Tuesday, May 26, 2009

French Open miscellany

Tennis Channel did a slow motion display of Jelena Jankovic's service motion today. Martina Navratilova commented on the over-rotation of both her shoulder and her hip. One of Jankovic's goals in putting herself through a strenuous off-season training was to be strong enough to put more behind her serve. Navratilova's assessment is that her new-found strength won't help her if she doesn't stop rotating her shoulders and hips so much. That makes sense, but why didn't her coach help her with this problem? And if he did, why didn't she listen?

I'm still undecided about Venus Williams' dress. I haven't seen enough of it to know whether I like it. I know I don't like Sharapova's. Li Na and Lucie Safarova, however, look very nice in the Nike outfit (it's the same one for both) they selected. And I like the new Jankovic dress. I haven't really paid enough attention to clothing to comment on any other outfits.

JJ is in danger of losing her crown. Tennis.com's headline for Serena Williams' first round win is "Drama Queen."

Marion Bartoli would like for Marion Cotillard to play Marion Bartoli in a theoretical biopic (the translation of this interview does leave something to be desired, I should warn you).

Three-time French Open champion Arantza Sanchez Vicario has some ideas about Andy Murray's chances in Paris.

Peter Bodo reminds us that Svetlana Kuznetsova is the only woman in the Open Era to hold match points against two eventual French Open champions (Anastasia Myskina and Justine Henin).

2 comments:

Todd Spiker said...

I've always thought that was where Martina thrived in her commentary roles, and that she doesn't break down players' games enough. I can remember years ago watching a Dokic match at Wimbledon, and listening to Navratilova breaking down every single thing that was wrong with her game that she needed to fix if she was going to get any better (like how she'd smack a hard service return, then give up her advantage by immediately taking a step back toward the baseline). She didn't, and she never did. (Of course, she had other obstacles, too).

When she was talking about JJ's rotation issues today, I felt a severe sense of deja vu. What were they doing down there in Mexico anyway? ;)

Diane said...

If there's anyone players should listen to about technique, it's Martina. Obviously, they do not.

That reminds me of John McEnroe's offer to help Federer. He said they talked, and Roger turned down the offer. McEnroe said no matter--the players who did hire him to give them advice never did a single thing he told them to do.