Tennis: Roland-Garros And Shades Of Past Glory …

• May 30th, 2010
• Posted by EUEditor

This year’s French Open Tennis is providing another reminder that while the classic tournaments remain  — Australian Open, America, Wimbledon – the founding players, though far from gone, have had to make way for all comers.  

GLORY DAYS

The Australians and their French hosts, ever well represented but very far from dominant now, re-tell the story at times like this, of the glory days before the great success of world tennis, drawing in its new stars from throughout Europe East-and-West, and the Americas.

The early decades of the sport produced a roll-call of “Greats” persisting into the 1950s and 1960s, viz Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall (picture).

THIS WEEKEND IN PARIS

This weekend Lleyton Hewitt was credited with “typically stiff resistance” in reports of his clash (29.5.10) with Rafael Nadal, the Spanish player winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, to eliminate the last of the Australian men from this year’s competition.

WOMEN’S SUCCESS

Not so with the Women’s at Paris, the official bulletin of the competition featuring the success of the Australians entering the leadership pack:

“Two Australian women waltzed into the fourth round of the French Open on Saturday – young wildcard Jarmila Groth (first picture) and seventh seed Samantha Stosur (pictured)”, it said.

“Stosur made short work of the Russian qualifier Anastasia Pivovarova 6-3, 6-2, booking her place in the round of 16 in 62 minutes, while Groth won the battle of ‘Down Under’, ousting compatriot Anastasia Rodionova in three long sets 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to advance to her first ever Grand Slam fourth round…”

PARIS HOSTS  – “IT’S LIKE A DESERT”

As for France, media observers have been bemoaning, for another year, the great retreat, with the elimination of all but one key player, on home turf.

“The hard-packed earth (of the clay courts) this year is again like a desert for the French”, lamented the sports-mad Le Monde. (La terre battue ressemble cette année encore à un désert pour les Français).

It had just reported the elimination of France’s female contenders, leaving one man standing, the number one national player, the outstanding Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The tournament at Roland-Garros which started a week ago, runs to 6.6.10.

Reference

Le Monde, Paris,  “Plus de Françaises à Roland-Garros”, (No French women contenders left at Roland-Garros), 29.5.10. http://tennis.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/05/29/le-marronnier-du-desert-francais/#xtor=RSS-32280322, (30.5.10).

ABC News, Sydney, “Hewitt bows to king of clay again”, 30.5.10. www.abc.net.au, (30.5.10).

Nyree Epplett, “Aussie women Stosur and Groth storm into final 16”, 29.5.10, Roland-Garros 2010, tennis, home. http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html, (30.5.10).

Jarmila Groth, home.http://www.jarmilagroth.com/, (30.5.10).

Samantha Stosur, home. http://samstosur.com/, (30.5.10).

Pictures

Roland-Garros logo; hoad-rosewall, wikiipilipinas.org; roland-garros stadium, like-sarch.info; jarmilagroth.com; samstosur.com

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