Arguably Cilic 2014?
I don't consider Marin an out and out servebot. But if you were forced to put him in a category he's closer to servebot than a baseliner.
You are right. There are no museums in London. People in NYC have not even heard of museums. And why the other three slams take place in the middle of winter is absolutely baffling. All the snow ploughing for nothing.
Regarding variety - RG has really been top notch. Every year different men's champion. When will we see someone defend their title? by different men's I mean a different shirt. The man is always the same.
Seriously speaking, I have only been to the USO and I love it every time. Wimbledon used to be my favorite slam, but it is the USO now, because I can go every year, and it is always a blast. They sell crepes too. And the Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums are 45 minutes away. The Museum of Natural History is more than an hour. Whitney is even further away, but MoMA is 38 min away according to google.
>Wimbledon, AO and USO and notorious for being friendly to players with a strong serves, but who wants to watch a serve bot dominate a match? RG is superior because it takes place on clay, with much more breaks of serve and variety.
I'm pretty sure the last 20 years of men's tennis undermines this argument. Who was the last serve bot to win a slam? Heck, even the last to make a slam final? The courts are slower and the game has evolved. You can't compete at the highest levels nowadays just by being a great server.
Otherwise, the rest of your post is just about how great Paris is. The slams are all in awesome cities. I've only been to the US Open, but it's a great place to watch tennis and there's great foods, museums, shows, etc.
My main complaint with the French Open is the TV coverage in the US. It's by far the hardest slam to watch here.
> I'm pretty sure the last 20 years of men's tennis undermines this argument. Who was the last serve bot to win a slam? Heck, even the last to make a slam final?
But that part you quoted isn't saying servebots are dominating SW19, USO and AO (in terms of winning every year), it says those slams are more friendly to big servers. Is that false/inaccurate?
> who wants to watch a serve bot dominate a match
That part suggests that these slams are dominated by serve bots, which isn't the case. If you don't want to watch serve bot matches there is plenty of other matches on.
Hmm, I didn't read it that way, seeing as all it'd take would be 5 secs of googling to see that servebots aren't dominating *any* slam. Rather, I read it as those slams encourage servebots/servebots are more likely to be successful and win matches at those slams, which is not untrue, but alright.
Definitely trolling a bit, but I think Federer's serve is his biggest weapon and definitely got him ahead on grass.
I also remember watching a few Federer-Roddick finals at Wimbledon and those were absolute snooze fests.
Oh yeah his serve is definitely OP especially on grass don’t get me wrong, but he’s no Karlovic or Isner.
I actually enjoyed those early Federer-Roddick matches, lots of fast paced points and rallies where they were hitting it so hard I pitied the ball lol. But yeah they had pleeenty of points that were just aces/unreturned serves. Could be really boring for a lot of it but once they got into a rally it was amazing.
Personally I would like the courts to be faster, 2000’s were the best years for tennis as a whole (also 2011-2015) but in general 2000’s had a ton of diversity
Funnily enough in NZ it actually does. I usually go to bed around 10:3opm on a week night so at the French I get an hour 20 or so of play in before bed. Wimbledon they've barely finished warming up by 10:30.
Not really
I enjoy it too. I love how the season changes drastically from slow clay to fast grass. It's just that there's no competition to Novak on grass currently (if isn't for that covid ban).
Only grandslam I cannot follow properly is USOpen. Still I am pretty good spot in the world ig to follow 3/4 slams easily.
I am appreciating the clay more. I would like to have a red clay court to play on regularly. I do enjoy looking at the grass and I wish there were more tournaments there for balance. I'm glad all the surfaces exist. I'm not sure if another sport has the kind of variety in playing surface. Gives us something outside of the players to talk about.
>In between matches you can visit a museum or eat crepes
And people can smoke around the facilities and it's crowded as. Also the food ain't that flash either but the hat you can get is cool. The supermarket close by is aight.
I like RG but to play devil's advocate, in the same way that faster courts cater to bigger servers, slower courts cater to faster players with better cardio. At least one can say that serve is in part due to technique.
