LONDON – Rafa has sore knees; Roger’s spirit soars. Maybe because the guy who stole his Wimbledon crown is absent? “There’s a lot of weight off my shoulders since Paris,” he says. It’s an 180 pound weight named Nadal. And so another Big W commences, bigger than ever, where the T-word (tendonitis) is a TKO to Rafa and his faithful, lamenting his inability to even make … [Read more...] about QUEASY KNEES REMOVE THE CHAMPION RELIEVING EX-CHAMP ROGER
Tournaments
HISTORY WAS ROGER’S BUSINESS AS HE CATCHES UP WITH SAMPRAS
PARIS – When Roger Federer walked onto the umber-toned earthen tennis court at Roland Garros yesterday, he looked at the man accompanying him to the final and was pleased. The guy was not Rafael Nadal, who had beaten him here the last four years. Instead he was Roger’s benefactor, the man who had removed Nadal from Federer’s path a week ago: Robin Soderling. This was … [Read more...] about HISTORY WAS ROGER’S BUSINESS AS HE CATCHES UP WITH SAMPRAS
FIVE YEARS LATER KOOZY ADDS SECOND MAJOR; SAFINA SHAKEN BY FINALITIS
PARIS — Dinara Safina wore the face of a woman who had just watched her home burn down. And she had forgotten to insure it. Or maybe she let the kids play with matches. Well, a tennis court is pretty much Dinara’s home, and none is more desirable to a European than Roland Garros’s primary clay rectangle where she, the planet’s No. 1, went down in flames trying to win the … [Read more...] about FIVE YEARS LATER KOOZY ADDS SECOND MAJOR; SAFINA SHAKEN BY FINALITIS
TUMULTUOUS MENS’ SEMIS DAY IN PARIS
PARIS — A shotmaking frenzy! What else could you call the two firefights — aka semifinals — that lit up Roland Garros Saturday, leaving Fernando Gonzalez and Juan Martin Del Potro biting the swirling salmon-toned dust. Hail to them. Though defeated, they made a showdown such as this old ball park hasn’t seen in 39 years: a brilliant final four, two heatedly contested … [Read more...] about TUMULTUOUS MENS’ SEMIS DAY IN PARIS
TITLE RIVALRY: MOSCOW (SAFINA) AGAINST ST. PETE (KUZNETSOVA)
PARIS — This is like Ohio State-Michigan, if I may use a fierce American football rivalry and apply it to tennis. What I have in mind is a great long-time Russian rivalry – Moscow and St. Petersburg – and a representative of each bumping heads with the Championship of France at stake. Both are 23, proud to have put together the second all-Russian French final. But they come … [Read more...] about TITLE RIVALRY: MOSCOW (SAFINA) AGAINST ST. PETE (KUZNETSOVA)