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CALLING SIGNALS |
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 EVGENIYA RODINA ...expected to shine |
The French Open:
Red Clay & Great Tennis
By BUCKY FOX
of TheColumnists.com
What’s green and orange and red all over?
Roland Garros. This home of the French Open sports a logo with the first two colors.
And all 18 courts flash the red clay that makes this the greatest tennis tourney of them all.
You can have the grass of Wimbledon and the hard courts of the U.S. and Aussie Opens. I’ll take Paris and its red muck--a slow surface that bogs down every rally.
With that, the French Open is a fun version of Dien Bien Phu - a battle of attrition. No serve and volley here, folks. Serve and siege. A pro might need 20 shots for a 15-0 lead. Try that over five sets. In the spring humidity. Hello, Vietnam.
You want to see the tough in tennis? Go to Roland Garros, aptly named after a World War I pilot. It’s a dogfight for survival.
French opening day is like no other in sports. Breakfast on the Champs. Subway to the stadium. Tennis from morning to eve while 128 players dig through the red clay. You come back the next day for another 128 players.
Who are some you’ll see? Perhaps ones I caught two months ago at Indian Wells, the mini-Grand Slam not far from Los Angeles.
On a windy Saturday, I caught two hot players in the Palm Springs desert:
Evgeniya Rodina. A Russian with an Italian surname. And a wicked forehand.
If this 19-year-old keeps looking as good in swing as in her tight outfit, she’ll be a star.
Jo Willy Tsonga. Speaking of good looks, this Muhammad Ali double strikes a sharp figure on court. He towered over Israeli pipsqueak Dudi Sela and could be a giant in the sport one day.
He was close to that in January, when he reached the Aussie Open final. This week he carries his tilted cap into his native France. If he eventually wins the U.S. Open, Jo Willy will adopt another New York sports name: Broadway Jo.
With the French starting during the Memorial
weekend, those two could add to fans’ tennis memories. Here
are mine from Roland Garros visits a decade ago:
1990
Michael Chang. The defending champ opened by sending Cassio Matta
back to Brazil. Snapshot: Chang hustled like a Casio watch. Nonstop.
Andre Agassi. The favorite coming into the French capital. Lowered
himself to racket bashing. The Vegas Verve could hardly handle
falling behind Martin Wostenholme, a forgettable Canadian. Snapshot:
The AgaSSI-yelling locals sparked Andre to victory.
Monica Seles. Fresh off snapping Steffi Graf’s 66-match winning
streak. Yet here she lost the first set to Helen Kelesi, another
Canadian no one recalls. Snapshot: Seles bounced back on the
way to winning her first Grand Slam title.
Steffi Graf. Cold on court, glowing in press conferences. Snapshot:
Recently in Las Vegas, where she’s married to Agassi and
has his two children, she fit into her black leather pants as
if she were still the 20-year-old No. 1 in the world.
1991
John McEnroe. Lost to Russia’s Andrei Cherkasov in four tight
sets. Snapshot: The Parisians packed it for Mac.
Jimmy Connors. Pushed Chang to a fifth set before bowing out with
an injury. Snapshot: The old guy drew as much excitement as he
would four months later in his sprint to the U.S. Open semis.
1992
Judith Wiesner. Stared at the Austrian as she rolled through the first
two rounds. Snapshot: best-looking player until Anna Kournikova
filled the lense.
1996
Pete Sampras. Came from way back to beat two-time champ Sergi Bruguera
of Spain. Called it his greatest triumph on clay. Snapshot: How
could he say that after clinching America’s Davis Cup title
on the red stuff the year before? Paris will do that to you.
©2008 by Bucky Fox. This column first posted May 26, 2008.
You can visit Bucky Fox's website at www.BuckyFox.com
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