Roland Garros 2013

[J. Grilo]

I have the feeling since couple of months, that Federer is mentally weaker than couple of years ago. It hasn't to be discussed about his qualities, but i have the feeling, that he doesn't really believing himself to 100% anymore - especially when he make mistakes; he doesn't rear up.

Just my 2 cents.

[BrushedBigJJ]

hard to believe Tsonga can beat Ferru

Explain please...

I'm guessing ur talking about the match up between Ferrer and Tsonga. But as far as who has at least somewhat of a chance in the final against nadal/djokivic, it's only Tsonga. When Nadal/Djokivic turn it up to that next gear they bulldoze Ferrer and win a string of games against him, he literally has no chance. Nadal the last two masters, djokivic the last two slams. Tsonga also has only a slight chance against nadal/djokivic but because of his serve he doesn't have to work as hard to hold serve and he can block those string of game losses that happen to Ferrer.

[Cro Morgan]

hard to believe Tsonga can beat Ferru

Explain please...

I'm guessing ur talking about the match up between Ferrer and Tsonga. But as far as who has at least somewhat of a chance in the final against nadal/djokivic, it's only Tsonga. When Nadal/Djokivic turn it up to that next gear they bulldoze Ferrer and win a string of games against him, he literally has no chance. Nadal the last two masters, djokivic the last two slams. Tsonga also has only a slight chance against nadal/djokivic but because of his serve he doesn't have to work as hard to hold serve and he can block those string of game losses that happen to Ferrer.

You've done a good job of explaining why Ferrer might not beat Djokovic/Nadal, but said nothing about why Tsonga will, or should, or could beat Ferrer, which was Moralspain's point.

[Moralspain]

before explaining my point, tell me which aspects of the game has Tsonga improved to have chances against a good Ferrer on clay?, i'm gonna be honest i haven't watched any of his matches this year, that's why i'd like to know why everybody talks about him.

In my book i have the best returner nad the most consistency player of the ATP against a player that, on fire, can beat anyone, but on hard court.
We all know Ferrer won't get too many winners but he will return every single ball and will fight at his 100% during 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7 hours,if Tsonga usually get his points in X shots against Ferrer he will need X+1. In my opinion, in the past, he has never been that solid during a best of 5 sets match to hit that "+1".

PS: On hard court, Tsonga would crush Ferrer in 3 sets

[Corbon]

On clay, Ferrer can crush anyone ranked lower than him but Tsonga will have the entire crowd on his side now. If his nerves hold, he will make it. Don't see either one taking the title though.

Yeah Ferrer will win the majority of 10+ rally points so Tsonga needs to go for winners early and potentially rack up UE's.

[BrushedBigJJ]

before explaining my point, tell me which aspects of the game has Tsonga improved to have chances against a good Ferrer on clay?, i'm gonna be honest i haven't watched any of his matches this year, that's why i'd like to know why everybody talks about him.

In my book i have the best returner nad the most consistency player of the ATP against a player that, on fire, can beat anyone, but on hard court.
We all know Ferrer won't get too many winners but he will return every single ball and will fight at his 100% during 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7 hours,if Tsonga usually get his points in X shots against Ferrer he will need X+1. In my opinion, in the past, he has never been that solid during a best of 5 sets match to hit that "+1".

PS: On hard court, Tsonga would crush Ferrer in 3 sets

I don't think Tsonga has improved that much from last year. But I (and many others) judge players by how much of a chance of beating the big 4. By that measure del potro, berdych, and Tsonga are better than Ferrer. By consistency from tournement to tournement Ferrer is better than them. So if the consistent Ferrer shows up against the Tsonga who had match points against djokivic last year, my money is on Tsonga.

And I feel djokivic is the best returner. Ferrer is the most consistent returner on tour. But djokivic can choose to be an aggressive returner or a consistent returner. He mixes in both, and chooses what he needs at a given point in the match. Ferrer and no one else can match how djokivic does this. But if djokivic chose to only be a consistent returner and get a lot of balls back with less risk, I believe he would be slightly better than Ferrer.

Also this is a unique setting at the French Open, Tsonga isn't Gasquet. Tsonga can feed off that French crowd.

[JohnCurveo]

Today some upset?

Jankovic, Kirilenko, Haas or Wawrinka?

For now, i think Sharapova will have some troubles with Jankovic. But i feel Azarenka is gonna beat with no problems Kirilenko. Beautiful day anyway, 4 beauties in game.

[Florian]

Good point for Tsonga is that he's playing better and better as he advances in the tournie. This is the same kind of progression than Nadal or Djokovic this year. Ferrer hasn't really been tested yet, if at all. Maybe he'll need more time to get into the rhythm when facing Tsonga if he starts like he did yesterday vs Fed.

