The French players at SW19

The French have a brigade stronger than their army at the SW19. Lead by Jo Wilfried Tsonga, there is Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Nicholas Mahut , Julien Benneteau and the lone woman ranger Marion Bartoli who is ranked at no.15.

Among these players, I love watching Richard Gasquet- the strongest reason being his single fisted backhand and that he gravitates to the net at every opportunity and treat the grass surface as grass and not hammer blows from the baseline.  The problem is we all know that the these players with the exception of Tsonga will not reach beyond the quarter finals.  

Gasquet has played in 7 Wimbledon championships and his best result has been the semifinals in 2007. Gael Monfils has never progressed beyond 3^rd round, Gilles Simon has done one round better than him and so has Benneteau. Bartoli has played in 10 championships and her best result came in 2007 as a Wimbledon Finalist. Tsonga has shown the most promising performance. Ranked at No.7, he has played in 5 championships and his best result has been the semi-finals in 2011 where he beat Federer and in 2012.

 All these players have been around for at least 10 years on the tour and may never beat their peak results which are at best average.  Many of them are in top 20 and their rankings will slide even further as years progress (Lleyton Hewitt at No.82). 

But Hewitt at least got the kiss the trophy in 2002 and enjoy a brief fling with being No.1.  

Wimbledon 2013

Roger Federer, current world no.3, will be targeting an unprecedented 8^th Wimbledon title ten years after he won his first.  For a number of reasons I am excited for a number of reasons this year at the all-white grand slam.  All the top 4 players are there without exception.  Djokovic, Murray, Federer, Ferrer and Nadal.  Only 4 rankings but 5 players! Due to an algebraic quirk, the equation that spews out the ranking system at Wimbledon has now ranked Ferrer ahead of Nadal.  A lot of hue and cry has been made in the media about the comedy of this particular act.  Having said that, I also think Ferrer fully deserves this ranking.  At 31 Ferrer is playing the tennis of his life and as he said, this is his last chance of getting the best results of his career on grass.  

Talking of age, 31 seems like the golden number- Serena Williams, Federer, Ferrer,  are all 31 and two of them are defending champions while the third is enjoying the highest ranking of his life at no.4, one place ahead of compatriot Nadal.  Then there is Berdych and Tsonga lurking dangerously close to the surface of the top 5 and are capable of pulling off an early upset.  Berdych’s recent clashes with Federer have all ended in his favour.   Del Potro  Richard Gasquet and Stanislas Wawrinka are at 8, 9 and 10 respectively.  I feel Wawrinka has the potential to reach the quarters and then the semis.  I love watching him play, probably at par with Djokovic because one can learn a lot by watching him.  He is the only player apart from Gasquet and Federer to practice the single-fisted backhand, his volleys are superb and generally he is not content to hammer from ball upon ball from the baseline. Should that happen and then per chance the opponent attack his back hand, he will simply whip  the racket and swat the ball very deep either down the line or across the court.  Unlike many of the top 10 players, most notably Murray, he does more than keep the ball in play from the baseline, he will mix his shots, vary the tempo, risk a volley and most importantly fearlessly leave the baseline.

The men’s tennis has been consistent and the top 4 rankings have been dividing the spoils of 4 grand slams between them. The lower ranked players have also been consistently been nipping at their heels and the slightest weakness will have them jump at the higher seeds.

What happening with the top 10 women? Plenty apparently…off court.  Serena Williams has been bringing a lot of mouth to the table aka press conferences.  The rape remark storm had barely died down when she made another comment about Sharapova going out with ‘the guy with the black heart’ (ref. Grigor Dimitrov) and ‘not being invited to the coolest parties’. Who cares!  Why in spite of sweeping all tournaments in her way and also swatting players like flies, Williams makes such juvenile remarks is beyond my understanding.  She has a certain stature is 31 years of age, has more than 10 years of pro play under her belt and ditto those many years of tour experience.  She has stumbled and learnt, been injured and written off more times than she cared and she has come back…and how. Yet she behaves like a teenager mentioning ‘coolest parties’. 

Why Serena, why? She collects her French Open trophy like a little girl who skips her way to the desired object, she giggles, pouts and pirouettes.  It’s  frankly disturbing.  But Williams is no 1 and the hot favourite to win the grass affair.  Sharapova and Azarenka are ferociously mewing at her heels.  But I have realized that something like black magic happens to the opponents when they play Williams, they crumble before the game even begins, they play strangely, make errors, and hand Williams the match; such is her power (playing power not black magic).  Serena’s appearance on the court is intimidating.  Her stares, fist pumps do the damage psychologically and her cheetah- like movements on the court take care of the best played shots.  Her confidence and menace is terrifying. The only thing I can hope for is score more competitive than a tame 6-4, 6-4.  

Of the rest of top 10, I consider only Petra Kvitova, Sara Errani and Li Na who have great game and will put up a fight.  I will just mention without commenting on Radwanska, erstwhile no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Maria Kirilenko. Outside of top 10 are so many bright stars that behave like comets.  Sam Stosur for one is the brightest of them all.  This stupendously fit Australian has taken on Williams before and knows her in all her strength and ugliness and she has won. But one doesn’t hear of Stosur beyond round 3 or even 3 these days.  Sabine Lisicki has spunk and is not bogged down by pressure of higher rankings and then there is Elena Vesnina fresh from her victory at Eastbourne and the American Jamie Hampton who was the finalist at the Aegon International Title.   

Oops the clock is ticking…only 6 hours to go.