* !Php9NltggPM *
by Pete Bodo
Well, I learned yesterday that trying to account for 37 bodies, temperature ranging from stone-cold to warm, isn't as easy as it looks, hence I cut off my death watch of French players with the men. And while some posters noted that a survival rate of just under 50 per cent (8 of the 19 French men were still alive as of the time I posted) is pretty good, let's remember, the rate of attrition round-by-round isn't very promising. But there's always room to hope.
By contrast, the women really ran off the rails once again, with only four of French women surviving the end of play yesterday (meaning round 2, more or less). But as this is the French Open, and a good time to celebrate a host nation that launched 37 hopeful starters. Of course, the number is slightly inflated by the number of wild cards doled out (rightfully, to my mind) to "home" players, but it's still impressive.
So let's have a moment of silence for Mathilde Johansson (well, at least one of those two names sounds French), who lost a 10-8-in- the-third heartbreaker to Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, as well as veteran Julie Coin, who gamely won a round then stumbled out another Russian dream-breaker, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Stephanie Cohen-Aloro lost a real heartbreaker to Jie Zheng. Cohen-Aloro raced out to a 6-0 lead, but lost the second-set tiebreaker and fought gamely but futilely as she lost, 7-5 in the third. Dechy was bounced. Olivia Sanchez? Goner.
Now, let's take a closer look at some of the other results:
Saucer of Milk on Court 11, Please! Virginie Razzano crushed Daniela Hantuchova, 3-and -3 in the first round, after which she commented: "Well, you know, the atmosphere is good. Marion (Bartoli) complimented me in the cloak rooms. It was from the bottom of her heart. I found it so cute from her, so nice. . . She said, "You don't like Hantuchova at all, do you?. . ."
Razzano added, "Hantuchova or another girl, no, I want to do my match. I want to do my job as usual. It's true. I was so happy to win, and that's the way it is."
I think we get the point.
10th Time Lucky? You've got to hand it to Camille Pin; she's persistent. She lost a close one in the first round to Tamarine Tanasugarn, 7-5 in the third. I can just see the reporter who asked the following "question" pretending to examine his fingernails as the words left his lips:
I suppose that people will say it's the ninth time that you've lost in the first round. . .
To which Pin replied: "Yes. Maybe there's a sign out there: Maybe next year, maybe next year. . . Even though, I think I've improved, the way I played today was such that I could have won the match. She's top 50, and I feel I'm up to it. I was there in this battle. But, no, unfortunately there's someone who's sort of bewitched me (could it be Amelie Mauresmo?). I can tell that you I'm very frustrated."
Ah. . . Say What? Severine Bremond Beltrame was beaten in the first round by Elena Vesnina, and when I punched Severine's compound last name into my "IBM Grand Slam Draw Tracker," the site started to shake and blink like one of those really annnoying Internet ads that hops all over your screen. It wasn't the only object or person having trouble with Severine's name.
It seems Severine was recently divorced from Eric Bremond, so she's going back to her maiden name - but not just yet. Now I don't know, maybe they do it differently in France, but I'd always thought that if you kept your maiden name, it preceded your married name, with a hyphen between the two. But never mind.
The clear advantage of choosing to go with the double name is that it enables women who don't like making decisions to avoid choosing between "tradition" (taking your husband's name) and what has been euphorically described as "liberation" (it's also a nice way to hedge your bet, should your husband turn out to be a real stiff). Personally, I always felt that it made some women (and men, for that matter) feel grand, perhaps even borderline aristocratic, in a British sort of way. I mean, carrying two names instead of merely one, like any old prole, seemed to add a little heft to your identity, right?
Anyway, here's how Severine explained - if that's the right word for it - her name situation:
"I want to go back to my maiden name - Beltrame, my maiden name. So I want my maiden name in my name, but I don't want to create too much confusion. I don't want to go back to Beltrame immediately, because people are going to start thinking, What about Bremond? She stopped playing? Who's Beltrame? I want to take this step by step and go back to my maiden name, but gradually. I think I will stick to Bremond, because that's the name I am known by as a tennis player.After my retirement, for the rest of my life, I would go back to Beltrame."
A sympathetic reporter commiserated with her:Well, Bremond Beltrame is a long name. It's not easy (especially if you forgo the hyphen, I might add).
