French Open 2021

whiterebel

Musetti is playing brilliantly against Cecchinato after losing the first set. Some genius shots being played here. He has a great defence too, Berretini should take note.

Augme

That Musetti lob was one of the best shots I've ever seen.

In the women's singles draw, only 2 of the "Top 10" seeds left and it's not even the end of the 3rd round.

joke!

NoviGlitzko

This Koepfer lad who Federer is playing is like roadrunner on the court and hit's and serves like a truck. Surprised he isn't ranked higher than he is.

whiterebel

Fed seems to be finding it difficult to hit the ball through the court. Seems to be slapping it rather than his usual clean striking.

klr87

Federer would probably take a straight sets win with 3 tie-breaks if you offered it to him right now.

klr87

Well, well, well. One tie-break each. No-one is getting out of here until about 1am local time at the earliest. Mirka will not be pleased.

whiterebel

klr87 wrote: »

Well, well, well. One tie-break each. No-one is getting out of here until about 1am local time at the earliest. Mirka will not be pleased.

She had her sexiest cardie with her, too......

Saint Fed takes a "strategic" jacks break.

They're all at it.....

NoviGlitzko

Federer breaks back! This is some match now.

Rob2D

Koepfer playing well above his station. Dude can hustle and he's hitting with such clarity. Impressive.

klr87

glasso wrote: »

Saint Fed takes a "strategic" jacks break.

They're all at it.....

Ah now, Roger's getting on a bit, it's way past his bedtime.

Seriously though, Roger could get away with almost anything in the eyes of his fans.

Also seriously: The worst offenders are not necessarily the most well-known players. We should be thankful Laura Siegemund* lost in the first round of the singles. Her use of epic bathroom breaks, tactical MTOs and all other manner of gamesmanship know no bounds. Well, not quite no bounds, as whenever she plays on a big show court at a slam, she hides the true extent of her evil nature.

*The German Rat, as one exasperated opponent once referred to her.


And we go to yet another tie-breaker. John Isner may have lost last night, but his spirit lives on.

klr87

klr87 wrote: »

Ah now, Roger's getting on a bit, it's way past his bedtime.

Seriously though, Roger could get away with almost anything in the eyes of his fans.

Also seriously: The worst offenders are not necessarily the most well-known players. We should be thankful Laura Siegemund* lost in the first round of the singles. Her use of epic bathroom breaks, tactical MTOs and all other manner of gamesmanship know no bounds. Well, not quite no bounds, as whenever she plays on a big show court at a slam, she hides the true extent of her evil nature.

*The German Rat, as one exasperated opponent once referred to her.


And we go to yet another tie-breaker. John Isner may have lost last night, but his spirit lives on.

Federer does the "bog break" quite frequently indeed and no mention.

Any time Djokovic goes to chop a log, he's the fooking anti-Christ.

Federer is not in many finals or semis the last while so maybe not as visible to those only watching the last two stages.

Experience and career-level class really counts when it comes to the tie-breaks.

Lesser players tend to tighten up.

Maybe the 59 ranking is showing.

Koepfer blew that set so will be a challenge to get over that before the match is gone.

klr87

glasso wrote: »

Federer does the "bog break" quite frequently indeed and no mention.

Any time Djokovic goes to chop a log, he's the fooking anti-Christ.

Federer is not in many finals or semis the last while so maybe not as visible to those only watching the last two stages.

The Big 3 are probably all at a similar level in this respect IMHO, each with their own faults. But Novak is invariably the one to be called out ... mostly by Roger and Rafa fans, so no surprises there. For whatever reason, he is just not as popular/"marketable" as the other two. Don't ask me why.


And on we go here. 7-6 6-7 7-6 *2-1 to Fed, with a break. At least their serves are being broken. There are an increasing number of men's matches with few or even no break points, but that's not very likely on clay.

