the French Open

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slightly more serious:

verkerk_usopen_2002.jpg


ah he's been young too:

V232_AT.jpg
 
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hooray, Justine won!

(unfortunately I think the crowd were real pricks towards Serena near the end. like idiots who dive for penalties on the soccer field (hello Valencia), I fuckin' hate it when people cheer first serve faults. it's so wrong somehow.)
 
Yay for Verkerk!
This may not go wrong.

Marty (who said the same after his 2 set lead against Moya, which then turned into a 5-set match)
 
ah he was one break down, but managed to break back in the third set (was the same in the second set). he's 4-3 up now.....
 
HE DID IT!

VERKERK BEAT CORIA IN STRAIGHT SETS!

wow :eek:

:up: :up: :up:

The first Dutchman in the final of Roland Garros, ever!

:up:

C ya!

Marty
 
BTW, congrats to the Belgians. They'll have the female Roland Garros winner. Whatever happens. :)

C ya!

Marty
 
Fun comments from my commentary team:

"Martin who? Martin Verkerk, that's who!"
"It was like David and Goliath, and today Goliath was too overpowering".
"Get ready for the goldfish look."

As if it wasn't great enough having Justine in one final (let's keep all the cheating comments for another day), we get Martin in the other. Coria nearly got defaulted, so he was lucky. Come on Verkerk!
 
Yertle,

At the start of the treat you had one of the finalists correct. :up: Of course, I now have to disagree with you that he's going to win. With Verkerk in the finals I'm letting my Dutch pride take over me. :) Even then, Verkerk is probably on such a high these past 2 weeks I think he has a very good chance in beating Ferrero. He already beat the #4, 7 and 11 seeded (IIRC, Spadea wasn't seeded), so why now beat #3 too?

C ya!

Marty
 
it was a prediction, a prediction in which I hope I'm wrong.

I'm cheering the big man with you tomorrow. Hey, I was rooting for Justine today and she won, so who's to say Verkerk can't win tomorrow? :wink:
 
Hello,

And so the French Open lasted one match too long... :|
Verkerk lost the final to Ferrero. Verkerk's service wasn't that well today, but Ferrero also hit some phenomenal returns. Today, he was too strong for Verkerk, as the numbers indicate: 6-1 6-3 6-2.
Still, it were 2 great weeks for him. Hopefully he can maintain this shape for the months/years to come.

Congrats to Ferrero and the Spaniards! :up:

C ya!

Marty (a bit sad, but the difference in quality was very noticeable today)
 
congratulations to Ferrero, he deserved it for playing better today (and over the two weeks), though I was rooting for Martin, of course.

Still, there's Wimbledon to look forward to. Verkerk may win that one with his huge serving. :)
 
yertle-the-turtle said:
Still, there's Wimbledon to look forward to. Verkerk may win that one with his huge serving. :)

I don't know about that one. He has never played on grass before, so who knows? OTOH, if he can adjust to grass courts, then it might be a very interesting Wimbledon (especially if Krajicek has no injuries and Schalken a bit of luck).

C ya!

Marty
 
yeah, I know about him never playing on grass before, and he only has about a week before Wimbledon 'cos he's decided to fulfill the Dutch club competition you mentioned earlier. Still, it's tennis, and this should raise his profile quite a bit - I expect he's going to get a couple of seedings for more ATP events which should help him.
 
yeah wimbledon might be his game. pity he didnt snatch this one. oh well, the spaniard was way too good today.
 
Verkerk is a good player when his serve is going strong
he is a very good player when he gets in the right frame of mind
his first serve percentage today was about 45% I guess

Ferrero thoroughly deserved it though :up:
 
Ferrero played great, granted, but it doesn't help that Merkerek played lousily. He wasn't in the game at all. What happened to the serve and volely? Why did he suddenly decide to play baseline?

With a huge serve like the one he has, he might do some damage at Wimby, if he can be consistent. Keep in mind though, playing on grass--even moving on grass is a very different thing, so I suspect he may have some diffculty. Like the great 'big' players before him - Phillipoussis, Roddick, Krajeck, Rusedski, Safin, etc--he'll have to sely solely on his ability to serve big aces...and the serve and volley, to win. He's not as quick as the smaller players - Agassi, Hewitt--so he'll be totalyl dependent on his size (which is a good thing, of course. How else did people like Ivanisevic, and to a lesser extent, Petey Sampras win the tourney?) There's a lot of depth in the men's field.
 
The_Sweetest_Thing said:
Ferrero played great, granted, but it doesn't help that Merkerek played lousily. He wasn't in the game at all. What happened to the serve and volely? Why did he suddenly decide to play baseline?

well serve and volely has never been his game actually. hes got this new style: big serves combined with strong baseline play. ive heard critics say that could be the future style to withhold spanish domination on gravel.
 
And when the serve is failing (as was happining in the final, he had a 1st serve in % of about 40%, while it was around 70%) then there isn't much chance to make volleys. Besides, Ferrero had many amazing returns, prompting Verkerk to play more cautiously (I think).

C ya!

Marty

P.S. In the new ATP rankings Verkerk is 15 now (from 46), only 3 positions behind Schalken (who is still the currently highest ranked Dutchman). On the Champions Race ranking he's even #9 (where the first 8 are invited for the Masters).
 
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