Welcome to the Topspin message board - the place for all Tim Henman fans!
This message board was set up primarily for members of Tim's official fan club, Topspin, but if you're still interested in what Tim's doing with tennis now he's retired then you're welcome to check here for news.
Please note - If your message is short you can type it all in the "subject" box so it appears in full on the board.
ROLAND GARROS 2015 - DAY 15 IP: 46.255.183.159 Posted on June 7, 2015 at 09:45:33 PM by David Barnes
ROLAND GARROS 2015
SUNDAY 7 JUNE - DAY 15
Those spectators who stayed behind after the Williams/Safarova pantomime yesterday were treated to a men's doubles final of such quality that you wonder why the stands at such matches are regularly all but deserted, and why there is such unremitting focus on the singles draw in every tournament on the Tour. If you wanted deftness of touch, agility round the court, power serving followed by relentless returning, and tension till the last point, it could be found on Philippe Chatrier yesterday evening, long after Serena Williams had finished parading her trophy and dealt with the press, and just as she was being whisked off for a photo-shoot on the Bir-Hakeim bridge near the Eiffel Tower.
The Brazilian pair of Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo squeaked past the Bryan brothers 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 to take the trophy this year; the combined age of all four players is 131, and at 35, the Americans may decide to call it a day sooner rather than later. They won here in 2003 and 2013, and with that sort of gap between trophies, it is unlikely to be them lifting it again in 2023. Catch them while you can, would be my advice. There was some consolation for Mike Bryan, at least, in that he won the Mixed Doubles title, playing with another American, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who appears in the WTA yearbook for this year with blue and green hair. They beat the unseeded pair of Hradecka and Matkowski 7-6, 6-1.
In fact, on Saturday an accurate headline would have read 'Many Americans Triumph at Roland Garros', which is not something we have seen regularly in the second week of this tournament for a few years. The Boys final was contested by two Americans, Tommy Paul, seeded 13, and Taylor Fritz, the 2nd seed. Paul, the elder of the two, who turned eighteen a couple of weeks before the tournament began, triumphed 7-6, 2-6, 6-2. In a moment of shared patriotism as the trophies were presented on court after the match, Paul took a large US flag and wrapped it round his shoulders and those of the vanquished Fritz. The result was especially satisfying for Paul, who lost to his opponent in three sets when they played each other earlier this year at a futures event in Spain.
The crowd would have liked more fireworks and less truculence from Djokovic this fortnight, but they are slowly taking him to their hearts, and he received an enormous cheer as he walked out as the favourite to face Stan Wawrinka in the men's final here today. However, after winning the first set 6-4, he lost the second by the same margin when Wawrinka finally managed to convert a break point (his sixth), Djokovic putting a backhand long.
In the third set the Serb looked jaded and was broken at 2-3; his lame drop-shot put away with an easy cross-court forehand by Wawrinka, who had started playing with immense assurance and touch; his winners were now flashing past the outstretched racket of the Serb with all the regularity of the Lausanne to Geneva express, while Djokovic himself seemed unable to banish the torpor that had engulfed him. From an acceptable total of fourteen, his unforced error count had risen to sixteen in the second set, and thirty in the third. It was not surprising that he could make no impression on Wawrinka, and the Swiss held his serve at 5-2 to love, to go two sets to one up.
The fourth set was therefore 'make or break' for the Serb, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6 down after nearly two and a half hours of play. He responded by breaking the Swiss in his opening service game, but was himself broken, his lead pulled back to 3-2. Wawrinka broke him again to take a 5-4 lead, with a breathtaking backhand down the line, his second of two in the game, that had the crowd on its feet in awe. Wawrinka did not have the easiest of games serving for the match, sacrificed one match point when he returned the Serb's volley long, but on his second made yet another backhand winner. His backhand, on this sort of form, is of ethereal beauty and power. Just short of three and a quarter hours of quality tennis - sweet revenge for his defeat at the Australian Open by the Serb earlier this year, with the best player winning here today, as Djokovic acknowledged himself in the words exchanged with his opponent at the net. The Swiss, interviewed on court afterwards, said simply that it was "le match de ma vie". As he received his runner's-up plate, the Serb was given a standing ovation of more than a minute, and couldn't stop crying. They do quite like him here, in Paris, it turns out, but they were equally generous to Wawrinka, who concentrated hard as the Swiss national anthem was played, and succeeded in holding back his tears.
_______________________________
David Barnes/Topspin, 2015
Replies: There have been no replies.
You must register before you can post on this board. You can register here.