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Is it time to rename the French Open

Hs0022

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To Rafa Nadal open?
 

Old Lion

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I doubt anyone cares about the French open. Its the one major where average players can win their only major. Someone should do a study of 1 time major winners and see where most of those were won.
 

Hs0022

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I doubt anyone cares about the French open. Its the one major where average players can win their only major. Someone should do a study of 1 time major winners and see where most of those were won.
The interest level would slump by more than 50% if it was renamed to Rafa Nadal open. I mean we would lose all the Fed fans which account for more than 50%.

Other ways to discourage true tennis fans would be to name it “Moonball Palooza open”, and “ Red Diablo Snoozefest championship”, and “Dirtball Zzzz tournament”. I hear they are now putting a roof meaning climate control so the spectators can better catch their Zzzs.
 

Old Lion

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I think the roof will help a bit. Hopefully they do more than just PCS. 2 roofs will move things along better.
 

nuraman00

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I doubt anyone cares about the French open. Its the one major where average players can win their only major. Someone should do a study of 1 time major winners and see where most of those were won.


I like the French Open. It requires physical ability, and also allows players to show off a variety of skills.

Example of 1 time major winners at other majors, who were "average", are Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro.

Roddick's ground strokes were average. Remember when he lost to Yen Hsun Lu at Wimbledon, because he couldn't return a Lu's serve?

That's grass for you. Making 82nd ranked players look like they have unhittable serves.

You should complain about how below average players like Mahut and Lu can turn into serving gods for a match, when players can't return their serves.

Del Potro's health is below average.
 
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nuraman00

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I think the roof will help a bit. Hopefully they do more than just PCS. 2 roofs will move things along better.

What does PCS stand for?

Ok, Philippe Chatrier Stadium?
 

nuraman00

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I doubt anyone cares about the French open.

@Altra likes it. He was formerly known as Sanctus.

Just announced.

Cover roofs, better facilities, and upgrades to the locker rooms.

Great news for Paris and the French Open. I will always love the FO the most and it's great to see them doing what's needed to keep this the most unique tennis tournament in Tennis.

The new stadium project
 

nuraman00

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There's other days prior to the Finals where there's a lot of good matches.

For example, that Isner vs. Del Potro match was good.

Swartzman was also in some good matches.

The QFs and SFs are sometimes good too.
 

Old Lion

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I like the French Open. It requires physical ability, and also allows players to show off a variety of skills.

Example of 1 time major winners at other majors, who were "average", are Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro.

Roddick's ground strokes were average. Remember when he lost to Yen Hsun Lu at Wimbledon, because he couldn't return a Lu's serve?

That's grass for you. Making 82nd ranked players look like they have unhittable serves.

You should complain about how below average players like Mahut and Lu can turn into serving gods for a match, when players can't return their serves.

Del Potro's health is below average.

Grass is not much better. It is just furry clay. Delpo will win another major. None of the rest of your post has merit as upsets will happen on any surface but the non hardcourts can have Champions that casual tennis fans have never heard of.
 

Vegas

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I like the French Open. It requires physical ability, and also allows players to show off a variety of skills.

Example of 1 time major winners at other majors, who were "average", are Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro.

Roddick's ground strokes were average. Remember when he lost to Yen Hsun Lu at Wimbledon, because he couldn't return a Lu's serve?

That's grass for you. Making 82nd ranked players look like they have unhittable serves.

You should complain about how below average players like Mahut and Lu can turn into serving gods for a match, when players can't return their serves.

Del Potro's health is below average.

Andy Roddick wasn't average. He was among the top players in the world for several years. If not for playing at the same time as Roger Federer, he'd have won multiple majors.
 

nuraman00

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List of one-time major winners in the Open Era:

Australian Open:

Mark Edmonson
Roscoe Tanner
Vitas Gerulaitis
Brian Teacher
Petr Korda
Thomas Johannson

French Open:

Andres Gimeno
Adrianno Pannatta
Yannick Noah
Michael Chang
Andres Gomez
Carlos Moya
Alberto Costa
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Gaston Gaudio

Wimbledon:

Pat Cash
Michael Stich
Richard Krajicek
Goran Ivanisevic

US Open:

Manuel Orantes
Andy Roddick
Juan Martin Del Potro
Marin Cilic
 

nuraman00

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Andy Roddick wasn't average. He was among the top players in the world for several years. If not for playing at the same time as Roger Federer, he'd have won multiple majors.

Prior to 2009 Wimbledon, he didn't have as many skills outside of his serve.

When he beat Murray in the SFs, he showed more variety.

And then he set himself back by losing to Yen Hsun Lu the next year.

He also lost in the first round to Giles Muller at the 2005 USO.

He had some great tournament runs, but other early exits to unremarkable players.

Even if he would have had more majors, he still didn't have the consistency or across the board skill.
 

tducey

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Seems to be the weakest of the 4 tennis majors, sort of like the PGA Championship in golf. Still Nadal has had a good run there for sure.
 

nuraman00

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I think looking at which tournament has the most or least one-time major winners isn't a good way to evaluate things, because there's still a lot of variance between the players themselves.

