Roland Garros 2024
The tennis nerd wrap-up you definitely didn't need
The second week of a major tournament is a strange organism to exist within. The facilities - the courts and the gym, the restaurant and the player’s lounge - become emptier, the matches become fuller. Literally and metaphorically. Literally fuller with more photographers in the photographer’s pit, more people in the stands and more family and friends in the players’ boxes. Metaphorically filled to the brim with tension and stakes, overflowing at times. Journalists from countries whose players are doing well fly in on a whim, sent by papers who can still afford to do so.
Keeping all of that in mind, imagine walking out on court against somebody who has been the player to beat on clay and who you have a 1:10 losing record against. That is what Coco Gauff had to try and contend with in her semifinals match against world number one Iga Swiatek. Having a terrible head-to-head with somebody can give you the freedom to try new things and experiment with game plans. What can possibly go wrong?
Playing outside your comfort zone, however, while the whole world seems to be watching: a lot less fun. There are a few reasons why Coco is a great match-up for Iga. First of all, Iga has one of the best forehands on tour right now but she prefers to have a bit of time on it because of her somewhat extreme grip. The forehand crosscourt rallies with Coco don’t bother her. Even if Coco had the best forehand day of her entire life, not missing a single one, the way her ball moves on that side is exactly the ball Iga loves to have on her forehand. And a similar thing applies to the backhand. On that side, Iga actually prefers a quicker, flatter ball. Exactly the type of backhand shot Coco tends to take crosscourt into Iga’s backhand. Iga stays nice and low on it and uses the pace from her opponent to re-direct the ball at will. You can sometimes (rarely, but that’s why she’s the best player in the world right now) bother her with giving her off-pace shots into the backhand side. A heavy topspin or a low slice.
Tennis players generally play 60-70% of their groundstrokes crosscourt. Knowing all of this, you can see how the Iga/Coco match-up in strict tennis terms is a lopsided one. On top of that, we are on Iga’s favourite surface, at her most successful tournament, after she’s won back-to-back tournaments. The odds were never in Coco’s favour and I have nothing but admiration for her coming out on Philippe Chatrier and trying to play completely out of her comfort zone. She hit the ball 8 miles per hour on average faster in the first set compared to all of her previous matches at the French Open.
Iga, of course, went on to win the whole thing. Yes, we all remember the scare she had against Naomi Osaka, being down 2:5 in the third set, saving match point, barely scraping by. And even though a lot of people kept bringing that match up, I would venture to say that Iga never spared another thought for it. As her tears flowed in the gym post-match, so did the tension evaporate into thin air. When the conditions became more clay-like - the roof finally open, the sunshine hardening the mud to actual clay, the bounces higher, the court lively - Iga became more and more invincible.
How small the margins are in high-performance sport was demonstrated by the other half of the draw. Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka, seemingly fated to bring on the first semifinals lineup with all top four seeds still alive in a long time, went out in the quarters to Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva respectively. Both were similar in their distinctly different natures. Both Elena and Aryna happened to have an off-day paired with fearless opponents on the other side. Sometimes, for players ranked outside the top 10 half the battle is already lost in the locker room. The sheer aura of confidence on the other side can cost you a set before you settle in and just play tennis. Glimpsing weakness, whether that is physically as in Aryna’s case who was struggling with a stomach flu or in the performance department as so happened with Elena’s slow start against Paolini, can set the record straight and have both parties begin the race at the same starting point. This time, Jasmine and Mirra happened to be a little bit faster.
What triumph to see somebody feel joy on the tennis court! Jasmine’s smile spoke to me not because it is (admittedly) a beautiful smile but because it evoked images from childhood when we all just hung out at the tennis courts hoping somebody would come along to hit a few balls with. That is what Jasmine’s smile represents to me. The first joy of connecting strings with tennis ball, right in the sweet spot, a satisfying plop in your ear, having it land exactly where you saw it go already before your inner eye, untarnished by wins and losses, money and ranking points. Jasmine has some of the fastest-twitching muscle fibres on the WTA tour. You can see it in her court coverage and in the way she is able to accelerate her groundstrokes out of seemingly nowhere. We all, but especially female tennis players, help ourselves with our body. We try to get our bodyweight behind the ball and we lean on it to help it go out of the racket with something on it. Jasmine is small in stature, she doesn’t have the luxury to do so and yet still, she manages to hit winners.
Psychology is such a fickle thing. You would’ve thought Paolini will be the one to be nervous in the semifinals. She’s 28 years old - how many more opportunities in a major will arise? Facing a 17-year-old opponent ranked below her that had beaten Jasmine a few weeks prior in Madrid but it was Mirra Andreeva who got overwhelmed by the situation. You could see her body freezing, her eye not reacting to shots thrown at her, the synapses not firing, refusing to send information toward the muscles. The first thing that goes when you feel the tension of a moment, the severity of a tennis situation, are the feet and with it the coordination. The footwork becomes sloppy and every groundstroke within your reach seems a challenge. I’m not worried about Mirra in the least bit. Her ability to change directions at will, her tennis IQ and the fact that she goes into matches empty-minded as she said in an interview during week one of the French Open, something I strived for (and failed at miserably) for 16 years of my long tennis career, makes me certain that she will be back and, watch out everyone, better than ever.
