re: Official 2013 French Open Thread

Gasquet-Wawrinka gon be good

Stan the Man always seems to get the Frenchies at Roland Garros

Battle of both one-handed backhands. Rarely see that today

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Why do you hate Isner?

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Because 7-6

Novak is gonna win this tournament.

Robredo, where have you been?

Also doubt Serena drops a set, she's been in absolute fire the last month.

If Federer loses here it will be the first time he's failed to make the quarters of a slam in 9 years (French 04 was the last one he failed to make)

Fed down a double break in the third to Gilles Simon.

I just turned on NBC now. I have been listening to Radio Roland Garros.

Fed dominated the first set. He fell down going for a ball (either in second or third). He was already looking shaky, but he looked even worse after that. He got things back together and won the fourth and fifth though. Was a pretty good match.

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The quality of play from both guys? Or just Kyrgios? What do you think about his game? From the little i've seen of him I've been impressed by (a) his agility given his relatively large frame (I'm guessing 6'-3"??), (b) his forehand and serve, both of which he spanks, and (c) his on-court tenacity. And element (c) is real real real important. It's the only that Jack Sock needs to make the transformation into a top player (I mean, other than a backhand).

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I wish I had more of a takeaway from Kyrgios. It was one of the worst performances I have seen from a pro, so bad that we were apologizing to the tennis newbie women with us because almost every point ended after three shots. I looked for any flash of brilliance I could. He's a big kid and probably moves well under different conditions (healthy, on a hard court). I couldn't tell if the match was ugly because: (A) he is 18, (B) he just goes for broke, or (C) if he did so because he was hurt (Aussie papers said he may have pulled a hammy). Anyway, as bad as it was, I'm still glad I was on the court because it was a cool place to view a match, and Kyrgios may be a star one day (plus, Cilic is just a good consistent vet to study).

If Wednesday was a grade A, Thursday was a B. We had to deal with several rain delays. As we were about to walk into Chatrier to watch Stosur, we noticed we could watch Court 2 from a promenade. So we caught the second set of Nishikori against some guy Zemlja. Zemlja actually took the set and it was a nice unexpected surprise to stumble on this match. After a three hour rain intermission, we got to see all of Nole and five games of Sharapova before another deluge. I would have liked to watch Harrison/Isner and whatever match Stan had that day on a side court, but mother nature didn't comply. That said, we got Fed, Nole, Sharapova, and nice side court action over two days. We couldn't have asked for much more.

Here is a little glimpse of what I saw:

Kyrgios and Cilic:



Kei and Zemlja from the Chatrier promenade:



Babolat string lab:






You're looking at Court 1 and a big screen, where people chill and watch matches. This square has statutes of the four famous French Musketeers.



This dude (statue) here is responsible for your frattastic croc shirts. He could play some tennis, too.

Sorry, MSB, one last posting for the night for posterity.