rg2009: no trophies were bitten in the making of this record-tying feat

Congrats to Roger Federer for getting that clay monkey off his back; up until this morning, he lacked a mini Coupe des Mousquetaires* in his overflowing trophy case, which put his place among the tennis greats into question. But now that he’s filled that French Open void in his record — with a 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 performance over an overwhelmed (and likely exhausted) Robin Soderling — Federer can play out the rest of his years with a clear mind. He’s achieved pretty much everything: a prolonged stay at the top of the rankings, an Olympic gold (albeit in doubles), and singles trophy from all four majors. (Has he won all of the Masters Series events?). Nothing is stopping him from surpassing Pete Sampras‘s record in bagged Slam titles and becoming the GOAT of his generation. Unfortunately, Roger could also get a boost from his greatest rival, Rafa Nadal, if the Spaniard starts to sputter because of bad equipment; Nadal’s deteriorating knees have forced him out of this year’s Queen’s Club draw and makes a Wimbledon title defense uncertain.

Props to Soderling for his week, btw. Too bad he couldn’t push Federer to four or five sets. But after bulldozing Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, and Fernando Gonzalez on the way to the final, something had to give. Also, the Swede gave one of the most sincere and gracious speeches I have heard in recent years. For as much as we hear that he’s disliked by other players for gamesmanship and such, he had a very cheery attitude as he received his runner-up platter.

*funny observation by Pierre, who commented on Bodo‘s blog that mentions of the CdM had overtaken terre battue as le mot de l’année…

(image via Getty Images)

netjets toasts federer with a tv ad

While we’re not entirely endorsing the use of private planes (hey, if Rafa Nadal can fly commercial, then so can all the other top pros…), TSF wants to give a shoutout to the cute commercial NetJets used to congratulate one of its clients, Roger Federer, after his record-tying 14th major title — the 2009 French Open.

Sit back: Click on the image above (or this link) to view.

finally, as no. 2, federer gets some love at the majors

Tweets/texts/emails/pings fluttered our way right after Roger Federer climbed out of that five-set mess that was his semifinal against Juan Martin Del Potro. The score: 3-6, 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

We don’t remember the last time we felt so compelled to gun for Roger at a final (there were goosebumps as we got on the ‘net for the match synopsis…). But why the sudden change?

sighting in the stands: eva longoria-parker

Eva Longoria-Parker watched the semifinal showdown between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro. Beside her sat her husband, Tony Parker (pic).

(image via Getty Images)

damned if you do…

After the cut is a convo with our friend (and resident bracketologist) Chris about NBC‘s choice for men’s semi-final French Open coverage. I’m gonna side with the programmers on this one; they went with a the “no-name” match — showing Soderling/Gonzalez instead of Federer/Del Potro — and they shouldn’t get

roland garros house of horrors

Proceed at your own risk: Snap on some Depends, grab your heart medication, and click here for a wild ride!

i am not a plastic bag

Caroline Wozniacki‘s grey cotton bag looks really warm and comfy.

(photo via Fierce Tennis)

sa watch, roland garros edition

The Brazilian doubles team of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa — seeded 10th at this year’s French Open — lost in the first round to an unseeded pair, Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov. The Russian team fell in the quarters to top seeds Zimonjic and Nestor. And in the finals, Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes will face Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman.

ttk: there’s more where that came from

TTK TKO: Thanks to reader justinehh for sending over this picture of Slovakian Lenka Tvaroskova, also in TTK, playing at last month’s Warsaw Open.

mishit: ivo minar

For posterity’s sake: Ivo Minar wore this tart, tartan combo from TTK at this year’s French Open. He was Kudryavtseva‘d by sixth seed Andy Roddick in the second round.

Perhaps Andy was doing Minar a favor; the American knows a thing or two about crazy outfits on the court.

Full monty: See a wider shot of Ivo’s clothes

oh, mirka!

All smiles: Lovely shades, dear. If I had a rock like yours, I’d shield my eyes just like how you’re doing.

Phew: Now that Rafa Nadal has fallen to Robin Soderling, Mirka can get a proper manicure — she won’t be bitin’ on those fingernails for the rest of the week! Another pic of Mirka Vavrinec, aka Mrs. Roger Federer, taking in her hubby’s run for a title at the French Open,

food for kolya’s thoughts

Here’s Feliciano Lopez at last night’s opening of a restaurant called Barroque in Madrid.

You’re welcome, Kolya!

(src; m b)

clijsters: pot calls the kettle “bland”

An excerpt from Kim Clijsters‘ interview with BBC Radio 5 Live last night:

“Over the last few months I have been watching a little more tennis and there’s a lot of girls that I really have no clue who they are. And they play really good tennis, but what I’ve noticed on TV is that a lot of them play the same type of tennis. The speed is very similar, the movement is very similar. There’s not many new players that stand out with a different type of game.”

I guess there’s room for rueing the loss of Justine Henin and Amelie Mauresmo (in her heyday), but let us remind you that this comment is coming from a woman whose wham-bam style of play was nearly indistinguishable from that of her peers and not nearly as successful — it only got her one major.

