Roland Garros 2017, Paris, France, ATP GRAND SLAM

[britbox]

Court Philippe Chatrier (play starts at 0900)

20-Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain) v 4-Rafael Nadal (Spain)

28-Caroline Garcia (France) v 2-Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic)

1-Andy Murray (Britain) v 8-Kei Nishikori (Japan)

Court Suzanne Lenglen (0900)

6-Dominic Thiem (Austria) v 2-Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

5-Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) v 3-Simona Halep (Romania)

3-Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) v 7-Marin Cilic (Croatia)

 

[britbox]

I'm surprised at Andy getting better odds than Stan.

Yes and No. I'd have Andy as a favourite to beat Stan... but I think Stan has a far better chance of beating Djoker/Nadal than Andy. Stan's odds are tempting however you look at it,

 

[Moxie]

Yes and No. I'd have Andy as a favourite to beat Stan... but I think Stan has a far better chance of beating Djoker/Nadal than Andy. Stan's odds are tempting however you look at it,

Interesting, that Andy could beat Stan, but Stan has a better chance against whomever comes out of the bottom half. I'm guessing you mean his odds are tempting as in laying a bet.

We never quote The Oregonian here, but Douglas Perry writes often, and well, about tennis. I'm linking to his article about Stan as being the best chance to beat Rafa in Paris this year, in part because some of it will piss some people off. And in part because I think Stan is.

 

[britbox]

Carreno Busta on a medical timeout and Djoker breaks Thiem in the first.

 

[britbox]

Thiem breaks back. Djoker looking a bit flustered. The crowd were annoying him before.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Carreno Busta on a medical timeout and Djoker breaks Thiem in the first.

Abdominal strained muscle..they are a b#tch to deal with ..it really affects your whole body and movement..he is very young he may recover

 

[britbox]

Abdominal strained muscle..they are a b#tch to deal with ..it really affects your whole body and movement..he is very young he may recover

I'm mainly watching Djoker/Thiem and just flicking over to Nadal/PCB.

Mammoth hold by Thiem to go to 5-5. He was 0-40 down and facing 3 break/set points.

 

[isabelle]

congrats to Thiem, he played great even if Nole was the shadow of himself, especially in the 3rd set....I guess Andre has a lot of work to do with his pupil....maybe more than he expected

 

[britbox]

Highlights from the Quarters:

1-Andy Murray (Britain) beat 8-Kei Nishikori (Japan) 2-6 6-1 7-6(0) 6-1



3-Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat 7-Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-3 6-3 6-1



6-Dominic Thiem (Austria) beat 2-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-0



4-Rafa Nadal (Spain) beat 20-Pablo Carreno (Spain) 6-2 2-0 (Carreno retired)

 

[britbox]

Wilander looking at Stan maybe going all the way.

"Not many players can 'win' a grand slam like Stan, they can prevent losing it by wearing the other guy down, but he can go out there and win it off his racket."

[parsehtml]
<a class="embedly-card" href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tennis-frenchopen-wilander-idUKKBN18Y31T">Mats Point - 'Scary' Wawrinka is hot title threat, says Wilander</a>
[/parsehtml]
Link for T/Talk: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tennis-frenchopen-wilander-idUKKBN18Y31T

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Conclusions:

Nadal is and remains the heavy favourite. The lack of potential banana skins in his quarter just cements this status. He has never lost at RG later than the QF (although he only lost twice, and pulled out once, so the sample size is pretty small).

Given their draws, I would now put Djokovic > Wawrinka > Thiem in the group of the other three contenders. It is very close though, and a lot of question marks over these guys. Counterintuitively, I probably give Thiem the best chance of the three to reach the QF (despite Goffin in R4), simply because Wawrinka is always so hot-and-cold, and Djokovic has been so inconsistent this year.

I don't think anyone else is worth discussing before we get to the later stages. I guess Murray/A Zverev/ Tsonga are dark horses. (Very odd to say this about the world #1 and last year's finalist. But I don't find any way to justify considering him a contender based on recent form.)

I thought it would be interesting to look back at what I thought about the different quarters when the draw came out. I think everything played out roughly as expected, with the obvious exception that I didn't see Thiem beating Djokovic in the QF.

