Roland Garros Day 2: Monday, May 26 - Order of Play

[tented]

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Click here for the Day 2 Order of Play

(All matches, on all courts, are listed in order to give you a feel for when everything will begin and end.)

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Please use this thread to discuss Day 2 action.

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I've added TV schedules for live coverage in the US, Canada, the UK, Continental Europe, and Australia.

 

[Iona16]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

 

[Riotbeard]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

Whichever way you slice it, this is extremely unfair. This is very unfair considering that
the 1st round is spread over three days and six players get a chance to play in the
center court.

He has a slightly weaker results this year and everybody, including the organizers,
are slighting him. But, FO organizers have never known to really do him any favors
over the years. So, this is not a surprise.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

That's not how it works. Potential for entertainment is on top of the list when it comes to determining this things.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

The player that has 8 RG titles and the no 1 player gets to open his defence on Susan Lenglen?
I see the French have a twisted sense of humour.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

Entertainment value and projected competitiveness of the matches are only one of the criteria.

Milos vs. Nick match today was projected to be a close match. Why did not they put
it on centre court and move Fed vs. Lukas to Suzanne given that it was expected to be
a blow out.

Venus vs. Bencic match today was projected to be a close match. Why did not they
put it on centre court and move Serena vs. Lim to Suzanne given that it was expected
to be a blow out.

Wawrinka vs. GGL might be a hard fought match. But, nobody expects Novak vs. Sousa
to be remotely entertaining. That one should have been moved to Suzanne. The Rafa
match and the Wawrinka match should be the ones on PC.

I am not a fan of Rafa and I myself think this is unfair.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Somebody was asking for a list of televised courts.

They are PC, SL, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7.

If the most interesting match for you is outside of the above seven courts, you must
be a friend or relative of the player playing in court 17.

 

[kskate2]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

This has nothing to do w/ entertainment. This is the one slam that doesn't have a traditional time slot for the defending men or women's champion. That being said, they have always started the defending champ and/or #1 player on Chatrier.

This is a snub and there's nothing suttle about it. At least now a top ATP player can relate to how the women get dissed at Wimbledon every year.

All of this being said, I wonder if it's just not a mistake. I thought Nadal and Murrary were supposed to play on Tues. They did in fact have a scheduling error earlier today. They had it listed on the program that Serena Williams was playing Bencic on Lenglen, but it was in fact Venus who was playing on Lenglen.

 

[atttomole]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

Whichever way you slice it, this is extremely unfair. This is very unfair considering that
the 1st round is spread over three days and six players get a chance to play in the
center court.

He has a slightly weaker results this year and everybody, including the organizers,
are slighting him. But, FO organizers have never known to really do him any favors
over the years. So, this is not a surprise.

I agree. Nadal has been shafted here. Maybe the French think that winning the tournament 8 times does not deserve any respect.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

This has nothing to do w/ entertainment. This is the one slam that doesn't have a traditional time slot for the defending men or women's champion. That being said, they have always started the defending champ and/or #1 player on Chatrier.

This is a snub and there's nothing suttle about it. At least now a top ATP player can relate to how the women get dissed at Wimbledon every year.

All of this being said, I wonder if it's just not a mistake. I thought Nadal and Murrary were supposed to play on Tues. They did in fact have a scheduling error earlier today. They had it listed on the program that Serena Williams was playing Bencic on Lenglen, but it was in fact Venus who was playing on Lenglen.

I agree that this is a snub. But, the bolded statement is not true. Only Wimbledon has a
fixed time slot for the defending men's and women's champion. The defending champions
will know the exact date and time they will be playing their opening matches in Wimbledon.
In all other slams, it works on an ad hoc basis.

While the incident you mentioned above (scheduling error) did actually happen, I don't
think this one is an error. This seems to be intentional.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I looked at last year's schedule. Rafa got center court for all matches except in the 2nd
round. May be they want to ensure that every top player gets at least one match in
Suzanne. If they want to put Rafa in Suzanne for some match, based on this year's draw,
the 1st round match is probably the best candidate.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I believe (have not checked the details) that Fed got center court continuously for all matches
in USO starting from 2004 or 2005 until last year's infamous match against Robredo.

 

[kskate2]

Nadal on Lenglen. They really are having a laugh.

To be fair, the main court matches at least have slight potential to be entertaining. Ginepri hasn't been able to do much for years.

This has nothing to do w/ entertainment. This is the one slam that doesn't have a traditional time slot for the defending men or women's champion. That being said, they have always started the defending champ and/or #1 player on Chatrier.

This is a snub and there's nothing suttle about it. At least now a top ATP player can relate to how the women get dissed at Wimbledon every year.

