Wimbledon Tennis 2007: Magnifique! [R]

[Douai]

http://carnetsdevoyage.blogs-de-voyage.fr/images/medium_france16.jpg
Today, two French tennis players got stunning results in the 2007 Wimbledon Championships. First, Marion Bartoli, upsetted the first seeded female single player, Justine Henin (Belgique), in three sets (1-6,7-5,6-1). She will take on Venus Williams in the final. Bartoli, is from Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne. Then, Richard Gasquet (seeded 12th) beat Andy Roddick (3rd seed) in five sets (4-6,4-6,7-6,7-6,8-6). He advances to the semi-finals against world ranked #1, Roger Federer.

[Nanbawan]

Incroyable !!

I left Richard in the tie-break of the third set and decided not to watch with my proverbial 'scoumoune' (which does not affect football results strangely...) !

Another safe move ! :D ;)

And bravo Marion ! Well, I noticed she did gain some weight but obviously it's the useful kind of weight !

We can thank the French armada collectively. Nicely done people ! http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Gotham PSG]

I started watching Gasquet and he was down 4-2 on the third set, and I was just waiting for him to lose... and damn he played great and won!
As to Bartoli, I can't believe Henin lost, but it's nice to see that after the disaster at Rolland Garros, and Mauresmo getting back to her old ways, some french players still can get to the top, and with style

[ilv2]

with gasquet it was always a matter of mind rather than talent, and you could see that the nerves only flared up once or twice when he got rolling. ~90 winners to ~20 errors is incredible.

of course as clever as he is, he's not nearly as cunning as federer - not yet at least.

oh and apparently we can thank pierce brosnan for bartoli's win :rolleyes:

[Douai]

oh and apparently we can thank pierce brosnan for bartoli's win :rolleyes:
lol. Yeah, I heard that Bartoli likes Brosnan.

[Nanbawan]

I think I like her ! :D

OK, her body type is rather of the short and chunky kind but she's quite cute and fresh, especially in interviews. On such occasions, she also proves to be direct, outspoken, smart and well...cute and fresh...

Hopefully, she'll have more success. :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/sport/tennis/video/104000/nb/104785_16x9_nb.asx

[ilv2]

dunno man, she seems like a nice girl but still, she likes pierce brosnan films... :eek:

[Douai]

Hopefully, she'll have more success. :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/sport/tennis/video/104000/nb/104785_16x9_nb.asx

Yeah, hopefully she will.Marion was really disappointed with that loss.

[Nanbawan]

dunno man, she seems like a nice girl but still, she likes pierce brosnan films... :eek:

She said she liked Pierce Brosnan...Huge difference ! ;)

BTW, Sunday in Stade 2, she showed the letter Pierce sent her with the flowers before the finale because he couldn't attend...

♫ Caaaaaaaaan you feel the looooooooove tonight ! ♫♬

:D

[ilv2]

nono! ;)

MARION BARTOLI: Well, to tell you the truth, as I said on BBC a few minutes ago, I saw Pierce Brosnan in the crowd, which is one of my favorite actor. I love his movies.
wimbledon.org

man, brosnan, way to go the way of sean connery.

arnaud clément and michaël llodra won the men's doubles final in a huge upset over the bryan brothers. missed the end of that one, but apparently they threw all their racquets and clothing into the crowd after winning and had to borrow their entourage's clothes for the trophy presentation. classic.

[guignol]

when you see the work the FFT does (R-G is more than just a tournament, it's the clairefontaine of tennis) it's not surprising to see this kind of success staring to happen. what's weird is how we're so crap on clay... sumpin' 'bout dat jist ain't RIGHT!

[Douai]

arnaud clément and michaël llodra won the men's doubles final in a huge upset over the bryan brothers.

Wow that is a upset.What were clément and llodra seeded?

[lefutur]

when you see the work the FFT does (R-G is more than just a tournament, it's the clairefontaine of tennis) it's not surprising to see this kind of success staring to happen. what's weird is how we're so crap on clay... sumpin' 'bout dat jist ain't RIGHT!

well alot of successful players, including many american ones like andre agassi, jim courier, pete sampras and the williams sisters were alumni of the nick bollettieri tennis academy in florida.

if the fft can reproduce some of these results in france than that would be a very good thing.

[Nanbawan]

nono! ;)

OK, OK, I concede ! Yet, she did not say that in the BBC interview !

I forgive you Marion...

apparently they threw all their racquets and clothing into the crowd after winning and had to borrow their entourage's clothes for the trophy presentation. classic.


Llodra is the Michael Youn of tennis ! Always 'les fesses à l'air' !

It was a startling effort against the American pair, who have dominated the tour over the past couple of years, but it might have been even more startling given Llodra's propensity for exhibitionism.

In the US he once shut himself naked in a 4ft-high locker, in Spain he once disrobed after winning a title, and after he and Fabrice Santoro won the Australian Open they stripped down to some very brief underpants.

Here they restricted themselves to throwing shirts into the crowd, Llodra jettisoning so many of them that he had none left with which to receive the trophy from Roger Taylor. He had to borrow one from his brother, Bruno, in the crowd. Llodra also threw away all his rackets - leaving him none, he claimed, with which to compete in the ATP Tour event in Newport this week.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/wimbledon2007/story/0,,2122017,00.html


:eek:

[Nanbawan]

what's weird is how we're so crap on clay... sumpin' 'bout dat jist ain't RIGHT!

French players actually train on 'carpet' rather than on clay. This surface is much closer to grass. Spaniards can play on outdoor clay courts all year long and are therefore specialists of this type of terrain.

Strangely, here in Brittany,there are a lot of clay courts but given the current climate, those that are outdoor are rather useless...A French clay specialist would than likely be a Southerner or an expat.

The other reason is the psychological barrier of playing in Paris in front of a French crowd full of frustrated - and it's not likely to end - expectations. A vicious circle. Frankly, players should play like they don't give a f*** given the fact that they're spanked year after year when they do...I mean, even if they were lackadaisical, the results wouldn't be much worse. Worth giving a try IMO.

[Douai]

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/wimbledon2007/story/0,,2122017,00.html


:eek:

That's interesting. I remember Djokovic saying he would strip if he won Wimbledon this year.

[Nanbawan]

Llodra is very fantasque. It was also him who prayed for the soul of little bird that was killed during a match by one of his shots.

But man, we all dreamed about making this shot one day !

CgicyocZMdI

[ilv2]

ha that's brilliant

Wow that is a upset.What were clément and llodra seeded?

10th

[lefutur]

ha that's brilliant


i think yannick noah was the master of the between the legs shot from the baseline.

[Douai]

Richard Gasquet is now 7th in the world.
http://www.geocities.com/masteroftennis779/gasquet.JPG
http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/rankings/entrysystem/