

afatbollix wrote: »

Its on ITV this year not the BBC. ITV will show the finals while ITV 4 will show 6 hours of live a day.

I know Eurosport will have the 2 channels showing matches live all day for the two weeks.

Bollocks! Thanks for the heads up. The BBC info is still on the Roland Garros website!:mad:

Scanlas The 2nd · 22-05-2012 8:18am

Another French open in the bag for Rafa it would seem. Would have liked Novak to win his French open and hold all 4 grand slams but it seems his 2011 form is eluding him. I knew his form was gone judging by his Australian open form. He could have easily lost the semi and final. My hopes of Federer winning the French have all but vanished. If he retained his number 2 ranking and Novak was still in top form he had a real chance, now its over for him.

walshb · 22-05-2012 12:52pm

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

Another French open in the bag for Rafa it would seem. Would have liked Novak to win his French open and hold all 4 grand slams but it seems his 2011 form is eluding him. I knew his form was gone judging by his Australian open form. He could have easily lost the semi and final. My hopes of Federer winning the French have all but vanished. If he retained his number 2 ranking and Novak was still in top form he had a real chance, now its over for him.

I would love to see Novak win. I know he is slightly dropping, but I still think in a slam he may have an edge over Nadal, clay or not. Obvioulsy the clay will give Nadal a better chance, but Novak can beat him on all surfaces, as he proved last year and this year. Hard to bet against Nadal, but if any one player has his number it's Novak.

Rob2D · 22-05-2012 11:22pm

No BBC this year????

I'm glad really. Their coverage last year was awful.

Nice to see that ITV are picking it up.

_Bella_ · 23-05-2012 9:22am

I think the last few results may have helped Novak. Nadal is now the clear favourite and a majority of the tension and pressure is on him. Novak's big focus has been RG, and he will not lose easily.

jupiterjack · 23-05-2012 3:10pm

cant wait for it to get started.

jmb1 · 24-05-2012 3:10pm

My favorites :
***** : Nadal
**** : Djokovic
*** : Federer, Berdych, Del Potro
* : Ferrer, Isner, Verdasco

KINGVictor · 24-05-2012 9:56pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Qualifying for this year's French Open begins tomorrow at 10am. The men's qualifying draw has been released; the women's qualifying draw will be released tomorrow. Main Draws will probably be announced on Friday.

TG4 has coverage of the tournament, for anyone with no Eurosport. Also, ITV will show matches.

First off, well done Rosylily, you have been outstanding in keeping us up to date and providing useful information and analysis.

I am a die-hard, hardcore Nadal fan so no surprises that I believe he will win the French Open, apart from my sentimental perharps subjective opinion, the fact is that he has an extraordinary record on clay, he has won the competition 6 times and he seems to be overcoming the Novak 'curse' winning in their last 2 matches. Some have attributed this to a dip in Novak's form but I think it is more a case of Nadal stepping up and improving his game especially against Novak.

Nevertheless, Novak is dangerous and no one can rule out the chance of him taking the title. He is hungry for it, because it will enable him win all 4 grandslams and a fourth consecutive GS as well. I won't dismiss Fed Express- surely that would be madness, he is getting to the end of his career (*supposedly*) and I am sure he will like to add this to his collection of titles. The likes of Murray, Ferrer and Berdych have a decent fighting chance as well.

The womens game is more frustrating, it is so unpredictable and can be somewhat annoying. First you had Kvitova winning Wimbledon and we assumed we had a new queen in town only for her to disappoint incredibly, then Victoria Azarenka became world no 1 and she has not been in good form in recent weeks. The most annoying bit for me is the fact that Serena that is 30, injury prone comes from nowhere and wins competitions when she decides to. Don't get me wrong, I respect her but I think it is time for the womens game to move forward.

Sharapova has improved her game tremendously but her level of unforced errors and double faults will show up at the latter stages. Stousor and Li na are unreliable but they have a massive chance if they take their opportunities. To be frank, I will be very upset if any of the old guns- Williams, Li na, Stousor won this year. I will be rooting for Azarenka, she is feisty, young and hungry and it will hopefully lead to a change in direction for the women's game.