"Yes, I know," Severine replied ruefully. "That's why progressively I may go back to Beltrame."
We'll keep you posted on this. . . .
And I thought SPF meant Super-Powerful Frenchwoman! Stephanie Foretz lost a tough three-setter to Kirsten Flipkens, 6-4 in the third, after which she was gently asked if there was "anything positive" that she may want to remember from the match. She replied:
"Well, I realized that I have a sunburn. I've spent half an hour with ice. I didn't really realize."
Do You Think I Was Born Yesterday? Anna-Lena Groenefeld whacked Amelie Mauresmo, 1-and-3, in the first round, after which the French reporters cited a phenomena so familiar to French players that it hardly needed explaining: the Roland Garros Effect. . .
"Is it again the Roland Garros Effect that was the main obstacle for you?" A reporter asked Mauresmo.
She replied, "I Don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I can't give you anything this evening. You know, I don't want to speak. That's all. I'm quite clear."
Trying to sneak in by a different route, another reporter asked, "Was this different from the other Roland Garros?"
She shot back: "Don't you even try. . ."
Oh, By the Way. . . Emilie Loit lost in three sets to Timea Bacsinszky, and when Loit was asked to talk about it, she said: "Well, my mindset was different, I would say, because to tell you the truth, after this tournament, I'll put an end to my career."
Loit explained that part of her problem in the 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 loss was that "different things" came to her mind during the match, and she had difficulty concentrating because she had already made her decision to retire after this Roland Garros.
She added, "I wanted to have, to make a beautiful exit. . .And I thought, well, Roland Garros is perfect timing for me to finish this career on this tournament which is my favorite tournament, which has always been my favorite tournament.Obviously I would have liked to win at least one match. That wasn't the case, and I played on my court, court No. 2. I want to thank the organizers, by the way, for scheduling me on court No. 2, which is my favorite court. So thank you to the federation. Thank you to the organization (she was in on a wild card)."
Loit retires with a 10-10 record at Roland Garros.
That's the Spirit! Irena Pavlovic lost in straights to Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova, 3-and-4; she met the press bloody but unbowed. When she was asked if she had any particular goal in terms of her ranking (it's presently 252), she saucily answered:"I try not to think about it, because I don't want to put too much pressure upon my shoulders. I have a dream. I want to be the No. 1 in the world, but I don't want to set limits in terms of ranking."
!Kinnie Are You Sure You're French? Kinnie Laisne (best name in the tournament!) was discreetly ushered out of the tournament in the first round by Australia's Jamilia Groth (that's her on the right), but that hardly diminished the joy and wonder she felt upon playing Roland Garros for the first time. In fact, a reporter asked her flat out, "Do you think it's the best day of your life?"
Kinnie answered: "Yes. That's what I think. Yes, it's the best day of my life. Beyond sports, Roland Garros is a dream. I've been dreaming about Roland Garros for quite a long time now."
Someone asked if she watched Roland Garros on TV, and did she track any particular champions? She said she sure did, but her champion never did very well at Roland Garros.
The roomful of reporters braced to hear her name Amelie Mauresmo, or perhaps Richard Gasquet, but when pressed to name her favorite, she said: "Andy Roddick."
From Soup to Nuts.Marion Bartoli was one of the four French women to survive the first round (the others were Aravane Rezai, Alize Cornet, and Virginie Razzano; as of now, only Razzano and Rezai still show vital signs). She described what it's like to play at Roland Garros shortly after she advanced to the second round at the expense of her countrywoman, Pauline Parmentier:
"When you are very stressed you can't breathe, and my impression was that my legs were weighing 100 kilos each. I was late on each ball. I couldn't see the ball properly. It was a nightmare. . . There's a little reason. First, we are in France. Second, we are in the French Open. Third, we have my results in the French Open (they haven't been great). Then I also played against a French player, and also, it's clay. So all of this sums it up."
Given that she won that match, I was thinking that if she ever got over her anxiety, she'd be one hail of a French Open player, but alas. . . she got whacked today by Tathiana Garbin.
Bartoli being Bartoli (as we've already seen), she suggested in her presser that Garbin was "strange" and when pressed to explain what she meant, she said: "Well, it's her clan. When I made unforced errors, her team would shout. It's not sportslike. They're Italians."
So now you know.