Possibly the official French Open Thread...

Don't hope for any Canadians in singles. : Daniel Nestor has been successful on the doubles circuit, but that's about it.

Does anyone know what happened to Pat Cash (I went super crazy for him back in the day) and Stefan Edberg?

 

Hey on the bright side at least Roddick won a set.

 

Was I the only one who thought Roddick would be the next great American tennis player after he won the US Open a few years back? The guy has the talent, but the drive just isn't there.

He should just forget about going to Paris anymore. He's terrible on clay.

 

I won't say yes, but I'm pretty sure it was a small community that thought that.

The guy just doesn't have the thing that makes up the Federers and Nadals. It would be one thing if he's making Slam semifinals and losing to those guys in five-setters, but he's lucky to make the quarters half the time and that's just so he can endure the ridiculous beatings Federer likes to give him.

I don't see the desire, I never saw the desire to be great. It's a shame because I don't think that's that big a talent disparity.

I also appreciate his humor but sometimes I want him to be a little pissed. He got embarassed and humiliated by Federer at the Aussie Open and I would've liked for him to say "I'm tired of fucking losing to this guy. I'm tired of the shit" and at least make it seems like it bugs him a little.

At this point he's only a threat at the U.S. Open and even that threat is minimal.

 

I agree with you 100 percent on the lack of desire. When he lost today it didn't seem like a big deal to him.

And he looks so slow especially on clay. He looks like he'd be athletic and sometimes it shows, but more often than not he gets caught flat-footed or in the wrong part of the court.

I think the time for people to keep paying attention to him, hoping he gets "it" one day, is over.

 

I think he normally is pissed but as a defense mechanism or whatever uses humor to deal with it publicly in press conferences and such. Today his reaction seemed more, 'It's the French, I'm used to losing early, I guess I shouldn't be shocked.' His press conferences seem to include him being a little bit of a jerk with his initial reaction to a question, but then he gives an insightful and thought-out answer.

One American down, another one about to bite the dust ...

 

I thought I'd see a Vitas Gerulaitus type of career from Roddick. Vitas only won one Grand Slam but he made a few finals, lost in a few epic semifinals and was rarely an easy out. I knew that he wasn't as good as Connors, McEnroe or Borg, but when he played them, he gave them a hell of a fight.

Of course he was like 0-16 against Borg but he would've beaten him the next time they played because no one defeats Vitas Gerulaitus 17 times in a row

There's no financial motivation for Roddick to be great. He has plenty of money, he's a solid second-tier sports celebrity. He's scooped up some nice-looking females. Unless he just wants to win, he's gotten very far just being above average and a decent looking kid.

 

Actually Andy doesn't have the talent. He's a great athlete, NOT a great tennis player. There's a difference.

 

That's an old cop out, he's not an athlete much less proven to be a great one. Babe Didrikson and Jim Thorpe were great athletes. Roddick is a tennis player, an above average one at that. He isn't in the MLB or the NFL or the NBA. It's not like he gave up an MLB contract to choose tennis.

He's a tennis player and he has the physical ability to be a great tennis player but he doesn't care and I truly don't believe losing really bothers him anymore.

 

Actually it's not. Anybody who really knows tennis will tell you that Andy's not a great player, but he is a very good athlete.

Course it's easier to just say a guy doesn't care than admit that Americans aren't the best at something. If Andy didn't care, he wouldn't have hired Jimmy Connors.

 

I don't have to know tennis to see that Andy isn't a great player, I can look at his recent record and his overall record against great players to see that. My point is he has great ability. He didn't reach top of the WTA rankings and win a Grand Slam without great ability.

He could hire Vince Lombardi as his coach, no one is going to help him recover those opportunities he blew in 2004 and 2005. Federer dumped his coach because he was sick of losing. It isn't that Roddick doesn't win or isn't the best, I don't think he's anywhere near as competitive as he was. It's easy to sit in there and say he isn't going to give up, but is he going get better.

When he was just raw talent, he seemed to have a great competitive spirit. He's a much better player now in terms of his overall tools than he was back five years ago when he battled El Anyaoui but the spirit isn't there anymore.

 

I was wondering why tennis seems to be slowly but surely finding its way into the same abyss on the sports radar that boxing is in these days.

It is as simple as there aren't many men's stars that are really interesting and the women's stars all seem to be Russians?

I love watching tennis and I play it a lot, too, but I just can't seem to get into like I used to.