Sorry for the long post

- I am just excited and looking forward to what promises to be an interesting and entertaining tournament.

cutty9 · 24-05-2012 9:57pm

i love this time of year for tennis

french open
queens
wimbledon

pure bliss

KINGVictor · 24-05-2012 11:51pm

cutty9 wrote: »

i love this time of year for tennis

french open
queens
wimbledon

pure bliss

Absolutely!

Plus this year in terms of sports we have the Euros, Olympics as added bonuses- heaven!...:D

Rjd2 · 25-05-2012 12:17am

RosyLily wrote: »

Quite surprised that Masha is third; I would have put her ahead of Vika.

her win over Aza a few weeks ago is irrelevant as Azarenka's hand was fooked, before that Aza has battered her. Sharapova was lucky that Li imploded last week as well. Maria will do well but I would be stunned if she won.

Kvitova is to erratic these days to win it, as is Stosur. Radwanska's has had a fine year but I watched her last week and today and sadly for her she can't win as she just doesn't have the power.:( You could say the same for her best mate Wozniacki as well sadly.

Bartoli will have the crowd but she has some abysmal results recently, she was dire yesterday against Aggie's sister. She did reach the semi's last year though coming of a poor run so she will still feel confident of a quarter final finish. Anything more than that will need a lot of luck sadly.

Schiavone is a tricky one, she is doing well in her warm up competition this week so at least she has some sort of form and of course she will have the crowd. Maybe worth a fiver if you can get 100-1.

Out of the rest, the German girls will be interesting to follow. Kerber has done well recently, its unlikely she will win but she could go quite far. Barthel is the wildcard, some terrible losses but also some great performances most notably against Azarenka who she has dragged to 3 sets in their last 2 encounters. Could implode at any stage but none of the favorites will want to meet her early, she has the ability to be quite destructive if she can survive the first couple off rounds.

Not even going to speculate on Li, sometimes you watch her and you wonder how she ever won anything and other times she looks unplayable, this type of unpredictability was evident in Sundays final against Maria.

Out of the rest I will keep an eye on Anastasia Pavlyuchenko, did quite well last year and has a lot of talent. The results this year have been shambolic but anytime you watch her, you know their is serious talent their.

On the men's side, its hard to get that ecited. Roger knows how to beat Rafa except at Slams, while Murray's clay form has been very poor. I'd expect more from the Swiss chap but I can't see either winning. Actually I think Murray could be eliminated first week if he gets a dangerous floater.

Berdych has been in great form recently so you could argue he is the best of the rest, I can see him progressing maybe to the semi's but like the rest he has no chance of beating Rafa.

Del Potro is probably the only other player who can go toe to toe with Rafa as their Davis Cup final proved, but that's it really.

Isner has came of the boil recently so I can't get to excited for him.

Juan Monaco has had some good form recently and is a fine clay courter so he could go far, again no chance to win but may cause some upsets.

Will be interested to see if the oldies like Nalbandian and Davydenko can cause some surprises, both have shown some form recently and are good on the surface as well.

_Bella_ · 25-05-2012 11:39am

It really annoys me how Djokovic and Federer are always on the same side of the draw. When Nadal was seeded number 1 he also had Murray the fourth seed in his quarter, yet now with Djokovic number 1 he always seems to have Federer in his half. I know in the Aussie Open they weren't but that was the only grand slam I can think of in the last two years? Are tournaments able to rig it?

jmb1 · 25-05-2012 12:14pm

I think the one who has the worst draw is Del Potro.
He may have to win over Ferrero, then Berdych, then Federer, then Djokovic, and eventually Nadal.

RosyLily · 25-05-2012 1:37pm

Quite surprised that Djokovic is in Federer's half of the draw; definitely thought there might be a chance for a Djoko-Murray SF - something different for a change. But alas, not to be!

Defending champion Rafa Nadal has a managable route to the SF imo. He plays Simone Bolelli in his opening match. Others in his quarter include Janko Tipsarevic, Milos Raonic, Juan Monaco & Nicolas Almagro. Not terrible- he can beat these players. I would reckon we'd see a Nadal-Tipsy QF. Possible SF opponents for the Spaniard are Murray & Ferrer.

This quarter of the draw could be very unpredictable! Many good players in here - Isner, Gasquet, Granollers, Dolgopolov & Tomic. Murray isn't playing great on clay, nursing a back injury and I wouldn't be surprised if he's eliminated early-ish in the tournament. The Scot/Brit (depends what's going on) will play Tatsuma Ito in the first round. Ferrer plays Lukas Lacko in his opener. I would say Ferrer will come through this quarter and face Nadal in SF...but who knows!

