PARIS—It’s time for the second tournament to begin. From the quarterfinals on, a Grand Slam feels like a different event; the tension that has been scattered over the grounds gets packed into the big arenas. The days start later—2 P.M., instead of 11 A.M. Paris time—and each match takes on more weight. In the annual ATP/WTA Media Guide, which may be the closest thing to an historical document in tennis, only the results from the quarterfinals on are listed for each Grand Slam. We're being recorded now.
For me, the day means a little more sleep, and maybe even a chance to see something in Paris besides a yellow ball flying over a net. The Musée Marmottan, near Roland Garros, is in my sights. We’ll see if I make it. For now, a roundup, and a look ahead.
Today’s quarters:
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Samantha Stosur: Some are saying the champion will come from this quarter; others are saying that Stosur is the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing. The two have met just once, three years ago on hard courts, with Stosur winning. I’d say she’ll probably do it again, though I’d love to see a few more celebrations from Domi.
Sara Errani vs. Angelique Kerber: These two relative veterans—Errani is 25, Kerber 24—have come on strong in 2012, and they deserve their shot at a Slam semi. Kerber won their only match, this year in Hobart, but Errani is a clay lover. I picked Kerber to make the semis, so I’ll stick with her here.
Novak Djokovic vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Jo still says it’s highly unlikely that a Frenchman can win this tournament, but here’s his chance to begin proving himself wrong. He’s beaten Djokovic plenty of times in the past, and Novak is coming off a rough one against Seppi. It would be unlike Tsonga to win this, but you probably would have said the same before his quarterfinal with Federer at Wimbledon last year.
Roger Federer vs. Juan Martin del Potro: The Argentine says he’s going to have to go for everything, and serve “100 percent.” I don’t think he has to be quite that good, but this will be an uphill battle on his creaky knee. Federer’s slice backhand and drop shot in particular have been killing the big man this year.
The women will go first today, which might come as something of a relief. When they’ve been scheduled last on Lenglen and Chatrier, they’ve tended to get booted over to the much emptier Court 1—that’s where Varvara Lepchenko’s Cinderella run came to a rapid, and mostly unwatched, end yesterday against Petra Kvitova. According to this piece by Doug Robson in USA Today, the gradual lengthening of tennis matches in recent years—the men averaged half an hour longer over the first week—is the culprit. The French, sans lights, can’t fit them all in.
None of the solutions are perfect: Final-set tiebreakers (John Isner aside, that won’t solve all that much); lights (won’t be here until the revamping in 2017); starting earlier than 11 A.M. (boo). Spreading matches to more courts seems the way to go to me, but tournament referee Stefan Fransson tells Robson he doesn’t like that one either. It may not be ideal for TV to have three competing matches at once, though I don’t think ESPN was dying to broadcast Kaia Kanepi vs. Arantxa Rus yesterday.
Asked what to do with matches going longer, Fransson said, "Who knows?”
One reason for the longer matches: Longer rallies. Defense, as we know, is paramount in tennis today, and nowhere is that more true than on clay. In the Herald-Tribune, Chris Clarey looks at the rise of scrambling, as well as two modern shots that have helped it along: the squash shot, and what he calls the “squat shot.” You know the former, but the latter is done most famously by Agnieszka Radwanska. When a ball comes in fast, she bends down and reflexes it back.
“I just pretty much do the squat,” Radwanska says.
There seems to be a prejudice against defense in tennis, as if it’s some kind of last resort, another symptom of the “brutal” modern game. It isn’t—it’s as integral now as a good first serve, and as crucial as it has always been in team sports. You wouldn’t say that a football team that wins the Super Bowl because of its defense is any less of a champion than a team that wins with a great offense. In team sports, in fact, the prejudice typically runs the other way: “Defense wins championships.”
This is the brilliance of Novak Djokovic in particular: Making defense entertaining in its own right, and blurring the line between scrambling and attacking.
Now this is what the Brits have been talking about: Andy Murray, footballer. The sentiment among U.K. pressmen yesterday was that if you could import a crowd and have them boo the eternally contrary Muzz at every match, he night never lose again. For now, in tab speak, he’s gone from being “Moaning Murray,” week one’s resident drama queen, back to being the “Dunblane Dynamo.”
The Sun sums up the anti-French glee in London:
“ANDY SILENCES PARIS HATE MOB
Andy Murray soaked up the bitter Parisian boos and purred: I loved every minute of it”
The paper continues its analysis of the match and eventually arrives at this description of Murray’s opponent, the unfortunate Richard Gasquet, at 4-4 in the second set:
“Gasquet broke back. All of a sudden, the French star had two break points. It was a crucial, potentially match-winning moment.
"But in true choker style, the world No. 20 did not take them.”
Yesterday I neglected to mention Maria Sharapova’s three-set win over Klara Zakopalova. Despite the many screaming winners that were hit by each woman, the match was not a thing of beauty, and the winner was met with an eerie, grumpy silence inside Chatrier when she took her bows.
Yet it was an admirable performance, and vintage Maria. I watched it on a split screen in the press room with Li Na’s match in Lenglen. While Li never found her game and lost, Sharapova never played her best, yet still won. After being broken nearly every time she served in the first two sets, she found a way to hold in the third. And when this woman who has called herself "Baby Fashionista" took a tumble on the clay, she seemed to make it vanish from her clothes with one quick shrug.
As David Ferrer took the court in cold, murky conditions Monday morning, in front of a few hundred unhappy fans in the swirling wind and spitting rain, TV commentator Robbie Koenig tweeted that he thought Ferrer would love it out there—no one watching, awful weather, no inspiration, the scene was made for him.
And it was: Ferrer rolled over his countryman Marcel Granollers in straight sets, growing stronger as he went. He gets Murray next, in a toss-up of a quarterfinal.
We know Ferrer is a hard worker, but he revealed in his press conference yesterday just how far he’ll go to get better. Asked what he’s been working on, Ferrer said, “Every year, I try to improve my personality.” It’s OK, Ferru, most of us like you as you are.
Later, a reporter asked Ferrer what he thought of the nickname “Little Beast.”
“You can write ‘Little Beast’ if you want to, but my name is David Ferrer.”
David Ferrer: Someday, hopefully, we’ll remember it.