[Florian]

Today some upset?

Jankovic, Kirilenko, Haas or Wawrinka?

For now, i think Sharapova will have some troubles with Jankovic. But i feel Azarenka is gonna beat with no problems Kirilenko. Beautiful day anyway, 4 beauties in game.

Today is the chance for Waw to show how good a player on clay he is. We will see if he can go for it, he'll have many chances to play full power shots but i'm more concerned about the fact that he doesn't move that well, and doesn't handle wrong-footing as well as Murray or Djokovic. On the other side he'll probably have learnt from Madrid Final vs Nadal where he can have regrets of not playing his best tennis. Now is his chance, c'mon Stan !

[BrushedBigJJ]

Sharapova...bageled.

[Moralspain]

We'll see a good match, that's all it matters. Tsonga needs to play at his very best to beat Ferru, i mean he needs to serve super well and hit winners during the whole match, and try to finish most of his plays at the net, on the other hand Ferru doesn't need to take risks to develope his game. Players like Tsonga, capable of beating Federer but also losing against a low ranked player, does everything, for good or bad. He needs to be perfect to win.
Again, haven't seen him lately so don't know if he's still that all or nothing tennis player he used to be

[djarvik]

I agree, for Tsonga, it would be easier to beat Federer/Djokoic than Nadal/Ferrer.

Tsonga barely managed to beat Ferrer on grass....so even if he improved his clay game, it would only mean a chance to beat Ferrer, but far from a sure thing or even a "pick" in my book. He will hit himself out of the match likely.

I also do not agree with Tsonga having the best chance in the final. I think Ferrer does. Especially if Djokovic will be there. Tsonga won all his matches on Grass or Hard against Rafa/Djoker/Ferrer - never once on clay. He has yet to take a set of Nadal on clay (see Gulbis who did it twice, lost), he has yet to take a set from Ferrer on clay or hard, he did have a good match against Djokoivc in which he won t sets 7-5 and lost 2 sets 6-1.

Ferrer's results are better, against the Djoko/Nadal AND against Tsonga.

[Ali-Iqb93]

Ferrer will win against Tsonga.. Tsonga plays a risk game that requires high consistency against pushers like ferrer and rafa.. So I agree ferrer will have easy 3 sets against Tsonga.. Also I think Tsonga did nothing special against federer. Granted that Tsonga had an easy run uptill now but ferrer is more consistent this year than Tsonga. He played his usual game but it was federer who's level was down all match..

P.s final will boring as hell.. I hope Nole wins this time

[Florian]

Tsonga didn't barely beat Ferrer on grass, he won 6-3 6-4 7-6, quite the same score between those two on grass than vs Fed on clay yesterday. And about those two 7-5 7-5 and 1-6 1-6 vs Djokovic last year, if you can still find highlights of the match, you'll see Tsonga played really terrible in the 1st 1-6, then the two of them played at some great level in the next 3 sets (could have very much been 7-5 7-5 7-5 but Djoko guessed right on Tsonga's passing on mp), and eventually Djoko turned into a right handed Rafa in the last set, Tsonga being too tired and without much belief whereas Djoko's confidence was back at the top.

So yes Djokovic can defend amazing, execute some amazing passing shots, hit many lines and never lose belief in his chances, but we've all seen that he will never have Tsonga's power, and that he's not as aggressive either, so when he's playing like a steamroller, there is barely any player to stop him. And he'll have the crowd behind him. If Tsonga had to face Djokovic playing yesterday's level,that would probably be a very tight match. If he had to face Nadal, he would probably be happy to take one set off him.

I think that in SF Tsonga will have to keep his head cool. As Fed said in his interview, he felt in QF that his game is better mostly because he knows which patterns to play on clay to avoid mistakes, running too much and so forth. We'll see if he can keep that up friday. To me it's the most important parameter which will decide if it's gonna be one player or the other.

[djarvik]

I dont see an argument For Tsonga here.

Yes, Tsonga should have won Ferrer on Grass WAY easier than he did, so that is why I called it barely its actually a credit to Tsonga.

I saw the match against Djokovic, and once again, it took a HOT streak and a level down from Djokovic for Tsonga to win 2 sets of 5-7, but once his game dips - it is 6-1 to Djoker. To me, this is clear indication that Djoko is simply a better player.

As for power unfortunately, it is not enough. Being a Gulbis fan - I know all too well about it

Djokovic / Tsonga
Winners 44 40
Unforced Errors 34 61