The French Open Recap
The French open has wrapped up and Rafael Nadal has secured his 14th title at Rolland Garros. And while the end result is by now familiar, the road to it was filled with enough drama and twists to warrant discussing. Besides, Nadal won another slam, and if nothing else he's further differentiated himself from his two compatriots when it comes to the most important quality in a tennis GOAT.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Rafa wins his 14th French Open, and with it comes his 22nd Grand Slam. 22nd! Unlike his win at the Australian Open however, he had to go through Djokovic himself to claim this title. The man may look a little weathered, he may be held together by cheap tape and inter-set medical breaks, but he simply cannot be stopped. 2022 has been the year of the bull, and based on his post victory comments, it doesn't sound like he's ready to rest yet.
Alexander Zverev put together what was shaping up to be an amazing grand slam effort before suffering his horrific ankle injury. While the result was disappointing, I think this was his best effort at a major in a long time. His match against Nadal was incredible, and he appeared to be putting a lot of his mental issues behind him. There's no doubt in my mind that his match with Nadal was the true final of this tournament, and I hope that he can get healthy and continue to demonstrate this new, poised and dangerous version of himself moving forward.
Gilles Simon's retirement lap was overshadowed somewhat by his compatriot, Jo Willy. But it was Gilles who came alive in this tournament, going deep before falling to the eventual semi-finalist in Marin Cilic. An amazing final run for a historically underappreciated player.
Speaking of Tsonga, he may not have had the final French Open that he hoped, but he still put on a very spirited performance against the man who would play in this year's final. He was clearly emotional, and the crowd gave him the heroes send off that he deserved. It was a great end to an amazing career.
Lowlights:
Rafa winning his 14th French Open and 22nd major was an incredible achievement, but I can't help but feel that final was a complete let down. Ruud looked completely outmatched and almost as if he had resigned to loosing before the match had begun. I love a polite and respectful personality as much as the next person, but where's the will to win? Where's the fire? To me, this was a huge missed opportunity for Ruud to show himself as someone to watch. Instead, he solidified himself as just another nice guy who will blend into the endless sea of NPC style tennis players that the media continues to enforce on us. Since when did respecting your elders mean rolling over in a competition?
Alexander Zverev was putting on an amazing performance against Rafael Nadal before he fell in what was a very nasty twisting of the ankle. It ended what would have been an amazing match and is likely going to set him back months as he'll need rehab and training to get back into physical shape. This is a huge setback on the heels of what was otherwise a bit of a comeback story for the German. On the other hand, this incident has somehow softened his imagine amount the typically fervent anti-Zverev crowd. If he can keep his nose clean, and his tennis mean, he may be able to turn his image around after all.
I wasn't at the French Open. I wasn't even in Paris! This is an injustice and evidence that there are structural pieces of society that need to be radically rethought in order to accommodate my needs.
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Novak Djokovic played well and made what was looking to be another deep run into this years French Open. Disappointingly, he met Rafa in the Quarterfinals, which is pretty crazy considering that they both went into the tournament as the favourites to win. Even more disappointingly, Djokovic looked off the entire Nadal match, and didn’t put up much of a fight. I don’t know if he is still shaking off the rust, or if he’s lost some of the fire, but he’ll have to change something up as the year moves on if he wants to ensure he stays within arms length of the rampaging bull.
