Southpaws at Roland Garros
Lefties have been in the headlines at the 2008 French Open. For example, American, Wayne Odesnik finally ended his run today losing to Novak Djokovic. Lefty, Rafael Nadal, who has already played three lefties, i.e. Tomaz Bellucci, Nicolas Devilder and Jarkko Niemenen, has won three consecutive titles at Roland Garros. Martina Navratilova won two titles at Roland Garros in the 1980s which was impressive given that her game
was much more suited for faster surfaces. However, Monica Seles was the last left-handed woman to win the title at the French Open in 1992. In fact, Seles won three consecutive titles. On the men’s side, there have been several left-handed champions at the French Open in the past twenty years, i.e. Thomas Muster, Andres Gomez. Most tennis players would agree that left-handers have a slight advantage as tennis players on any surface. However, there are not many well-known female left-handers in the top 100 these days with the exception of Patty Schnyder, Sybille Bammer and Lucie Safarova. Hopefully, a couple more lefties will capture the Coupe Suzanne Lenghlen in the years to come.
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