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Things We Learned On Day 2 Of The 2015 French Open

By Changeover Writing Staff on May 25, 2015

Andrew

1. Monday is a better day for French women.

After the losses of Garcia and Dodin yesterday, I approached my viewing of the home favourites with some trepidation. Alize Cornet was playing against surprise nemesis Roberta Vinci – before the match, Vinci led their head-to-head 4-0. As the match opened things looked a little worrying for Cornet, as she dropped to 2-5 quickly. She did manage to salvage a few games before Vinci took it 6-4, but by then Cornet had found some more rhythm.

From there she never really looked back, and a tired Vinci struggled to keep her legs running. There was a beautiful moment between Cornet and a line judge who dared to call a foot fault, too:

Cornet through, 4-6 6-4 6-1.  

2. Coverage is a pain, Lindsay Davenport is a gem.

Sloane Stephens vs Venus Williams was probably the most anticipated R1 match across both the men’s and women’s draws. But if you were anywhere except the East Coast of the United States, it was a nightmare to find coverage. In other parts of America re-runs of Monfils were showing while the live tennis had started, while in several parts of Europe encounters such as Kyle Edmund vs Stephane Robert, Jo Konta vs Denisa Allertova or Adrian Mannarino vs Jurgen Melzer took priority.

It was, frankly, ridiculous.

Fortunately, lovely human beings like Lindsay Davenport exist. Davenport took pity on our good friend Stephanie, who covered Madrid for us a couple of weeks back, and started sending her live commentary via twitter:

 

Have no doubt: Lindsay Davenport is a class act.

After a close first set, which Stephens won on a tie break, Venus quickly faded away from the encounter. Sloane took advantage, playing a very solid match throughout which is frankly a pleasure to see again after her struggles in 2014. There were still occasional flashes of brilliance from Venus, who will be extremely dangerous come Wimbledon, but ultimately she couldn’t hold on.

Stephens through, 7-6 6-1

3. The BBC have emoji game.

We already knew this, right? Well with five Brits in action at Roland Garros, only one of whom stands any chance of making any kind of impact, the BBC decided that the following evolving graphic is a good idea to track the coverage. At the time of tweeting, new-Brit Aljaz Bedene had lost the first set to Austrian up-and-comer Dominic Thiem:

 

Then, when he lost the second set:

Things got a little more hopeful after Bedene snatched the third:


It wasn’t to be though, as Thiem took the match:

I really hated this when it first started but I must admit I warmed to it as the antics continued through all five British matches over the course of the day. In the end, this was the state of affairs for the British contingent after Kyle Edmund came through a tight five setter against France’s Stephane Robert:


I hate to say it but I think I’m becoming an advocate for emoji reportage. So. That’s it, journalism is dead.

Thiem through, 6-3 6-4 6-7 6-3

Watson through, 6-4 7-5

Murray through, 6-3 6-3 6-1

Allertova through, 7-6 4-6 6-2

Edmund through, 2-6 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-2

4. Martina Hingis lives.

Virginie Razzano channelled a Roland Garros classic today during her big moment on Suzanne Lenglen. Despite being seemingly fine serving normally throughout the three-set encounter, Razzano opted to throw in an underhand serve not once, but twice. The second underhand serve came on her own match point, on a second serve…and she didn’t even get it in the service box.

On her next match point, Razzano served normally and won the match.

Razzano through, 2-6 6-4 6-2

5. Pigeons are evil.

That’s all.

Lindsay

1. It was a horror of a day for Americans.

When British tennis has more happy emojis than you do, you know it’s a rough day at a Slam. There were approximately 57 Americans in play today, and only one of them made it through, and she was facing another American so it kind-of evens out.

Look, I’m not expecting any second-week fireworks from anyone except Serena–I’m no optimist–but a few first-week wins would be pretty cool. So far it’s only Sloane Stephens and Stevie Johnson into the second round.

Tomorrow that count will hopefully increase, though, as Serena faces Andrea Hlavackova, Shelby Rogers faces Petko, Jack Sock faces Dimitrov, Isner gets Seppi, Keys and Lepchenko square off, Tim Smyczek faces Kevin Anderson, Irina Falconi gets Manon Arcangioli (????), Coco takes on Gools, Alexa Glatch faces Anna-Lena Friedsam, C McHale battles LDL, and Taylor Townsend duels Smitkova.

There’s at least, like, three wins in that bunch?

2. CSN is in it to win it.

(She also defeated Niculescu 6-2, 6-2 today.)

3. POOOOOTTTSSSS.

I was unable to watch the Putintseva/Krunic match because I WILL NOT PAY ANY MORE MONEY FOR STREAMING SERVICES, TENNIS CHANNEL. However, I did watch this GIF approximately 2,000 times, so I’m feeling pretty good about my life choices.

4. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

The tumultuous trio of Nick Kyrgios, Bernie Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis all made it through to the second round. Rumor has it they were happy about it, although it’s easy to get the impression otherwise.

Tomic and Kokkinakis face off in the second round for likely the right to face Djokovic, and Kyrgios seems to be on a collision course with Andrew Murray.

Yeah, I’d watch that.

5. Never, ever, ever change, British media.

6. Borna Coric impressed me.

The kid defeated Sam Querrey (OH SAM.), and honestly he looked great doing it. He definitely needs more depth, power and consistency, but I feel like those things will come as he matures physically and mentally.

Right now, though, there’s a lot to like.

7. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow.

You might be able to tell from my updates that I wasn’t super engaged in today, either. There was a lot going on, but I feel like this tournament still needs that match or two that really wakes it up. (Edmund and Johnson’s five-setters were the closest thing to WHOA moments we’ve had so far, and honestly, we can do better than that.)

Tomorrow’s OOP is pretty thrilling, though, so I have high hopes!

See you all then!

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One Response

  1. qthetennisfan (@qthetennisfan)
    qthetennisfan (@qthetennisfan) May 25, 2015 at 10:04 pm |

    was a querrey fan, now might jump on the coric bandwagon. Good to see the aussie young guys doing well albeit NK seemed a bit fiesty

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