I am currently watching the men’s final while writing this. It’s the beginning of the fifth set. There seems to be a lot of tension and tightness in Carlos Alcaraz’s body. Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, is doing what he does best: suck the joy out of a tennis match. And strangely, I mean this as a compliment. It’s not even something I came up with. It’s something he said after beating Frances Tiafoe in last year’s French Open when asked about his tactic.
“My only goal today was to prevent Frances from having any fun out there”, were his exact words to Boris Becker who was interviewing him.
I think it is part of the reason why Zverev - as of now - is still 5:4 in the head-to-head with Alcaraz. Carlos, as is Frances Tiafoe, as is Ons Jabeur, as is Jasmine Paolini, is a crop of player who needs to play the game. Roger needed to play the game. Novak, Rafa, Sascha Zverev work the game. I worked the game. Playing playful players made me more playful in turn. I played better against them because I had to come up with something more.
(Also a very elegant way to compare myself to Rafa and Novak, dare I say)
Another very simple reason why Sascha Zverev plays Carlitos Alcaraz well is a similar one to the Iga/Coco forehand comparison. Zverev has quite the extreme grip on his forehand, he tends to fall back on it at times. That’s why he’s so good on clay. The surface helps him. The rough particles of clay slow the tennis balls’ velocity down and lift their trajectory up. It gives the player more time to get under the ball which you need when you have an extreme grip. Carlos’ forehand is great but he tends to hit it with a lot of spin, especially when he goes for the inside in ones, which gives Sascha the time to get under the ball. But just as I’m writing this, Carlos hits a flat forehand inside in winner to go up a double break in the fifth. LOL. Don’t believe anything I say.
This post is already too long and I still have so much more to say. Maybe, let me finish with the semifinals match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, because it might well be the match-up of the future. It was a bit of a letdown compared to all the ones they had played before. There was a lot of drama in the scoreline but the tennis was not great. I don’t mind it. I honestly don’t. The only thing I care about is the absolute wrath I saw on Jannik’s face when he lost the match. I just know that that wrath will pain him, will conquer his sleep and in the end it will drive him to become better, if that is even possible. We, as tennis fans, see the present match and are disappointed that it doesn’t live up to the hype. I try to snap out of it and take a glance into the future when a better Jannik will push a better Carlos. And all else is forgotten.
I have to correct myself. The head-to-head between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev now stands at 5:5.
Things that make me happy:
The perks of being a tennis expert (watching tennis as a job requirement, hello?) are plenty but one that I particularly enjoyed these past two weeks is the daily inbox full of players’ press transcripts. Most are banal, but every now and then you come across something interesting. It’s where I found Mirra’s throw-away sentence about going on court empty-minded. My favourite thing about these was Carlos’ subtle confidence. When asked whether he was nervous playing Sebastian Korda so early on in the tournament he simply replied: No. And when another journalist reported that Stefanos Tsitsipas was playing primetime tennis ahead of their clash Carlos just said: I’m not worried. I have the key to beat him. I don’t want to brag too much but another thing that makes me happy is that on May 25th, a Saturday in the year of our Lord 2024, I predicted the French Open winners to be Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz.
Things that make me unhappy:
A thing that has not only made me unhappy but straight-up furious is the blatant misogyny that Iga Swiatek is facing for BEING TOO GOOD AT HER JOB. I never heard anybody complain when nearly forty-year-old Novak Djokovic beats young talents on one leg because he’s that good but when a woman cruises through the field suddenly WOMEN’S TENNIS IS BORING and Iga Swiatek is not good for tennis. Do you remember the time when everybody was complaining how women’s tennis had no real champions and the major tournaments were too wide open for anyone to take? Now, this may come as a surprise: but you can’t have it both ways. Just a gentle reminder that Iga Swiatek was part of two matches this season already (vs Sabalenka in Madrid and vs Osaka last week) that will most likely end up in the top 10 list of the best matches of the year.
I will see you all back here on Friday. May your slices be extra sharp this week!
Yours truly, Andrea
Great summary...and right on about the misogyny directed at Iga. She's great for the game and generous/kind to the other players and their teams.
Yes, I do remember the bellyaching from when no one in particular was dominant in the women's game, and I find it ludicrous that the complaint then was the same as now: that somehow the women's game is lower quality. Well, guess what, haters, you can't have it both ways. The sport itself doesn't really vary much in terms of quality. What you see when no one is dominant is parity, usually driven by unique style matchups and the rigors of a long season. When one person is dominant, that is neither a rise nor a drop in quality, it's just sometimes someone figures out all her opponents for a period of time. But the bottom line is that the quality is a lot better than people give it credit for!