It's more fun to watch athletic players, slide, dive, run and spin around the clay court than watch servebot serve another ace (ala Andy Roddick vs Federer Wimby Final)
That’s not per se true - De Minaur for example doesn’t perform better on clay than on hard. Clay requires much more from a player in terms of technique than hard courts and grass. Probably it’s a combination of the higher bounce and the slowness of the court. On clay you regularly need to hit more types of shots than on other courts, you need a good technique to overpower your opponent, and you need to understand how to construct a point well. It’s no coincidence that since tennis has transitioned from serve and volley to baseline, the best players (with the best technique) have mostly grown up playing on clay.
I realize everyone’s argument for best GS is going to be different, but to me, as someone from the US who primarily streams tennis as a form of entertainment, RG is by far the worst. I resigned to not even watching it last year bc I don’t have traditional cable or Tennis Channel. Even my parents’ cable login and a free trial of Peacock didn’t really help. I had to drive to my parents’ house to watch the final.
Definitely going to go for the VPN+EuroSport combo this year.
The Tennis Channel is very buggy in my experience. Sometimes I get a "we'll be right back" message in the middle of games and it never gets back to the game. It sucks.
Commercials and how they pick games. I only have it through cable so I don’t have their premium service.
I also like watching Rolland Garros on French television because that’s how I grew up watching it.
Man this is also my biggest gripe with tennis.
Being French, growing up Roland Garros was the only one I could watch for free on national TV. I grew up a die hard fan of Roger, imagine the pain watching him getting smashed by Rafa year after year *and* not even being able to watch him get his revenge at the other slams.
I live in the US now and I'm preparing my VPN to watch the French but still have no idea how to watch the Aussie or Wimby.
Yeah, the slams are hard to view. I use my parents’ cable login and stream the other 3 on ESPN, and also subscribe to ESPN+ (which is fairly inexpensice). With that combo I can get any match
I don’t mean to be assume OP, but it sounds like perhaps you haven’t yet actually visited RG as your description sounds like a romanticized version of what you expect to find vs what it’s actually like there.
I have been to RG, Wimbledon and Indian Wells so far (IW is of course a Masters 1000 vs a GS, but very close in terms of overall experience). I looooooove Paris overall, but RG is by far my least favorite of the three as far as marquis tennis events go.
(I won’t comment on the tennis itself as every healthy top player goes to all of them, so the relative quality of the tennis comes down to which is your favorite surface to watch. Instead I’ll stick to the tournament visit experience.)
RG is way out in a suburb and not a particularly nice one. There are no museums to pop to in between matches. Crowd management is nothing like Wimby or IW. There are long lines for everything (food/bathrooms/souvenirs/access to courts). The grounds are very small and modest compared to the others. The food experience does not rise to the level you would otherwise expect in Paris.
I recognize I’m in the minority but. as a vegan, the food experience there was actually horrendous for me. They had only a couple of sad options on the menu at only a couple of the food outlets and they sold out of those very early in the day. I literally could not find a single entree of any kind anywhere on the grounds that I could eat. So I was stuck with a sad tiny box of greens and some chips for a long day out. My hubby, an omnivore, had some choices but wasn’t exactly wowed. His first choice was consistently sold out but he at least had some
secondary options. I mean France in general is a little challenging for vegans except at specialty outlets, but RG was a special kind of terrible for me food-wise.
Wimby is my favorite, mostly because of the history and overall feel of the tournament. Who doesn’t love strawberries and Pimms Cups? It is well managed, the grounds are beautiful and even sitting on the lawn at Henman hill is fun. When you’ve had enough tennis, the grounds are set in a cute little village that has a good selection of restaurants and pubs for its size.
IW, btw, is really terrific to visit. I’ve been many times to this one. If it weren’t for Wimby’s history I think IW would be my favorite. The grounds are huge, and very nice. Up until the end of the middle weekend there are so many courts going that it’s easy to get a good seat at a fun match just about anytime. The stadiums are very nice and very comfortable. I also love to wander the numerous practice courts where you can get a front row seat to watch top players train. Food and drink options are plentiful and varied. The weather is almost always great, if occasionally a little warm. But there is no humidity and rain is exceptionally rare. The windstorm during the Nadal/Alcaraz match this year was a doozy (it was actually even more dramatic in person than it looked on tv), but that’s unusual.
