im started to feel like my fave tournament of the year is going to be a bit of a let down this year :( The Brit(s) have been a no-show. The only "classic" match i have seen really was the Sharapova/Schnyder nerve fest (and when you class a Schnyder match as the best so far you know your in trouble :rolleyes: ) The Serena/Henin "supermatch" turned out to be a damp squib by all accounts and weve had hardly a sniff of controversy.
The highlight of this years tourny for me was the announcement of a street being named after Mary Pierce :bow:
Cmon you lot, entertain us for Gods sake and give us some classic matches in the closing stages :pray:

You tell 'em Liam roflmao

I agree, the most nerve shattering and exciting match I saw was Schnyder v Sharapova. I think there have been some close matches but the BBC certainly hasn't shown them has it? And if it did I cant; bloody remember so they cant; have been that memerable. roflmao Oh actually I really enjoyed watching olivier Patience's performance in the 5 set epic.


Well Fed dropped a set today, you'll have to make do with that as your excitement :D


Tell you what the French crowd really annoy me. No bugger is there at the start, they cant; be arsed to turn up! So annoying when its' easier to get tickets and over here we can't get into Wimby without queuing for 7 hours, being dead lucky or being highly priviledged. :angry: Annoys me too when you see them reading the paper or just ignoring the tennis completely. The way they film it too sometimes makes me think that the tennis is a side issue to the event itself, liek when they do arty shots and ignore play! :rolleyes:

i know, the crowd have always got on my tits, but even they seem bored this year :unsure:

roflmao

They do look right poseurs dont; they? I noticed a woman who was just gassing to her bf and adjusting her make up, kept trying to ensure they got her good side. :rolleyes:

my fav match was Venus vs jankovic, but in the final set the quality dropped :(

It's been a bit of a crappy RG for me too:

Venus lost to jankovic for the second time in a slam :(

Serena never produced anything like her best and went out tamely to Justine today :(

Sharapova went further than my favs :rolleyes:

Neither Pierce nor Davenport were here

All in all for me, pretty crappy. I like Justine, Ivanovic and jankovic, but i wish my favs were with them.

I wish Justine the best though, deserves this title i feel after beating Serena...

i liked the Venus match, but i didnt dare watch it in that final set, poor Venus looked like she had run a marathon :(

I tend to find RG throws up some classic matches over the years, 1999 Final, 2000 SF Pierce vs. Hingis, 2002 SF Serena vs. Capriati, 2003 SF Serena vs. Henin

But equally it can throw in some awful ones a la couple of the WFs today. Overall I find the quality and excitement less at RG than at the other slams. Particularly on the women's side as we don't have clay court "specialists" as such in the WTA to fight it out in 5 hour thrillers :rolleyes: We do have some clay court "experts" like Henin of course, but we've seen her steam roll everyone for the last two years, so it would be nice if we had another clay expert.

On the men's side it seem the clay specialists are able to go toe to toe in the earlier rounds and produce some great tennis but then it gets really boring in the latter stages as you get beer belly Nalbandian retiring in the semis and Nadal and Fed crushing everyone who can actually go the distance....

Poor venus couldnt get a forehand in the court liam :(2

She was moving great though in the first two sets, showing she's still a tip-top athlete :D

Her serve has been on fire too, is she playing Eastbourne??? Im really hoping she does well at wimbers and get some ranking points. was it 3rd round last year?

Venus played much better in those first two sets than Serena did today :D Serena had a few games of brilliance but couldn't sustain it. It seems lack of match practice has sent them both out of RG early this year :(

I still can't believe Serena hasn't won a clay court title since 2002 roflmao Come on Serena put in some effort next year :unsure:

I actually wished Venus could've met justine this year, just because i feel Venus could trouble Justine more because she moves better on the clay than Serena :unsure:

Still i'm sure the forehand would've gone AWOL even if the movement was superlative :rolleyes: roflmao

Venus hasnt played Eastbourne since 1997 Liam :lol:

she usually just trains at Wimbledon for a week :)

She doesn't like the weather at the seaside or something I heard! Such a diva roflmao

roflmao

She is the ' *bleep*ing Venus Williams' as someone most famously said roflmao

meh. she should turn up and give us a treat, im sick of cheering for Momo during Eastbourne week :rolleyes:

EDIT: although Petrova is playing this year :) this is her last chance to impress me or she is off the christmas list :ban:

dl how long has your avatar been like that? :lol: Did you copy me, or did we just think of the same thing roflmao

roflmao

:lol:

There's only so much you can do for Amelie isnt there? roflmao

Oh i just got censored roflmao

The swines! :lol:

I copied you roflmao

I'm not that intuitive :lol:

It's a good idea, the Venus Rosewater dish will be in the hands of one of them...guaranteed :devil: There will be no messing around at Wimbledon this year, down to business blasting winners past the opposition. They have to show these new girls in the top ten how it's done on grass.

