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"It's a show about nothing"...George Costanza (Jerry Seinfeld Show)It's a show about nothing. The 2020 French Open at Roland Garros. First of all the tournament is sans Roger Federer and there hasn't been a tennis tournament that is a tournament without Roger Federer in the ten plus years that I have been participating on this forum. For years I started threads of any tournament that Roger was playing in because rest assured any tournament that was graced by his presence was by definition a tournament. I'm afraid to inform you...this is fake tennis. It's a tournament about nothing. There will be only one brief moment of redemption if there is to any at all and that would be a Novak Djokovic versus Rafael Nadal final in which Djokovic prevails. Otherwise...this ship has sunk.
You can just tell by so many of the matches that are or have been played where you don't recognise one of the players or either of them. Djokovic vs. Galan in the round of sixteen? Never even heard of Galan. Cristian Garin versus Karen Khachanov? Never heard of Garin until a couple of weeks ago when I spotted him at the Italian Open. Daniel Altmaier and Matteo Berrettini? Never heard of Altmaier and worse yet the camera work at this Open is so shoddy it was hard to get a look at his serve motion because each and every serve was taken in three parts...from different angles. What crap. It's a fake tournament. Fake tennis.
It goes on and on. While normally play in the first four rounds is generally referred to as foreplay these days, now the foreplay extends into the later rounds...all of the way to the finals it seems. While watching over the Siberian Huskies for the past week I have caught bits and pieces of many a match and not one actually got my interest. No better example that Dominic Thiem and another unknown to me...the little French boy. Real slop if you ask me. No amount of clever by the French fellow would have induced me to sit through this snooze fest. Roger would never let that happen. I don't think I ever saw him participate in a snooze fest. Never. He had some bad losses but the interesting thing about Roger is even if he is playing his absolute worst he is worth watching. Watching him in defeat one can still take something away from the time spent watching. The same cannot be said for anything I have seen so far.
Snooze fest after snooze fest. How about Jannik Sinner against Alexander Zverev? Nope...just more slop. Sinner is one of the "Next Gen" stars that the ATP will have you believe that is going to take this game over in the near future. If that is so...the writing is on the wall. It is unwatchable. I watched a bit of Sebastian Korda versus the evil Fafa Nadal and the only thing I can say is he had some good ideas but he didn't have the wherewithal to make it happen. He didn't have the balls. Nadal just bullied him around the court much as he does the rest of the crew...those poor ball kids. So there is just one match left.
Stefanos Tsitsipas versus Grigor Dimitrov. Two splendid backhands. One handed ala Roger Federer. Grigor having shed his "Baby Fed" moniker. Maybe he should have clung to it. No sooner did he shed it he went straight in to the mulch pile of marginal tennis professionals...of which there is certainly no shortage of these days. The French Open is traditionally the most boring of all the majors. Best of five sets of snooze fests. I happened to be in Paris a few years ago and went to Roland Garros one day...it was a very, very expensive day by the way. My coffee tab was big that day...five or six cup of the strong French brew just trying to stay alive to see what was going on. I remember Novak Djokovic versus Milos Raonic...like watching paint dry. Like watching grass grow. I cannot blame the Husky girls. But I am getting an eyeful here and only because of this thing has me somewhat captive. You guys haven't watched a single match start to finish...play a hunch win a bunch. I'd bet on it. This is the post Roger Federer age of tennis that I have been warning of for several years now.
Strange days. Strange days indeed. A Grand Slam tennis tournament about nothing and nobodies. Just look at the draw sheet. Every picture tells a story...doesn't it.
"Paris was a place you could hide away, if you felt you didn't fit in
French police wouldn't give me no peace, they claimed I was a nasty person
Down along the left bank, minding my own
Was knocked down by a human stampede
Got arrested for inciting a peaceful riot, when all I wanted was a cup of tea
I was accused...I moved on."
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