I confess I have not been rising at 3 am all these mornings of tennis from Paris, that’s when the live tennis begins, 11 am in France. But today, I woke up at 5 am, set to watch the women’s semifinals, and they didn’t even start until 6 am.
First up, Maria Sharapova and Li Na on a very windy but sunny afternoon. With an exceedingly high ball toss, Maria had her hands full. Full of difficulty. Where earlier in the tournament, and in Rome, where she won the title, her serve was working well, today the windy conditions played havoc with it. And it made the critical difference. Her first serve percentage was only 45% and that just never gets the job done in this kind of match.
Li Na was in command, with just a few patchy spots where she sprayed her forehand, and she’s a better mover than Maria. Over and over she exposed the limitations of Maria’s footwork. Breaks of serve were exchanged. Li went out in front to begin, then Sharapova broke back to get things back on serve. In the final game of the first set, Maria serving, Li took a 40 – 0 lead, thanks to double faults from her opponent and on the final point, Maria went in for a forehand kill shot, but the ball clipped the tape and bounced out. A pretty unpleasant way to lose the first set, if you were Maria.
The second set was closer but in the end, at 5-5, Li came out to win a love service game. In the final game, Sharapova threw in her ninth double fault of the match, Li generated two match points for herself. Maria gifted her the match by serving one more double fault, losing the second set 7-5. Yet another ignominious end to a set, and in this case, the whole shebang.
Maria will not complete her career Grand Slam, as she had hoped. Li Na will play in the finals on Saturday, her second Grand Slam final, having made it to the Australian Open final earlier this year.
So the second set of semifinalists, Marion Bartoli of France and Francesca Schiavone of Italy, took the court a short while later knowing one of them would play the Chinese woman in the final. But which one would it be?
To my mind, the outcome of this match was easier to read early on, though you still never know. The truth is that Francesca is the better player. Actually the truth is that Francesca is a clay court player and none of the other three semifinalists were or are, including Bartoli who should know how to slide but doesn’t. In addition, Francesca has tremendous variety in her game, off both wings she can and does slice the ball and hit it with topspin. You don’t know which is coming when and you have to be ready for both. Will it jump up high and you’ll hit it back with all your strength from shoulder height? Or will it sidespin low on the court, requiring you to bend your knees to get down to it?
Francesca has a fine, powerful serve, surprising since she is so small herself, and even in the windy conditions, it worked reliably. Bartoli’s game is flat and hard hitting and though Francesca had to run and work hard, you could still see that it was the Italian who was calling the shots and the French woman who was reacting.
The stadium was packed and though the French have taken a long time to warm to Marion, they were fully behind her. Last year, everyone was cheering for Francesca in the final against Sam Stosur, and in earlier matches. But she wasn’t playing a French woman then. Still, nothing deterred Francesca today. (Although there was something that went on with the umpire early in the match and I don’t know if she was noting how long Bartoli was taking between points. Marion did get a warning for time violation once, but the fact is she averaged 35 seconds between points to Francesca’s 26.) She played her game, defended her title and earned herself another chance on Saturday to take home the title for a second year in a row.
I like Li Na, she has a great fun personality, always laughing and joking, but I’ll be on Francesca’s side for this one. It’s such a wonderful story. She’s thirty years old, a veteran, she’s been knocking on the door for a long time. She’s incredibly ripped, works hard. Anyone who has worked long and hard towards a goal can appreciate that when the reward comes, it comes because of all the work. It’s not a fluke, it’s all there in the final moment, every practice session, every match, every everything. So for all spirited men and women who work hard and have a dream, Francesca is an inspiration.
Go win the final, Francesca, hoist the trophy and take home a big fat paycheck. She did that last year and has joked that all her friends expect her to pick up the dinner checks. I’m sure this bighearted girl does it with pleasure. Her Italian friends, many of whom drove from Italy last year at the last minute, are all here this year, seated in a pack with flags and hats and who knows what all.
Two heart grabbing women will take the court on Saturday for the final of the French Open. One will win. Don’t miss it, get up early, tune in to NBC.
And come back to Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot, right through the final days. I’m all in, can’t wait for the exciting men’s semis tomorrow and then both finals on Saturday and Sunday. Still hard to predict, but I’ll call Schiavone now for the women’s side.
Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.
PS – I watched French Open Tonight last night on Tennis Channel and there was Bill Macatee interviewing none other than Guga Kuerten, the Brazilian player I wrote about in a blog post earlier this week. Guga was probably the most loved player of any generation and it’s not hard to see why. You just like him. He’s a little like Francesca that way. You just like her. Guga is a former number one player and he won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001. He retired from the tour in 2008, never fully recovering from hip surgery. These days he’s busy with his foundation in Brazil that helps poor kids, which he was himself, and he says it’s more meaningful to him than all his success and titles in tennis.
