{"id":634,"date":"2007-07-06T21:26:31","date_gmt":"2007-07-07T05:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/?p=634"},"modified":"2007-07-06T21:26:31","modified_gmt":"2007-07-07T05:26:31","slug":"the-french-move-ahead-of-the-us-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/the-french-move-ahead-of-the-us-at-wimbledon\/","title":{"rendered":"The French Move Ahead of the U.S. at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us for the men’s Wimbledon final! We’ll be blogging live on Sunday, July 8th at 6am PST\/9am EST\/2pm BST. Join in by writing comments and we’ll respond in real time.<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Men<\/b><\/p>\n

Richard Gasquet<\/b> had come back from two sets down and had his third chance to push his match against Andy Roddick<\/b> to a fifth set. After exchanging a few ground strokes Gasquet unleashed a backhand down the line and let out an escalating cry of dominance as the ball landed out of Roddick\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

Gasquet turned to his box and punched his fist and so we had the exclamation mark announcing the arrival of the latest member of the current crowd of young ATP players. Gasquet had officially transformed himself from an inconsistent and fragile player into a confident young man.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of Wimbledon, youngsters Andy Murray<\/b>, Tomas Berdych<\/b>, and Gasquet had yet to reach the quarterfinal of a slam. Murray didn\u2019t show up because his wrist had not healed and Berdych joined Gasquet in the quarterfinals today but lost in straight sets to Rafael Nadal<\/b>.<\/p>\n

After getting up 7-6 in the fifth set, Gasquet got two match points on Roddick\u2019s serve – two chances to close out the match. Roddick\u2019s coach, Jimmy Connors<\/b>, leaned forward with a worried look on his face. Gasquet hit a shot at Roddick\u2019s feet and Roddick volleyed it into the net. The U.S. had just watched its Wimbledon future passed by the present. Roddick was the U.S.\u2019s best shot to win Wimbledon and Wimbledon was Roddick\u2019s best shot at a second slam.<\/p>\n

The youngsters move better than Roddick and their all-court games trump his big serve and forehand. It\u2019s not likely to get easier for Roddick and Murray has already beaten him here. James Blake<\/b> could win the U.S. Open or the Australian Open if he gathers himself mentally. We know Blake has never won a match from two sets down as Gasquet did today because Blake has never won a five set match. Blake is also 27 years old to Gasquet\u2019s 21, but there\u2019s always hope.<\/p>\n

There was an even better match on the same court and it was a meeting between the two most advanced members of the youngsters: Marcos Baghdatis<\/b> and Novak Djokovic<\/b>. At first it looked like this match might mirror the classic match between Pete Sampras<\/b> and Andre Agassi<\/b> at the 2001 U.S. Open. Sampras won that four set match which featured four tiebreakers with neither player losing his serve.<\/p>\n

The first three sets were decided by tiebreakers with Djokovic winning the first two and Baghdatis the third. It would go five sets. Baghdatis had the trainer out to look at his arm and Djokovic had his back massaged before Djokovic finally pulled it out, 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5. Could it be? Is another rivalry forming on the ATP tour? Aaaaah, sighs of relief all round. The future for U.S. men might not look good but the tour is in good hands.<\/p>\n

Djokovic gets Nadal in the semifinals for his reward and Gasquet gets Federer who had a much less exciting four set win over Juan Carlos Ferrero<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The Women<\/b><\/p>\n

Over on the women\u2019s side, another French player made a huge breakthrough and unlike Gasquet \u2013 we were expecting him to stand up one of these days \u2013 Marion Bartoli<\/b> shocked us. Until two weeks ago, she\u2019d never been past the quarterfinals at a Tier I or Tier II event let alone a slam, and now she\u2019s in a final and she did it by beating Justine Henin<\/b>.<\/p>\n

You have to think that Henin ran out of gas because she has the game to play on fast surfaces. She reached the final in six of the last seven slams and won just two of them. It\u2019s a testament to her mental strength that she got that far because she still battles a virus that affects her immune system. I have the same virus she does and a few others to boot. The minute I overwork myself, I come down with something or other. Playing two slams within a month of each other cannot help her situation.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t know until tomorrow whether France will pass the U.S. women because that’s when Bartoli will meet Venus Williams<\/b> in the women\u2019s final. We do know, however, that the future is even bleaker for the U.S. women than the men.<\/p>\n

Look at it like this: there have been 40 slams in the last ten years and U.S. women have won half of them. Fourteen of those slams were won by Venus and Serena Williams<\/b>, the other winners have now retired, and there\u2019s no one coming up behind them. For as long as Venus and Serena want to play, however, the U.S. is in good shape and if one sister goes down, the other will pick up the pieces.<\/p>\n

Serena went out to Henin in the quarterfinals after injuring her calf and thumb in a dramatic fourth round win over Daniela Hantuchova<\/b>. Venus took up the slack by putting a fourth round whomping on Maria Sharapova<\/b> reminiscent of Serena\u2019s two victories over Sharapova earlier this year. Serena lost just three games in each of those matches, Venus lost only four.<\/p>\n

No, Sharapova doesn\u2019t have a Williams sisters\u2019 complex, she has a strategical problem. Sharapova\u2019s entourage told us she would develop a better all-court game as she matured but it hasn\u2019t happened yet. You can\u2019t hit the Williams sisters off the court and Sharapova doesn\u2019t move as well as some of the younger players.<\/p>\n

Unlike Roddick, Sharapova\u2019s competition isn\u2019t quite as strong except for the sisters. Do you really think Ana Ivanovic<\/b> and Jelena Jankovic<\/b> will win more majors than Sharapova? If so, leave a comment and back it up. Come on, jump in here.<\/p>\n

See you bright and early Sunday morning when Pat and I will be live blogging the men\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

\n

Check out our new myspace page<\/a> and add us to your friends network! <\/p>\n

See also:
\nMauresmo Goes Home, Serena Should Go Home, and the Rain Continues<\/a>
\nB**tch and Sing Dept: Peek-a-Boo Tennis<\/a>
\nJames Blake the Confidence Man<\/a>
\nWimbledon: A Little Play, a Lot of Water<\/a>
\nWimbledon 29 Years Back
\n<\/a>Wimbledon Joins the Hard Court Season<\/a>
\nB**tch and Sing Dept: Grass Munching Time<\/a>
\nATP Fantasy Tennis: Wimbledon Picks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join us for the men’s Wimbledon final! We’ll be blogging live on Sunday, July 8th at 6am PST\/9am EST\/2pm BST. Join in by writing comments and we’ll respond in real time. The Men Richard Gasquet had come back from two sets down and had his third chance to push his match against Andy Roddick to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,94,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atp-players","category-wimbledon","category-wta-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}