Roland Garros 2017

[Vramvrim]

I'm sorry VMoe

[inseedious]

Too bad there was some lack of activity in this Roland Garros - Gobi84 reached QFs without playing a single match! - but this GS seems very interesting as we will have new GS winner and finalists!

My cheer is for my compatriot TheBoss, who's aiming at doing basically what I did last year: first Grand Slam and Rank 1 in one single victory!

As concerns the other SF, the match is pretty interesting. Honestly, I think VMoe is playing better than C4ill - the latter admitted himself that luck played an important role in bringing him back to the SFs. Nevertheless, the skill gap may be compensated by VMoe's SF curse. Thus, it will surely be an interesting match to follow.

[C4iLL]

The match of the century is now over, it held most of its expectations !

First set : the show match. Creativity at its peak, we were very aggressive, going to the net as soon as possible, painting the lines... There was 2 artists flying on the court, displaying their best offensive weapons. It was no tennis here, it was a lyrical fight.

It can be compared to the first set between Federer and Wawrinka at AO17, both players being dominative on their service and playing attractive tennis (we each scored 25 winners I think).

At 5-4 I stupidly missed a set point at 30-40 on his serve, it was the first key fact.

At 5-5, he seized an opportunity at a 40-a on my serve to make the first break of the match. And logically concluded the set afterwards : 7-5. We were equal but he's been more opportunistic.

Second set : the garbage. My mental was unnaffected by the loss of the first set but my positionning suddenly stopped functionning correctly.
Most of my beautiful winners accels / and inside-out became horrible UE... I was like constantly 5cm away from the sweet spot.

On the other side, VMoe stayed at the same level of focus, he was just enjoying the spectacle : 6-1 in a few minutes.

Third set : the fight.

I decided to stop every risky moves and shots as it led me nowhere. The average rally lenght increased drastically I think, most of our service games went to 40-40 and I had 3 times the lead with a break, but he always managed to break back. VMoe also missed a 0-40 situation on one of my service game

I served for the set at 5-4 but he broke back... it was so demanding mentally that we could not hold our serve after the break. We were far from the artistic style of the first set : patterns became repetitive and it was mostly the mental and the focus that made the difference on each point.

In the tie-break, nothing special, I just won it.

Fourth set : I don't remember what happened
I know that I was really exhausted mentally, tired. I kept fighting but my brain was less able to think about patterns, tactics shots etc. I think he finishes with 2 breaks and totally deserved the set. My mental stamina seems to have decrease a lot since 2014

Overall, it was an enjoyable match, we finished with the exact same amount of winners, but I had 20 or 30 more UE.
The most consistent player won.

If i zoom out, I think VMoe is a more consistent player than before on this clay, very patient, and very clever in his tactics and patterns. It's a stark contrast with Mignogna who is certainly as good technically, but miles away in terms of tactics, mental and patterns choices.

So for me, the gap between new gen and old gen is more in the brain than in the hands (or experience?)

[VMoe86]

Time to conclude my Roland Garros... now that I have played my first final and lost it. Ok, where to begin? Lets start with the final and congratulate TheBoss-94! I came in very well prepared into this match, I was focused and I was playing well. On the other side there was someone equal to me and in the final he maybe thought "He is the favourite, I have nothing to lose and will give a great a fight!". Deep shots, angles, different spins, shots landing short, he handled everything well, I only remember one red error from him on a deep shot. He finished shots when he had the chance to, came to the net etc. Very complete performance, just as I know it from our last match (at AO this season).

And of course all that had to start when I was up 4-2 in the first set, it is as if he was triggered in that moment. I was serving in that game, had a relatively easy shot to put away, green error out, 0-15. Similar situation on the next point, I go to the net, error, 0-30, and he broke to love. Then all games were close, but I never could really control the rallies for reasons mentioned above. Eventually, he had to serve for the set and that was again, a long game, break points for me, didn't take them, over.