(via OTB)

larosa’s at it again

I spent a few minutes last night as that guy, LOLing — literally — while fiddling with my pink ‘Berry on the street. The reason for my giggles? James LaRosa is back at it, blogging about Roland Garros for Tennis Channel. All the posts are archived here.

Edit: the Day 12 post has a fashion conversation between LaRosa and yours truly. Check it out!

a quiet tank crushes the draw

This mellow racerback dress from Lacoste‘s spring line has gotten a lion’s share of airtime in the ten days of French Open play thus far. Jelena Dokic wore it as she fell apart with a back injury in her second round match while ahead against Elena Dementieva. “Obviously it’s not my time at the grand slams,” said Dokic, who suffered a similar fate with an injured ankle in the fourth round of the 2009 Australian. “I’m not 15 anymore, so it’s time probably to take more care now and I just really, really hope it’s nothing serious.”

The dress, with its contrasting white tank and blue skirt, took matters into its own hands with the fourth-seeded Dementieva, using Sam Stosur as the vehicle to avenge Dokic’s defeat. Stosur is still in the draw, defeating Virginie Razzano in the quarters and will face Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semis.

BTW, Kuznetsova won the big-babe battle between her and Serena Williams that took three sets: 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5. The American, as expected, gave no credit to her opponent. “I pretty much gave it to her. It was like, Here, do you want to go to the semis? Because I don’t. She was like, Okay.” Hey — I guess that’s what you can do when you’re BBM buddies, right?

Meanwhile, Dominika Cibulkova‘s been swatting down her fellow blondes all week, eager to be the prettiest one hosting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen by fortnight’s end. She fended off unseeded Argentine Gisela Dulko in the third, Agi Szavay (bye!) in the fourth, and upset couture queen Maria Sharapova in the quarters. Sharapova almost notched a double bagel loss if not for Cibulkova’s nerves; the Russian managed to win two games down 0-5 in the second set. Sadly, we’re unsure of how Dominika will hold up against her semifinal date with Dinara Safina. (At the very least, she can comfort herself knowing that Safina needed to go the distance to defeat Victoria Azarenka.)

Buy: Lacoste Sleeveless Racerback Dress; white/eclipse blue; orig. $145 now, $99.

(images via Getty Images)

gilles simon has us thinking…

At this year’s French, Gilles Simon was the top-10 player wearing a polo from adidas‘ spring line, and we were surprised at how nice it looked on him. It got us thinking about Simon’s chance to branch out with his own look — to be the Federer of adidas, if you will.

Think about it: Nole‘s off on his own world with that Falcon line (it has his name on it, so it’s pretty much just him); and in the jock department Monaco and Verdasco rule the crew roost; and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Safin (not for long) are taking care of the zipped v-necks. So what about Gilles? We thought spotlighting Paul-Henri Mathieu for a sec, but his Steve McQueen look is too rebellious to be be classy.

While Gilles’ look can take on a primal flare with those Wolverine-esque mutton chops of his — he can start with these shoes — he has the frame (rawr), the face, and the hair that can transcend the court and take him straight to the catwalk.

adidas: take us up on this challenge!

(match image via Getty Images; practice image by Corinne Dubreuil)

what’s going on back there, janko?

(photo taken at Dusseldorf; via MTF)

tennis, wolverine style

I think we’re ready for Gilles Simon to make his own fashion mark with adidas, perhaps starting with a performance version of this tattered hi-top, the Tennis Hi Lux Open.

(via Hypebeast)

tsf gets a playmate!

We ran across this release today:

My Tennis Fashion (MTF) is a unique concept that has been created to address and channel the constantly evolving, fresh and fast-paced lifestyle and trends of tennis and tennis fashion to all of its fans. Founder, tennis pro and tennis teacher Richard Henry explained,

“The vision of MTF is to have a website that showcases the latest trends in the tennis branding and clothing industry both on and off the court, and eventually develop an online store for manufacturers to continue building those brands and movements.”

He continued, “I had the idea while at the U.S. Open two years ago. I noticed how all of these major brands had booths were setting up at biggest tennis event in the world and realized there was a definite need for a platform to join together the style, trends, on and off-court events that make tennis so irresistible.”

the french open is scot-free

fullerton: I have decided that Murray is going to win the French Open.
fullerton:and take his shirt off
fullerton:and it is going to be lovely

The newly minted World No. 3 Andy Murray didn’t get to this upper crust of tennis society by playing on clay, and it showed during his fourth round match against Fernando Gonzalez. Feña blew the Scot out of the water with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 upset.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him,” said Murray after the match. “I’d played against him before and he hits the ball hard, but today he was hitting it huge. If that happens, sometimes you’ve got to say ‘Too good’. It’s quite easy sitting on the side to look and think ‘you could’ve have done this, you could have done that’ but the guy is hitting ball so hard — no one hits the ball that big.”

Looking ahead: Gonzo is set to play Robin Soderling, who solidified his victory over Nadal with a straight-set drubbing of Kolya Davydenko.

Kudos to Andy and his Fred Perry kit, btw. He mixed things up by alternating his v-neck crew between an all-black colorway (with a green laurel) and a navy/blue version. Buy: Fred Perry French Open Tennis Shirt, navy/scottish blue, £35.00.

More pictures: Shots of Andy during his 2009 French Open run