Maybe I also didn't give Murray enough credit - although I still reckon his proceeding to the SF had as much to do with the fact that the other hopefuls in his draw all had their own question marks over them. I had Zverev and Tsonga as dark horses, and they obviously went out straight away. I think I was more surprised at Tsonga in this respect than Zverev (who was probably due some form of a letdown after his heroics in Rome).

The fact remains that the four semifinalists are all players we talked about in the run-up. Now things might get interesting (or possibly not, given Nadal's dominance ...)

 

[britbox]

Always like listening to Steve Flink, hall of famer tennis historian and Ubaldo.



Interesting discussions on the quartes .

Flink thinks this is the first time in the tournament that Nadal will be tested.

Predictions:

Flink: Wawrinka beats Murray, Nadal beats Thiem.

Ubi: Wawrinka beats Murray

 

[britbox]

The fact remains that the four semifinalists are all players we talked about in the run-up. Now things might get interesting (or possibly not, given Nadal's dominance ...)

Now things get really interesting! Can't wait for the semis, they're set up perfectly.

 

[Moxie]

I thought it would be interesting to look back at what I thought about the different quarters when the draw came out. I think everything played out roughly as expected, with the obvious exception that I didn't see Thiem beating Djokovic in the QF.

Maybe I also didn't give Murray enough credit - although I still reckon his proceeding to the SF had as much to do with the fact that the other hopefuls in his draw all had their own question marks over them. I had Zverev and Tsonga as dark horses, and they obviously went out straight away. I think I was more surprised at Tsonga in this respect than Zverev (who was probably due some form of a letdown after his heroics in Rome).

The fact remains that the four semifinalists are all players we talked about in the run-up. Now things might get interesting (or possibly not, given Nadal's dominance ...)

Well, you and a lot of other people didn't give Murray "enough credit." There are professionals who said he wouldn't make the 2nd week, so....Clearly it would be an upset if Nadal doesn't win the whole thing, (I would personally be very upset,) but I think a lot of people would have chosen these 2 semis as good options. And good job by Murray for playing himself somewhat back to form. Should put him in a good place for the grass, too.

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Well, you and a lot of other people didn't give Murray "enough credit." There are professionals who said he wouldn't make the 2nd week, so....Clearly it would be an upset if Nadal doesn't win the whole thing, (I would personally be very upset,) but I think a lot of people would have chosen these 2 semis as good options. And good job by Murray for playing himself somewhat back to form. Should put him in a good place for the grass, too.

True - although I did say in my analysis of his quarter that he had as good a chance of making the semis as anyone else in his draw. He's been fighting and getting through, which is to his credit, but nothing I've seen has really convinced me that he has caught fire yet. If he beats Wawrinka, though, that would be something else. I predicted at the beginning that whoever makes it through the first quarter will lose to Stan in the semis, assuming he makes it too. We'll see whether that comes true or not ...

 

[isabelle]

I'm quite satisfied with Sir Andy win yesterday, at the beginning of RG I was quite pessimist but now....he seems to find back a decent form and plays some good tennis. Kei isn't an easy opponent, Sir Andy knew how to deal with him, wish him god luck for tomorrow vs Stanimal, interesting semies anyway

 

[10isfan]

King of Clay vs Future King of Clay
I'm getting up early to watch that semi

I would love to see a Stan vs Baby Stan final

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

If anyone beats Nadal here it will be a greater feat than wins of Soderling and Djokovic over Nadal here. It will be the greatest win against Nadal in RG history. No body won against a full fit and in-form Nadal at RG so far. So, I am keen to see if it happens.

Nadal's win would take him to second spot in the number of grand slams won record. But he has some work to do against Thiem first. As far as Stan is concerned, I still doubt what sort of a game he will be able to execute against Nadal on clay. He had a record that was terrible against Nadal prior to the Oz Open 2014 final. He always had a match up problem with Rafa. We will have to see how accurately he can play his tennis against Nadal shall they meet.

Right now, I think Nadal's tennis will prove out to be too heavy for Dominic. This is RG Rafa we are talking about. But, I won't throw cold water on Domi.

 

[britbox]

Semi Final Highlights / Interviews

4-Rafa Nadal (Spain) beat 6-Dominic Thiem (Austria) 6-3 6-4 6-0





3-Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat 1-Andy Murray (Britain) 6-7(6) 6-3 5-7 7-6(3) 6-1