French Open 2014 Review

The French Open 2014 is over and the grass court season is already in swing. But before we all settle down to strawberries and cream, let’s review what went on in Paris.

Shot of the tournament:

Rafael Nadal‘s forehand down the line. Time and time again he went to the Djokovic forehand with his most aggressive shot and it paid off to the tune of his ninth French Open title.

Nadal’s improvement in form after a less than stellar clay season was such that he beat Djokovic for the first time in five finals, and his forehand, which won him 22 points on clean winners alone, was the main reason. Djokovic may have helped by hitting an uncharacteristic number of balls into Nadal’s forehand strike zone, but all credit to Nadal for bringing his biggest weapon to the biggest match of his season and firing it with the accuracy and ferocity that gets you your fifth consecutive Roland Garros title.

Heartbreak of the tournament:

Any non-fans who saw Novak Djokovic‘s reaction to the crowd’s standing ovation as he stood on the podium as runner-up is surely now a signed up member of the Serb’s cheering squad.

Djokovic once again set himself up for a French Open title run with a strong season and came up short. But he went leaps and bounds ahead when it came to endearing himself to the Parisian crowd and can count on their support when he turns up next year to try to become the third man to win Roland Garros since 2005. Their support, as it has done for players such as Graf and Federer, may just give him the edge he needs to complete his career grand slam dream.

Runner-up in the heartbreak stakes was the sight of Roger Federer dropping his set and a break lead in the fourth round before going out 3-6 in the fifth. A great start to the season saw the first half end with the kind of performance we had happily forgotten after seeing too much of  in ’13. At 32, we may not be seeing too much more of Federer, but we hope when we do that it is in far better, and more befitting, circumstances.

Effort of the tournament:

Maria Sharapova won 4 consecutive three set matches on her title run. It did not look like it would be that way as she thrashed her opponent love and love in the third round, but as she came up against Stosur, Muguruza, Bouchard and then Halep, she had to dig deeper than she ever has in a slam to go the furthest of the women in the draw.

Shock of the tournament:

Serena Williams‘ second round 2-6, 2-6 exit to Garbine Muguruza was as big an upset as they come in tennis. Serena is world no.1 and was the defending champion and heavy favorite to take the title. Muguruza was a 20 year old, greatly acclaimed yes,  but considered as the woman who would inflict Serena’s heaviest defeat in a slam, no. She did it though and then went all the way to the quarters where she lost to Sharapova after being two games away from a place in the last four.

Let-downs of the tournament:

Dimitrov, Nishikori and Wawrinka were all anticipated to go deep and challenge the big four, but none could cope with the pressure of being favorites and stumbled in the opening round.

On the women’s side, much was expected from Li Na, the 2011 champion and this year’s Australian Open winner. If anyone was going to be in great form in the final to meet Serena, it was her, the number two seed, and a woman who in her 2 runner up slam placings has always managed to win a set. But she went down tamely and lacklustrely in the second round and all the confidence she seemed to have gained from her win in Melbourne seemed to have disappeared in a baffling and disappointing manner.

Job well done-players who kept up to their promise.

Milos Raonic made the quarters with the kind of consistency which suggests he has no problems being one of the next-big-things in a tournament where the next-big-things mostly went out early and damply in the rain.

Eugenie Bouchard made her second consecutive slam semi and pushed Sharapova all the way to 2-2 in the third before she was overwhelmed by her opponent. Bouchard outdid her seeding and anyone’s expectations and looks set to be both a media darling and one of the tennis elite.

Nice to see you, to see you nice- players who surprised us with how far they went and who we hope to see again.

Garbine Muguruza: Anyone who can thump Serena Williams 2 and 2 in the second round of a slam is going places and with her brand of fearless, now-or-never ball striking we cannot wait to see where this 20 year goes.

Ernests Gulbis had beaten Federer before on clay, but never in a major and never in such dramatic circumstances as he did at this year’s French Open.

In their fourth round encounter, Federer took the first set on a breaker and then served for the second before experiencing something of a collapse. Gulbis grabbed the second set, and the third, Federer took the fourth and we were in for a fifth.

Many thought Gulbis would do what he has so often done throughout his career- flatter to deceive and disappear in the fifth- but it was Federer who went away, in a performance similar to his 2009 Australian Open final loss to Nadal. His serve and his strokes failed him and Gulbis had enough experience and the weapons to successfully take advantage and grab the fifth 6-3.

Federer did not play well, but Gulbis held his game together, put together some beautiful sequences of shotmaking and lived up, somewhat, to the promise he displayed in 2008 when he made his previous last eight of a slam appearance, also in Paris.

Gulbis followed up his Federer win with a straight sets thrashing of Berdych, before going down to Djokovic in a nervy, errror-strewn semi. Afterwards, Gulbis claimed the nerves of being on such a big stage got the better of him, and he felt sure he would do better in future latter stages of slams. We hope he can finally live up to his talk as that forehand and x-factor he possesses is a great sight at the business end of the game’s biggest events.

Simona Halep has been working her way up the WTA rankings, climbing to no. 4 in the world, and taking 6 titles in 2013. But despite her high status, Halep had not had any big results at the slams. A run to the Madrid final where she led Sharapova by a set suggested it might not be too long before she got her name in the record books and she made good on her promise as she made the final of the French, not dropping a set on the way.

In the final, Halep’s footwork, angles, changing of direction and sublime talent saw her take Sharapova to 4-4 in the third before the Russian’s greater experience saw her thump a run of winners that took her to the title.

Halep was rightly proud of her performance in her first slam final and of her new ranking of world no.3. With her game and her innate mental toughness, we look forward to seeing her go for broke in many slam finals to come and take some serious prizes along the way.