Some players made the SFs or better at all 4 majors, and have done it several times.

Other players topped out at the 4th round or better at a major, and were only good at maybe 2 of the majors.

They shouldn't all be lumped together in the same group, even if all have won a major one time.

There are still other career accomplishments some of those players have with how consistent they were, at majors.

You can find some very good players for each of those majors that have a one-time winner, and you can find some players who had a great tournament, but were unable to sustain that success prior to or afterwards.
 

nuraman00

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Seems to be the weakest of the 4 tennis majors, sort of like the PGA Championship in golf. Still Nadal has had a good run there for sure.

Nadal has also won the USO 3x and made the Finals 4x.

He's also played in 4 AO Finals.

He's been consistent at every major.
 

nuraman00

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I think a better way to look at things, would be too look at players that have made the SFs or better at all 4 majors, or QFs or better at all 4 majors, and how many times they did it at each.

I think that is a better way to evaluate a player's place in history, rather than which major a player won.

Why overlook players that played in majors, but might not have won?

There's a lot of good players that played well at every major, maybe even made a few SFs or Finals.

Look at Thiem, for example. The FO might be his best major so far, but he's made the 4th round or better at every major, multiple times, at the age of 24. He's on a consistent track.

And the look at Michael Stich. He might have won a major, but he has a ton of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round losses at every major. Why is his career defined by what major he won, rather than all of the early losses he had at other majors?
 

nuraman00

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Grass is not much better. It is just furry clay.

Fair enough.

Delpo will win another major.

His health is below average. He's like Tommy Haas to me. Great skills, but can't stay healthy.

None of the rest of your post has merit as upsets will happen on any surface but the non hardcourts can have Champions that casual tennis fans have never heard of.

I said this in a later post, but why look at which major a player won, and define him by that? Why not look at his body of work and how many times he made deep runs, and whether he was consistent at other majors?

Isn't that the a more complete way to evaluate a player?

There are some major champions that were consistent at most majors, and made many deep runs.

There are some major champions that had one good tournament, but a lot of early losses too. See Kuznetsova on the Womens side, for example. She might have won 2 majors and made 1 more Finals, but a lot of early losses.

There are some players that might not ever have won a major, but would almost always make the QF, SF, and/or a Finals or two. Those players, to me, are better than the players that might have won a major, but also had a ton of early losses too.

And lastly, there are players that had a fair number of early losses, and once in a while could make the QFs or SFs of a major.
 

Vegas

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Prior to 2009 Wimbledon, he didn't have as many skills outside of his serve.

When he beat Murray in the SFs, he showed more variety.

And then he set himself back by losing to Yen Hsun Lu the next year.

He also lost in the first round to Giles Muller at the 2005 USO.

He had some great tournament runs, but other early exits to unremarkable players.

Even if he would have had more majors, he still didn't have the consistency or across the board skill.

He lost 4 major finals to Federer, which is hardly something to be ashamed of and is hardly the mark of an average player. He also won 5 master's events. Again not the sign of an average player.

How many players would trade their career for Roddick's career? The vast majority would.
 

Hs0022

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I think the roof will help a bit. Hopefully they do more than just PCS. 2 roofs will move things along better.
You know why I think they hesitated so long before putting a roof at the FO? They were scratching their heads at “ what if one of the moon-balls hit the roof?”
 

nuraman00

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He lost 4 major finals to Federer, which is hardly something to be ashamed of and is hardly the mark of an average player. He also won 5 master's events. Again not the sign of an average player.

How many players would trade their career for Roddick's career? The vast majority would.


My comments are more about his skills. He didn't have as many other skills, outside of his serve. That's what I meant, that his skills outside of his serve were average.

And even if he would have won those Finals, he still had a lot of losses to players ranked much worse than him, in early rounds. More examples include Janko Tipasevic (2x at majors), Nicholas Mahut, Igor Andreev. I'll give him a pass on the Mahut loss, it was during his last year playing.

To me, it's not as simple as only looking at the Finals, when he stopped himself from having a good run by losing to players ranked worse.

Federer didn't stop him at the 2005 USO, it was Muller.

That was disappointing, because American Express had a series of online Flash ads. During the first week, their ad campaign banners said "Have you seen Andy's Mojo"?

Then during the 2nd week, the ads said "I found Andy's Mojo!"

Unfortunately, those pre-planned ads during the 2nd week were frustrating and silly, because he was no longer in the tournament. I wanted to block those ads for reminding me of his exit.

So that's why I say he stopped himself several other times.

His Masters accomplishments are good.

I'm not just looking at his majors won or Finals appearances, I'm looking at all of his majors appearances. I don't just look at a player's wins.

I think his Australian Open record is what I like. He didn't have any of those losses to players much worse than him, that I've referenced. He made a good consistent run every year.
 
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