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Such talent here. You must give these players and all those that play this sport a resolute bow to their efforts, talent and dedication. I like what Chris Evert said the other day regarding her engagement to Jimmy Connors, to the effect that she had to end the engagement since she was "married to tennis." Perhaps blunt, but true nonetheless. Chris was honest with herself and her goals and knew she could not do both successfully. Plus, she was young and still had time to do both, which she did, albeit not with Jimmy but with John Lloyd 1979-1987. I bring this up because it shows that there are decisions to be made, life impacting, that may or may not pan out later on. An example here is of choosing the best path for yourself without knowing the outcome. Such is life. And kudos to Chris for forging ahead and believing in herself.
Back to 2014. What can we expect? Will there be any upsets? I am excited to see how Roger Federer (No.4) fares, he has won the French Open only once in 2009. All in all he has been in tennis for some time now, and has shown adaptation to the sport by switching his Wilson racquet to a larger head frame, and attacking the net more with his play. We can learn by this, although Roger is getting up in years, you can see he is keeping lean, strong, and focused as ever. Watch him how he watches the ball. An example for all us senior players!
I just love Roger and his style of play, and want him to win everything.
In Round 1, he moves effortlessly and beautifully. Appears on the slim side, focused, polite, all Roger. A champion.
And of course, not to be sniffled at lightly, are the powerful contenders Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, world ranked Nos. 1, 2, 3 respectively. And of course, when you get on teh Roland Garros website, click through the flights of the rounds, see the many, many players fighting and hoping to get visibility on this world stage.
Segue to the women's competition. This very feat of an unknown rising to stardom happened with American teenager Sloane Stephens when she defeated her idol Serena Williams two years ago. What an upset!
Let's take particular attention to the Williams Sisters, yes, we can still say that, both Serena and Venus are in the fray, competing, and each won her round 1 competition. These two young women are remarkable, not one, but two champions! What will French Open 2014 bring?
Venus has tenacity, she never gives up, and hits big, especially when the going gets rough. She beat the Swiss player Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-1. Venus met her goal of keeping the competition to two sets, no sense stringing along more games, too risky! Venus gets the job done.
I saw the Serena Williams match versus Alize Lim of France. Alize hung in there, but she succumbed with Serena taking the court at 6-2, 6-1. Looking at these scores, it looks like a breeze for Serena, right? Not so fast, she actually struggled serving the last game with 8 deuces. Either player could have taken that game. So what goes through the mind of these two players? One could hardly guess, but watching this final game, you had the sense that Serena was tiring, impatient and Alize was capitalizing on the emotional component of her adversary. Serena even had an ace to the deuce court, but Alize retrieved the next point. Definite nerves exhibited here, but we also learn that Serena stayed in the game, took her shots, and ultimately forced Alize to hit long for the set and match.
If both Serena and Venus win their round 2 matches, then they would face one another in Round 3. Go figure! Like Wimbledon again??
UPDATE!! Both Serena and Venus are out! Both do not win their Round 2s. Oh well, you fought valiantly, we will see you at Wimbledon!
For US television coverage, go to Bleacher Report for the latest in news and day by day programming!
YOU MAY WANT TO READ MY ARTICLE TENNIS TENACITY, on the Andy Murray and Philipp Kohlschreiber match! Commentary, Youtube highlights, hang in there!
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