All of this being said, I wonder if it's just not a mistake. I thought Nadal and Murrary were supposed to play on Tues. They did in fact have a scheduling error earlier today. They had it listed on the program that Serena Williams was playing Bencic on Lenglen, but it was in fact Venus who was playing on Lenglen.

I agree that this is a snub. But, the bolded statement is not true. Only Wimbledon has a
fixed time slot for the defending men's and women's champion. The defending champions
will know the exact date and time they will be playing their opening matches in Wimbledon.
In all other slams, it works on an ad hoc basis.

While the incident you mentioned above (scheduling error) did actually happen, I don't
think this one is an error. This seems to be intentional.

While I agree the other 2 slams are adhoc, they're pretty consistent in how they treat the defending champ and that person always starts their campaign on the center court.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

It is my understanding (might be incorrect) that in all other slams, the player that gets
official special treatment is the #1 seeded player and not the defending champion. Moreover,
I believe the ONLY special treatment that they are afforded is the choice of whether they
want to start on 1st or 2nd day, based on which they decide whether the top half plays first
or bottom half plays first. Other than that nothing is guaranteed and the organizers can
schedule in any way that they think is appropriate.

 

[kskate2]

It is my understanding (might be incorrect) that in all other slams, the player that gets
official special treatment is the #1 seeded player and not the defending champion. Moreover,
I believe the ONLY special treatment that they are afforded is the choice of whether they
want to start on 1st or 2nd day, based on which they decide whether the top half plays first
or bottom half plays first. Other than that nothing is guaranteed and the organizers can
schedule in any way that they think is appropriate.

All slams usually make concessions for the #1 ranked player, but that's not the issue here. This year, Nadal and Serena are both #1 and defending champs, so why wouldn't they treat them equally?

 

[kskate2]

I looked at last year's schedule. Rafa got center court for all matches except in the 2nd
round. May be they want to ensure that every top player gets at least one match in
Suzanne. If they want to put Rafa in Suzanne for some match, based on this year's draw,
the 1st round match is probably the best candidate.

Come on. You don't believe this.

I'll say it again, they're finally leveling the scheduling field as the women have been dissed for years. I just never thought I'd see it happen w/ Nadal at RG or Fed at Wimby/USO.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

It is my understanding (might be incorrect) that in all other slams, the player that gets
official special treatment is the #1 seeded player and not the defending champion. Moreover,
I believe the ONLY special treatment that they are afforded is the choice of whether they
want to start on 1st or 2nd day, based on which they decide whether the top half plays first
or bottom half plays first. Other than that nothing is guaranteed and the organizers can
schedule in any way that they think is appropriate.

All slams usually make concessions for the #1 ranked player, but that's not the issue here. This year, Nadal and Serena are both #1 and defending champs, so why wouldn't they treat them equally?

Read again as to what is the special treatment they get. The equal treatment is not that
they start on the same day. The equal treatment is that they get to start on the day they
request.

 

[kskate2]

It is my understanding (might be incorrect) that in all other slams, the player that gets
official special treatment is the #1 seeded player and not the defending champion. Moreover,
I believe the ONLY special treatment that they are afforded is the choice of whether they
want to start on 1st or 2nd day, based on which they decide whether the top half plays first
or bottom half plays first. Other than that nothing is guaranteed and the organizers can
schedule in any way that they think is appropriate.

All slams usually make concessions for the #1 ranked player, but that's not the issue here. This year, Nadal and Serena are both #1 and defending champs, so why wouldn't they treat them equally?

Read again as to what is the special treatment they get. The equal treatment is not that
they start on the same day. The equal treatment is that they get to start on the day they
request.

That's not what I'm saying. However they're classifying their special treatment, it's a diss to put an 8-time winner, defending champ and #1 seed on anything but the center court to start their campaign, period.

 

[Iona16]

Nadal on Lenglen is nothing new. However, to put the world #1 and defending champion on court 2 for his 1st match is shabby. No doubt about it. The Roland Garros twitter feed put out a tweet to defend their schedule and then quickly deleted it. The tweet basically said that all players deserved a shot on the Chatrier court.

I also noted that one Brit journalist said that he had been told by an official at RG that Murray had specifically asked for as late a start as possible. The Brit press pack fearing something was wrong contacted Andy and were told that he had asked for no such thing. Weird.

Sometimes slams get it wrong. Nadal on Lenglen for his 1st match is wrong. Murray's treatment at the US Open last year was wrong. I also agree wholeheartedly with Kskate about Wimbledon. In the past I've been aghast at their treatment of Serena and Venus in particular.