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is in the top half of the draw. Possible QF opponent for him is Tsonga; would like to see this match! He plays Potito Starace in his opening match. Interestingly, he could face Lleyton Hewitt in the 2nd round; they had a great match at AO earlier this year. Other players in that part of the draw include Davydenko, Melzer, Verdasco, Simon and Wawarinka. A possible SF opponent for Djokovic is - wait for it - Federer! Hmm, yeah, didn't see that one coming!

Speaking of the Swiss, he'll kick off his FO campaign against Tobias Kamke. This quarter of the draw is probably the stuff of some players' nightmares - Berdych, del Potro, Ferrero, Lopez - all very good on the dirt! Roddick is in this part as well but his form on clay isn't the best. Federer could face Nalbandian in the 2nd round. If Federer manages to made the SF, it's possible that previous matches will take a lot outta him.

BTW, completely agree with the del Potro assumption. He has a horrible draw!!! If he wants to win the FO, he's gotta be at 110% and then some!!

Women's defending champion Na Li is probably not people's favourite for the title. She's been very up-and-down since winning last year. Can't close out matches to save her life sometimes. Fairly tough draw too - Schaivone, Jankovic, Kvitova, Vinci & Zvonareva. If any of these players are in good form and Li is a little off, they will make her pay. Li faces Sorana Cirstea in her opening match. I predict that Kvitova will come through this part of the draw - provided she's over her virus and healthy.

World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka will start her FO against Alberta Brianti of Italy. I don't see any problems for her in this match or others; she might face problems against Cibulkova in the 4th round. I'm looking forward to the other (possible) 4th round match here- Stosur vs. Lisicki. I'm not sure if Vika will come through here. I always find the women's draw at French Open so unpredictable; I never pick the winner!

As for the Williams Sisters, Venus has a big task ahead of her. If she defeats Paula Ormaechea in the first round, she will face World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round. Draw doesn't let up after that - Kerber, Ivanovic, Bartoli & Kuznetsova.

Serena doesn't have it any easier. She faces Virginie Razzano in the first round. Sharapova will probably be her QF opponent (thanks a lot Rafa!!). Could be a good match but I would have preferred to see a Serena-Masha final. Other players lurking in the draw include Wozniacki, Goerges, Kanepi, Kirilenko & Pavlyuchenkova.

Gonna be an interesting fortnight!:D

Rjd2 · 25-05-2012 9:06pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Defending champion Rafa Nadal has a managable route to the SF imo. He plays Simone Bolelli in his opening match. Others in his quarter include Janko Tipsarevic, Milos Raonic, Juan Monaco & Nicolas Almagro. Not terrible- he can beat these players. I would reckon we'd see a Nadal-Tipsy QF. Possible SF opponents for the Spaniard are Murray & Ferrer.

This quarter of the draw could be very unpredictable! Many good players in here - Isner, Gasquet, Granollers, Dolgopolov & Tomic. Murray isn't playing great on clay, nursing a back injury and I wouldn't be surprised if he's eliminated early-ish in the tournament. The Scot/Brit (depends what's going on) will play Tatsuma Ito in the first round. Ferrer plays Lukas Lacko in his opener. I would say Ferrer will come through this quarter and face Nadal in SF...but who knows!

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is in the top half of the draw. Possible QF opponent for him is Tsonga; would like to see this match! He plays Potito Starace in his opening match. Interestingly, he could face Lleyton Hewitt in the 2nd round; they had a great match at AO earlier this year. Other players in that part of the draw include Davydenko, Melzer, Verdasco, Simon and Wawarinka. A possible SF opponent for Djokovic is - wait for it - Federer! Hmm, yeah, didn't see that one coming!

Speaking of the Swiss, he'll kick off his FO campaign against Tobias Kamke. This quarter of the draw is probably the stuff of some players' nightmares - Berdych, del Potro, Ferrero, Lopez - all very good on the dirt! Roddick is in this part as well but his form on clay isn't the best. Federer could face Nalbandian in the 2nd round. If Federer manages to made the SF, it's possible that previous matches will take a lot outta him.

BTW, completely agree with the del Potro assumption. He has a horrible draw!!! If he wants to win the FO, he's gotta be at 110% and then some!!