I don't recall that much of the second set, it continued to be a close match, but I couldn't control it. And it is that feeling I already had after our encounter at AO this year, where we also played a very close match, but me winning it somehow. This time, he was more opportunistic than me and it shows in results that he has become a more consistent and stable player since then (won Monte-Carlo and Madrid, reached Rome final, it shows he dominates the new generation).

In the third set I wanted to make it as tough as possible for him. I was not gonna give up or tank, and so I had to dig deep... First game, me serving, 0-40, I was like "Really?" Somehow I held and managed to get a 5-2 lead. He held for 5-3 without trouble, in the next game at 5-3, 15-0, me serving, he had to go into menu because someone was at the door. And everyone who knows me, knows what comes next -- I lose this set 5-7! Of course I had break points when he served for the match at 6-5, but it wasn't meant to be for me to win that match.

In retrospect, picking Djokovic maybe was not optimal. There is a reason why he is rarely used these days: he lacks true weapons, and on clay that shows even more.

This leads me to the SF, the so-called match of the century! C4iLL described the match nicely and I am very happy the match got played. Just to add a bit to the match, I was a bit worried about how it was going to be to play at 200ms delay (I have never played in these conditions). Except for very few safe shots it felt like a normal match. Ping was at constant and stable 255ms, so no problems with turtles or anything regarding lag.

I also liked the first set the most, both of us going for the shots when they could, coming to the net etc. I remember I had a 0-40 early on in the first set, in the end, we both had same amout of games with break points in that set (and one of your break points was a set point!). This set could have gone both ways, I got it, and breezed through the second set. As you said, the third set was not that great in terms of level, but definitely very tense and had a good story. You broke, I broke back and so on, until 4-4, where I had three break points in a row on your serve... It felt like three match points to me and since I had to take a look at my watch (I had limited time to finish the match), this was a good moment to get a lead. But no, I played badly there, thought too much about it. Then you couldn't even serve out the set so that I had to suffer more in the tie break!

Fortunately, you ran out off mental stamina, and I could finish the match just in time in the fourth set. Too bad I couldn't go all the way, but that is my story, I guess. From day one on tour, it was all about catching up regarding Slams. Finally reached the first GS final, but ran into an in-the-zone player. I could try again immediately at Wimbledon, but since I have more important things to take care off in the upcoming weeks and scheduling has become more of a pain as I got older.

Last but not least, I want to say that the depth on tour is very high at the moment. As pidzi said, the new guys are getting closer to the level, and as happened in the final, also beyond what I can do. I played some practice sets against Pablo, who is playing some great tennis! I am very happy he managed to improve. mohd will have to wait for his next chance, but he should be careful with his words -- they could motivate his opponent. That's it from me, good luck everyone at Wimbledon!

[FEDERER2]

Congrats to VMoe and TheBoss-94 for great tournaments!! Nice to see some different slam winners as of late. VMoe's time will definitely come if he keeps playing, but I felt that TheBoss was going to be on Wawrinka mode this tournament. From what VMoe said, The Boss had his opportunity and took it, it wasn't given to him. To be able to do that vs an original top player of the game in a GS final is unheard of, so big credit to TheBoss for not only that, but for also achieving the #1 ranking on a tour where every match you play is a challenge nowadays.

GL to everyone for Wimbledon also

[inseedious]

As I already said in the chat, congrats to both!

I'm very impressed by The-Boss, because he's won RG with Federer, dropping one set only! I understand Federer is in a great spot right now, but his weaknesses are more exploitable on clay, so this adds more relevance to this incredible achievement.

[pidzi]

On the one hand im glad my first pick for the Roland Garros title was right as TheBoss emerged victorious, on the other hand im genuinely sad that VMoe could not capitalise on this great chance for the coveted major title as i really wished him to be the winner.

Despite i labeled TheBoss as the biggest favourite according to his clay season results and overall level of his game, im still surprised he did it in such a fashion, especially beating VMoe in final in straight sets, so huge congratulations to TheBoss.