RECAP: Tennis Country Predictions for the 2009 French Open
Now that the 2009 French Open is in the record books and the players are moving onto the green grass lawns in preparation for Wimbledon, it’s time to review our predictions…
o Serena Williams, 2009 Australian Open Champion, will not hoist the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen this year
o Serena struggled from the first match and lost to eventual Champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova…
o The top four men's seeds, i.e. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will reach the quarters
o Unlike the past year or two, there were major upsets in the men’s field, i.e. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were upset early, and so only Roger Federer and Andy Murray reached the quarters (where Murray was upset)
o Only one French tennis player will reach the second week
o Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Virginie Razzano thrilled the hometown fans by reaching the second week
o An American man and Chinese woman will reach the quarters
o Andy Roddick had his best French Open yet losing to Gael Monfils in the round of 16 and China’s Na Li pushed Maria Sharapova to three sets before also losing in the round of 16 – oops, one round off!
o There will be more players in the semis wearing adidas tennis clothing than Nike
o It was a tie with Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro carrying the Nike flag while Dinara Safina and Fernando Gonzalez wore adidas’ three stripes proudly…
o A Russian woman will reach the final
o In fact, it was an all-Russian Women’s Final with Svetlana Kuznetsova beating former junior foe, Dinara Safina
o There will be a first-time winner of the French Open Singles Title
o DITTO… Champions, Roger Federer and Svetlana Kuznetsova, were both first-time winners at Roland Garros
o The women's final will be three sets and the men’s five sets
o Well… both finals went rather quickly, but the quarters and semis had a few three set and five set thrillers…We’ll give ourselves a three and a half (maybe even a four if you count the adidas Nike tie and the double first time winners…) out of eight on the scorecard – not bad, but we can do better. We’ve already begun our “research” for Wimbledon! Stay tuned…
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