Rob2D

Sure hope this doesn't go to 5. I've to be on court myself at 9am tomorrow!

klr87

Hmm ... they changed to a new set of balls at 7-6 6-7 7-6 3-3, or 45 games. I make it they should have changed a game earlier, counting the warm-up as 2 games, and having not changed before the 2nd set tie-break*.

*Ah, I see it in the rules: "... In this case, the ball change is delayed until the beginning of the second game of the next set".

mzungu

This looks to be heading towards another tie-break.

Rob2D

OH S**T! There's the Roger magic. That's getting shot of the day for sure.

klr87

Rob2D wrote: »

OH S**T! There's the Roger magic. That's getting shot of the day for sure.

I think Musetti probably has the top 2 shots, but YMMV



Anyway, Roger scrapes through somehow.

yerwanthere123

Federer probably saved his best for last there, didn't want to be up too much longer

can't see Fed making it much further in Paris.

Augme

Week one done. Much like the autumn french open I've been more impressed with Novak performances than nadals. Dropping two service games in a row against a no mark like Norrie was a big surprise. He will need to drastically up his game against Sinner if he wants to get it done in 3. Still massive ve favourite though obviously. The other half could produce some excellent contests though.

On the women's side, very difficult to see past Swiatek. She had a bit of a wobble in the first today but recovered to win the first and then decimated her opponent in the second. The other side of the draw is wide open anyway.

Girly Gal

Federer did well to get over the line yesterday considering how little he has played and how well Koepfer played, but, very hard to see him go any further as that match was very draining for him. Still hard to see anything other than a Nadal Djokovic semi with Rafa the likely winner. On the other side Tsitsipas looks the most likely, but, as we all know the next gen players are so inconsistent it's difficult to predict anything with any great certainty.

In the women's Swiatek looks the class of the field, hard to see who can beat her, unlike a lot of the other women's players she looks composed and mentally strong. The other side of the draw is opening up for Serena, but, I still find it difficult to see her reach the final, but, a lot of her opponents are beaten before they set foot on the court, so definitely wouldn't rule her out reaching the final, but, don't see her winning it, unless someone upsets Swiatek, then it's up for grabs.

whiterebel

Fed talking about pulling out. Not surprised, that was gruelling last night. FO would need to rethink the start time for the evening session and bring it to 7.30pm latest local time.

Royale with Cheese

Federer, 39, is due to play Matteo Berrettini in the last 16 on Monday.

But he said he will decide later on Sunday whether now would be the "perfect time to take a rest".

I'm a huge Federer fan but cmon now, you don't turn up at one of the grand slams to so openly use it as a training session and pull out at the first sign of it getting a little bit difficult.

Augme

It will be incredibly disrespectful of Fed to just withdraw when he isn't actually injured. Using a Slam as a glorified warm up event is really poor form towards the tournament and his other professionals imo. Again, if Novak did this he would be crucified.

yerwanthere123

Nervous about this Azarenka-Pavlyuchenkova match. I know Azarenka is 5-1 against her but Pavlyuchenkova likes to go on one or two random decent runs a year before returning to general irrelevance. Would love it if we could get the Azarenka-Serena QF too, could potentially be one of the matches of the tournament, especially now Vika would have the added belief that she can now actually beat Serena in a slam.

Floppybits

Augme wrote: »

It will be incredibly disrespectful of Fed to just withdraw when he isn't actually injured. Using a Slam as a glorified warm up event is really poor form towards the tournament and his other professionals imo. Again, if Novak did this he would be crucified.

I am not surprised by this but I am surprised he has said it. This was always about the build up to Wimbledon. I do think that nowadays when Federer has a match like that he is always going to be knocked out a round or 2 later. He just can't recover in time. Last night he looked off and I didn't think he was going to win.

Furze99

Floppybits wrote: »

I am not surprised by this but I am surprised he has said it. This was always about the build up to Wimbledon. I do think that nowadays when Federer has a match like that he is always going to be knocked out a round or 2 later. He just can't recover in time. Last night he looked off and I didn't think he was going to win.

Could easily have gone against him - Koepfer lost it in the head a bit.