Wordy indeed. I thought that was a name of a dish on a Chinese buffet at first....lol. Just kidding. As "Johnny 5" would say......."Need more input....more input."
What else can I say? Marat Safin on center court is perfection.
Not the sentence, but actually having him open the tournament on the main stage. Brilliant. The French love Safin. Not to mention, Safin up first made me happy!
Usually I am TOO wordy when it comes to Safin, so I thought I'd go with something different.
But since you asked...
Marty, I did spend more time looking at pictures of Safin than I did writing this post. Well worth it.
Steelers, I debated writing live, but Safin whipped through this match, dropping only 5 games in 84 minutes! He frequently takes awhile to work his way into a tournament, and makes his early rounds hard on himself with four or five-set marathons.
Shooter, Safin is in Fed's quarter of the draw. Several previews of the tournament have not given Marat much press. They are figuring Robredo will get through to a fourth round with Fed. Robredo & Safin had a heartbreaking 5-setter here in '05.
The scribblers may be reconsidering after Safin was the first player to complete a match yesterday. The last time he got through a first round in a major so easy: Australian Open 2005.
mclioness ............. The point is will he be on center court a week from Sunday ? As that'd be the more important question to be asking. If he doesn't implode then he could very well make it there. But I won't be the one to burst your bubble and expectations of him. Just suffice to say that I wish him all the luck as he'll most definately need it. Federer and Nadal are on a collision course I think once again. That'll no doubt mean that they'll end up meeting center court of Roland Garros to decide the singles' championship.
Top: Safin himself has predicted a Fed-Nadal finale. However, he has also declared himself dangerous if he makes it through the first couple matches well & gains confidence. Tipsarevic is next. I'm liking how things look.
Rev: No surprise to me. I didn't expect Andy to advance. For one, Andreev is underrated (and his ranking dropped after knee surgery last year) & he likes clay. His hustle & forehand won this match; he hit some beautiful winners. And a ton of them!
That third section of the draw is FASCINATING. Dark horse nation: Andreev, Djokovic, Tursunov, Verdasco, Ferrer, Baghdatis, Mathieu, Masssu...
In more men's US info, at this moment Blake and Sam Querrey are in trouble. Querrey's still young. And Blake has a fairly tough opponent in Karlovic, but he should be representing better than he is. Aargh!
mclioness ...........It seems that Safin's bark was worse than his bite. He didn't make it through nor did any other of the American males in the tournament. That being said this has got to be one of the low points in men's tennis for the US. I seriously doubt that they've got anyone in singles now that's capable of winning a Slam tournament. That's how dire it's now become. Their sole lasting accomplishment might be the fact that they're still in the World Group when it comes to the Davis Cup. And that's not really sayin' much now is it ?
Over on the women's side however they've been a little bit more successful altogether.
Venus and Serena need some lessons from Andre Agassi, James Blake, and Andy Roddick, namely in humilty and honor. Every time they get knocked out of a tournament they have any number of excuses (part of their arsenal). This time for Venus it was the old "my knee was hurting" excuse, how about lets try "I hurt my knee while trying unsuccessfully to cover the court as well as my oppenet, man she played good!". Of course that's meant to be sarcastic, you'll have to search long and hard to find a compliment anywhere in the William's dialect.
My favorite excuse was, I guess, over a year ago, I can't remember which Williams brother it was, but he said something like "she started playing so wierd I started playing bad...", OK let's rephrase that, he should have said "I was lousy and my oppenet just played better", but that would in part constitute a compliment in recognition of an opponents greater expertise, can't happen. The williams brothers are clearly ego maniacs. Even the number one guy in the world perhaps the best ever, Roger Federrer, has lost and had nothing but good to say about his opponent, NO EXCUSES.
All the Williams brothers have to do is look around, the truly best in the world, the ones who go far consistently and are TRULY respected as more than athletes, are those who show RESPECT, HUMILITY, and HONOR.
note: the mis-spelling of "opponent" is intentional, I think one of the Williams brothers was using rented lips that day and it sounded to me like she said "oppenet".
ccwriter ........... Humanity and honor goes straight out the window with those kids as all they want to do is just go out and win. Thankfully they've all got but gone. As now we can see the true artists of the game. If they'd practice the game as much as they like to spend time infront of then camera telling us 'bout their like and dislikes then they'd not be losing the way that they do.
mclioness ... I'd completed my won post under the tophatal guise with regard to my own observations on the French Open. One must acknowledge now is that Justine Henin is by far the best female tennis player in the world at present. She makes it all look so incredibly easy. She's bound to be at least of the main favorites for Wimbledon.
I'd say I'm more athlete than fan. I hope I can say that all my life.
After Marat Safin, is there anyone else?
Some of my other favorite athletes include: Dmitry Tursunov, Kim Clijsters, Roger Federer, Tedy Bruschi, Cory Schlesinger, Brian McBride, Lynn Hill & Dean Potter.
I truly appreciate any advice or criticism. Thank you.