Women's defending champion Na Li is probably not people's favourite for the title. She's been very up-and-down since winning last year. Can't close out matches to save her life sometimes. Fairly tough draw too - Schaivone, Jankovic, Kvitova, Vinci & Zvonareva. If any of these players are in good form and Li is a little off, they will make her pay. Li faces Sorana Cirstea in her opening match. I predict that Kvitova will come through this part of the draw - provided she's over her virus and healthy.

World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka will start her FO against Alberta Brianti of Italy. I don't see any problems for her in this match or others; she might face problems against Cibulkova in the 4th round. I'm looking forward to the other (possible) 4th round match here- Stosur vs. Lisicki. I'm not sure if Vika will come through here. I always find the women's draw at French Open so unpredictable; I never pick the winner!

As for the Williams Sisters, Venus has a big task ahead of her. If she defeats Paula Ormaechea in the first round, she will face World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round. Draw doesn't let up after that - Kerber, Ivanovic, Bartoli & Kuznetsova.

Serena doesn't have it any easier. She faces Virginie Razzano in the first round. Sharapova will probably be her QF opponent (thanks a lot Rafa!!). Could be a good match but I would have preferred to see a Serena-Masha final. Other players lurking in the draw include Wozniacki, Goerges, Kanepi, Kirilenko & Pavlyuchenkova.

Gonna be an interesting fortnight!:D

Managable may be the biggest understatement ever, its an absolute bye to the semi.I'd expect him to batter everyone until then and even in the semi, he will cruise it. Other side is much more tricky to predict.

Serena's half is very tough,so the likes of Kerber, Stosur, Bartoli, Azerenka and Aggie will be pleased to be in the other side.

Also Zvonareva and Lisicki have been dreadful all year, would be astounded if either did anything.

KINGVictor · 25-05-2012 10:53pm

Very interesting draws today. I would have prefered a Novak/ Nadal- Murray/Federrer semi-final line up but hey it will still be intriguing nonetheless.

However,I find Fed's analysis very funny:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/frenchopen/9290422/French-Open-2012-Rafael-Nadal-will-create-history-in-Paris-not-Novak-Djokovic-believes-Roger-Federer.html

He is usually very tight lipped and diplomatic, while I agree with his summation in the article- I think he is playing mind games with both Nadal and Novak- Genius that he is.

RosyLily · 25-05-2012 11:51pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

Managable may be the biggest understatement ever, its an absolute bye to the semi.I'd expect him to batter everyone until then and even in the semi, he will cruise it. Other side is much more tricky to predict.

Serena's half is very tough,so the likes of Kerber, Stosur, Bartoli, Azerenka and Aggie will be pleased to be in the other side.

Also Zvonareva and Lisicki have been dreadful all year, would be astounded if either did anything.

Or as the French would say, "le cake walk":pac:

/gets coat

KINGVictor wrote: »

Very interesting draws today. I would have prefered a Novak/ Nadal- Murray/Federrer semi-final line up but hey it will still be intriguing nonetheless.

However,I find Fed's analysis very funny:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ten...r-Federer.html

He is usually very tight lipped and diplomatic, while I agree with his summation in the article- I think he is playing mind games with both Nadal and Novak- Genius that he is.

Nadal is adept at these type of mind games pre-Grand Slam; talks down his chances and takes up Federer and/or Djokovic (but it was usually Fed). Interesting that Roger is taking a leaf outta the Spaniard's book now. Many people would agree with his musing. Nadal is favourite followed by Djokovic & himself.

Strangely enough, I would rather see Nadal win than Djokovic??? This never happens!!

mike65 · 27-05-2012 3:48pm

Its on ITV3 from 5.30 today and switches to ITV4 tomorrow morning - they seem to have wal lto wall coverage - 11 hours.

jupiterjack · 27-05-2012 10:22pm

jurgen melzer and andy roddick out on day 1.

RosyLily · 28-05-2012 1:33pm

Vera Zvonareva has been a late withdrawal from Roland Garros, citing a shoulder injury. She is replaced by Sesil Karatantcheva, who is playing Timea Babos right now on Court 2. Sesil is 5-1 up in the first set.

No.15 seed Feliciano Lopez retired at 0-5 in the first set in his match against Florent Serra.