Are you sure it won't end up like this again?



:P :P

Only kidding. I think Serena is HOT HOT HOT favourite with Venus and Henin right behind her. Momo will choke as she is defending champ....

Yeah I fear Momo may choke as well :unsure:

I don't need reminding about that scenario^^^, I've done my best to erase it from my memory :P

Momo is done winning grand slams. the wimbledon final will be martina over venus :yahoo:

I actually thought RG was looking pretty good til the quarter-finals. The mens' quarter-finals have been anti-climatic (who'd have thought Fed v Robredo would be the tighter of the matches!). On the womens' side, the quarter-finals were still decent enough, although obviously Henin v Serena turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

I'm reasonably optimistic about the semi-finals in both the mens' and womens' singles: Davydenko is playing well enough to make Federer sweat, whilst Djokovic will not be overawed against Nadal. On the womens' side, Jankovic v Henin could be a cracker, whilst Ivanovic v Sharapova could potentially be good too.

With regards to peoples' complaints about the crowd, that is a problem at all slams - they give too many tickets away to the corporates, who then spend most of the day wining and dining and not actually watching the matches. The commentators say: 'oh the crowd's a bit empty today', without realising that Centre Court tickets are extremely difficult to get hold of - there are plenty of fans who'd love to get their hands on Centre Court tickets and fill the crowd, but they're snapped up early by those who aren't so passionate about tennis.

And its not just Roland Garros that is dead today - the 'livetennisscoring' thread on here has been dead all day today, despite there being two mens' singles quarter-final matches for French Open - I've seen more life on live scoring threads for early round matches in minor ATP tournaments!

with the players that are left in the draw, surely there's some great tennis ahead for the final days of RG.

like ive said, i have eurosport in my lounge and bedroom, but not where my study is, so i cant post on here and watch live at the same time. thats my excuse anyway :)

EDIT: although i wish i had made other plans than sit in today and watch two BORING 1/4 finals

Well, the tournament has really gone downhill now - two very uneven semi-final matches today in the womens' singles. Lets just hope Ivanovic doesn't get nervous on the big occasion against Henin on Saturday.

As big a fan I am of Henin's all-court game and talent, I think it would be 'good for the game' if Ivanovic provided a shock win on Saturday.

i agree MrI, but i do think Ivanovic will fold under the pressure, and im glad i have a bbq to attend on saturday as i really cant wait for this tournament to end tbh

Well when Sharapova won as a new face it was supposed to be 'good for the game'. I'm not so sure it was good for the game at all, in the right way. If Ivanovic wins, I'm sure they'll make another superstar pin up girl out of her rather than focus on the tennis :rolleyes: So I am not so sure I want her to win. I'd also personalyl see players with variety and flair winning rather than big hitters, as hopefulyl that rubs off on new players. Big hitters tend to inspire more limited and often boring players.

Shame that Henin and Jankovic couldn't be the final, I think they have been the best two players in the tournie.

If you've been uninspired by RG you'll be even more distressed by Wimbledon where Federer and Serena both win in straight sets dishing out bagels and breadsticks along the way :devil:

I think Wimby has the potential to be much more competitive and exciting on the women's side. We've got no clear favourite IMO, and Shara and Venus could do a lot better here than they did at the FO. Henin is capable of winning it, no reason why Serena doesn;t have a shout if she's fit enough. And we have Amelie defending her title, adn she tends to show less nerves at Wimby than the FO, plus the interest of new faces Jankovic, Vaidisova and Ivanovic who'v eimproved tremdously. I couldn't pick a favourite at present tbh. And so many of the favourites are prone to lapses and blowing hot and cold.

Well at present Serena is the bookies fav at 3.5 to win and the next closest is Sharapova/Justine at 4.5. So definitely closer than the mens :whistle:

Serena will want it badly she hasn't won it since 2003, if she meets Justine she will want revenge and she can pick her apart on grass. Her serve on grass will also be even more of a superweapon.

If she's fit I don't see anyone else lifting that dish :D

I'll reluctantly join in on the 'RG has gone flat' opinion. The semifinals weren't so bad to watch and had their moments, and certainly the winners well deserved their routs based on their performances, but on the face of it the scorelines don't do credit to what are supposed to be the highest-level matches outside of the final. Not that the finals have been up there of late either.

In fact it's not surprising that they've opted to show the men's final from last year to fill up airtime on my carrier rather than stay with the women. Not sure why - they could go with Myskina v Dementieva and Henin v Pierce in that time, and throw in Graf v Zvereva for bonus coverage! :lol:

Is she really the favourite? That's a bad sign then as the favourite hasn;t won for ages - sorry! roflmao

If she is on form she could easily win, but one issue I've always had with both sisters is their unpredictablity and that concerns me.

Serena will probably EAT loads of bagels and breadsticks, and no doubt loads of fish and chips roflmao