French Open 2022

Nadal into a fifth set for only the third time ever at RG

Is beating Nadal at RG still the hardest thing in tennis I wonder?

Djokovic who has been in battery-saver mode so far waiting in the 1/4.

FAA holding well when Nadal trying to turn the screw to make it 1-1 in the 5th

Nadal still looking "footloose" at the end of the 5th set there - don't think that he will be too much affected by that effort for the showdown with Djokovic

Maybe Nadal pulled a sickie with Shapo!

Should be a good battle - too close to call possibly

Rikand

Never in doubt as to who would win when it went to a 5th. Fancy Djoko to take him in the next though

HeidiHeidi

Alcaraz off to a fairly storming start against Khachanov 😳

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119132124#Comment_119132124

Looking like a straight sets win but Khachanov playing better in the last few games but left himself a mountain to climb.

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119132473#Comment_119132473

Finally Khachanov gets a break..... now, can he hold onto it??

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119132515#Comment_119132515

Aaaand, no he couldn't.

If he's not completely demoralised by the last couple of points in the last game, then fair dues to his mental strength!

Strumms

alcaraz looking tired, making mistakes he wasn’t.

HeidiHeidi

I don't think he's looking half tired enough for Khachanov's liking!

Royale with Cheese

Managed to grab myself a ticket for this evening

All of the ATP Top 8 seeds still "live" on Day 9 of RG, with the last 4 4th round matches on today.

Is the "perfect 8" QF line-up possible? - would be a very unique situation if it did.

The DjokoDal 59th edition will be an evening / night match not starting before 1945 Irish time tomorrow Tuesday

Nadal whose game is heavily focused on topspin prefers to be playing earlier

josip

Wednesday is going to be a tough school morning. No matter, they've almost finished up for the year in our place. The result had better go the right way or there'll be some heads on the rest of the family.

Tsits absolutely donates a service break (2 DF's and a rash forehand out) to Rune in the 3rd set to leave himself 2-4 down with 1 set each

Swiatek "preparing" for her match.

WTF is that?

I've heard of electro-stim thingymajigs but nevertheless looks star-trekky

https://i.imgur.com/gv55DwD.png

Tsits in deepus-shittus in the "easy" half of the draw as he's a break down in the 4th and 2 sets to 1 down

Double-break down

His french open is about to be completely Runed

1 break back to love though...

Royale with Cheese

Tsitsipas completely outplayed there. He's been below par for the whole tournament.

HeidiHeidi

Swiatek having it far from all her own way in the first set....

I fully expect her to click into gear and resume normal service - but she'd want to hurry up about it!

RobertKK

Halep has to be feeling better watching this Zheng v Swiatek match.

HeidiHeidi

And she goes a set down, having had 4 or 5 set points!

Not what I was expecting from this match, she looks all out of sorts. Swapping shoes and rackets like billy-o. Looks a bit panicked.

poppy37

Hmm Zheng not looking too injured now.

HeidiHeidi

Swiatek has never looked comfortable in this match. I still expect her to win it, but I'm surprised.

I've rarely seen someone to find the back corners of the court with such regularity and accuracy as Zheng. But she seems to have lost her drop shot along the way....

poppy37

Cilic rolling back the years here.

josip

So Medvedev exits a round earlier than last year, and that means even if Djokovic loses to Nadal, he will remain #1 unless Zverev wins the FO. I think.

Meanwhile Tsitsipas called Rune a 'grinder' in the post match presser 🙂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119137521#Comment_119137521

Can't see Zverev taking the title

With no points at Wimbledon Djokovic looks set to go past Graf as longest ever male or female weeks at No.1

josip

Djokovic will lose 2000 points at Wimbledon and Medvedev is guaranteed #1

Needs 6 more weeks to surpass Graf, not sure if he'll have that clocked up by early July when he drops to #2.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/medvedev-puzzled-by-chance-claim-no1-ranking-despite-wimbledon-ban-2022-05-24/

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119137611#Comment_119137611

That's mad Ted.

With Wimbledon banning the Russians and the ATP not awarding points a Russian will become No.1

Will be a draw at 377 weeks then by my calculations (I think) by the end of Wimbledon on July 10

(372 weeks this week)

The respective 2 halves of the French Open ATP Draw looking even more lopsided now after yesterday's matches ->

Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Zverev

vs

Ruud, Rune, Rublev, Cilic

Djokovic is a fairly heavy favourite against Nadal this evening - 5 / 11 vs 28 / 13 but Nadal being Nadal at RG you can't expect it to play out that way, even allowing for the conditions not being to Nadal's liking in the evening at this time of year.

dominatinMC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119138836#Comment_119138836

The draw has been a joke. FO should use a similar seeding system to Wimbledon, which accounts for previous clay court results. It would have avoided the bloodbath that's going to play out now in the top half.

The bookies have the odds spot on IMO. Although it's Nadal at RG, Djokovic is rightly favourite, and by a nice margin. Nadal has had the most interrupted clay court season in his career, and is not playing to his usual standards. Serve is way off, and BH looks vulnerable - two areas which Djokovic exploited in their match last year. Djokovic isn't exactly playing lights-out either, but is simply playing better than Nadal at the moment. I still have a sneaky suspicion that Alcaraz will take out either one of them in the semis, however.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119139400#Comment_119139400

French Open seedings has always been this way and with typical "Ahhh but the French" obstinacy they continue

I would expect Djokovic to win but I also expect Nadal to turn up his OCD-dog-focus knob to 11 to pull out all the stops to defy the odds a bit (and he's not complaining about the foot)

Djokovic is currently playing better tennis than he was last year at this point imo - he's hitting the ball very cleanly on both sides with the forehand really pinging at times over the last few weeks (and his backhand remains possibly the most reliable shot in tennis) and his serve has been good

It's only the 1/4 final so with 2 rounds to go for the winner (if they would get through to the final) and knowing that it's going to be Alcaraz next (unless injury or a Zverev absolute miracle) some aggressive tennis to be expected to keep points shorter