Very poor performance from Victoria Azarenka earlier today. She was god awful in some parts of the match; an error-strewn contest! 60 unforced errors to 32 winners from the Belarussian. If she plays like that against the likes of Stosur, Serena, Maria etc in the later rounds, she'll lose. But, I'm sure she'll learn from this and improve in the next rounds.

Roger Federer has won his opening match against Tobias Kamke on Suzanne Lenglen Court, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. Up and down match from the Swiss, kind of rusty in spots. Took him a while to finish the match though. He'll play either Adrian Ungur or David Nalbandian in the second round.

Defending Women's Champion Na Li is on Phillipe Chatrier atm. She is playing Sorana Cirstea of Romania. Li won the first set 6-2 and is 3-0 up in the second.

Rjd2 · 29-05-2012 3:15am

Rjd2 wrote: »

Barthel is the wildcard, some terrible losses but also some great performances most notably against Azarenka who she has dragged to 3 sets in their last 2 encounters. Could implode at any stage but none of the favorites will want to meet her early, she has the ability to be quite destructive if she can survive the first couple off rounds.

Lost to to Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-1 and from all accounts was unbelievably bad, type of performance that was so dismal it couldn't have been fixed because nobody would ever be that obvious.:eek:

Azarenka willl get better, its still a reasonable quarter, Sharapova in her first match last year was a set and 4-0 down against some French local and still came back and reached the final.

Warper · 29-05-2012 2:56pm

Anywhere to watch this online now its gone from TG4?

jupiterjack · 29-05-2012 4:18pm

Warper wrote: »

Anywhere to watch this online now its gone from TG4?

http://www.vipbox.tv/ i watch most sports on this link.

jupiterjack · 29-05-2012 4:32pm

Nadal beats Bolelli Rd1 6/2 6/2 6/1

steelcityblues · 29-05-2012 8:00pm

Seriously thought she would do a Novotna in 93 for a second, but fair play to her!

Wonder if Serena is half-thinking of retirement, she's set for life and celebrity.

Rjd2 · 29-05-2012 8:45pm

steelcityblues wrote: »

Seriously thought she would do a Novotna in 93 for a second, but fair play to her!

Wonder if Serena is half-thinking of retirement, she's set for life and celebrity.

Always going to be her trickiest Slam to win, I wouldn't write her off at Wimbledon to quickly. Lets not forget she has been battering everyone since she returned.

KINGVictor · 29-05-2012 9:54pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

Always going to be her trickiest Slam to win, I wouldn't write her off at Wimbledon to quickly. Lets not forget she has been battering everyone since she returned.

+1......

And it is not easy to play against the crowd's favourite especially in the first round. But she only has her self to blame really, she was 5-1 up in the tiebreak but squandered her chances by a momentary loss in concentration.

I'd say well done to Razzano. Despite the fact that she was in pain, she kept her cool and closed the match, although I don't see her passing the third round at most which is quite unfortunate.

I agree that it is not yet time to dismiss Serena, she is a determined player and has shown her ability to bounce back on several occasions. If any player should hang up the boots, it should be her older sister.

Anyways the FO is living up to expectations! exciting and quite unpredictable. Hope we don't get more shocking surprises not that it will be a bad thing.:D...........Well except for any of the top 3 +1 men players getting knocked out early.

In other news, exceptional display by Nadal and Sharopova today. Masha literally walked over her Romanian opponent, winning 6-0 6-0. Nadal also produced some wonderful tennis by beating Bolleli 6-2 6-2 6-1.
However, the highlight of the day for me was the victory of T. Hass, very determined and exemplary player, at 34 still going on- fairplay to him.

_Bella_ · 29-05-2012 10:40pm

That last game between Razzano and Serena was crazy. I think whoever won that game would have won the match, the momentum just kept shifting. The hindrance call in that game was ridiculous and ironically it was the exact same umpire who did it to Williams in the Australian Open. In that match I thought the umpire was right but in the match today it was unfair, it was unnecessary and could have decided the outcome of the match. I also have to say the French tennis head dancing was hilarious.

Rob2D · 29-05-2012 11:11pm

KINGVictor wrote: »

the highlight of the day for me was the victory of T. Hass, very determined and exemplary player, at 34 still going on- fairplay to him.

Hear, hear. Best of luck to him, Tommy was always my favourite.

French Open 2012

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