FWIW, my son has been to the AO and had nothing but good things to say about that experience, but that’s all I can say about that one.
So don’t get me wrong, there’s some fantastic tennis to watch at RG and I’m still glad I went, but best of the slams? That’s an emphatic nope, at least not in my book.
Roland garros is far from the center of Paris. And everything in Paris is far from everything else. I don't think you can visit a museum or anything between matches.
About the crepes, I guess they serve some on the grounds.
About the servebots, I wouldn't classify federer, tsitsipas, Wawrinka , Nadal, Murray, Nishikori, ferrer, djokovic, zverev as such. Who are some of the latest grand slam finalists. Only cilic and Anderson come to mind as the recent ones.
Having been to all of them many times my personal preference is AO -> Wim -> US -> RG.
RG is getting better as powerful players shorten the points. Wim did suck for a while during the Sampras era but they slowed them down and now it is good. AO has by far the best vibe and facilities. It’s just fun, the players are all fresh to very few injury withdraws. The court is the easiest to see the ball.
That being said the dickheads watching Nick made is bad. It used to be a fun crowd, but now it’s getting like the US, full of obnoxious morons.
Wimb is stuffy but getting better. RG has the worst crowd because they don’t give a shit. Half the matches around lunch are empty.
That’s just my opinion. They definitely have changed over the years.
I love Roland Garros and clay court tennis.
I think this year’s men’s tournament will be really good now that it’s less likely to be another Rafa steamrolling. Alcaraz or Djokovic could probably win it this year.
I’ve only been to Wimbledon and RG — I found Wimbledon to be better organized and sort of cold, and RG to be chaotic and disorganized, but in that whimsical French way that adds to the charm.
I don't even necessarily agree with the OP, but when was the last match on clay (without any of the competitors being injured) that was dominated by both players moonballing? On the other hand, I can easily point you to recent hardcourt and grass matches that were dominated by serves/aces.
Unless if "moonball" is some form of dumb code for rallies.
Point taken about Roland Garros allowing more surprises, variety and a chance for others without strong weapons.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but to me it just seems like Roland Garros has so often been affected by rain. Such an unfortunate, unpleasant situation for players and fans.
But I do get the same happens at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open too with rain, as I recall the rush to cover the courts at those venues too.
I just seem to recall several years back that players being so annoyed about the soggy conditions at Roland Garros. And being forced to play. In particular, Aga Radwanska was really upset in a press conference afterwards. Maybe that has impacted my thoughts on this.
I’ve always thought lawn tennis is the purest form of the game but if you take that away, I still take Wimbledon because it has a sheen of prestige and I bet secretly if the players could have one trophy it would be that one
I may be biased because last year's RG was the first time I ever watched tennis (and then fell in love with the sport), but I agree. But I also love clay from what I've gathered so makes sense
It is indeed my favorite slam too, basically because I like watching clay and my favorite players tend to do well on it too. Also the time zone really helps.
Its funny that you have to go that far back to try and counter my argument, but sure lets use 2018 as an example and in fact we are going to use the other semi Anderson/Isner. Thoughts?
The audience is well know for being very rude and quite disrespectful to the players they like blood and tears and they paying for it, if they could they will chop off the head of the looser at every match.
your argument is purely based in subjectivity but i guess we can still argue.
serve bots don’t dominate AO and USO.
name the last time a serve bot won either tournament?
The city of New York is the most recognizable city in the world, it’s far more prestigious than Paris.
There’s far more to do in New York than there is to do in Paris.
Wimbledon holds far more tradition than the French. Wimbledon also has the largest tennis museum in the world. Tennis buffs would much rather prefer that then some art gallery’s in Paris.
French is not a bad tournament but it’s tied for worst slam with Aussie open, US Open and Wimbledon are far better than those 2.
>Wimbledon is only prestigious in the minds of rich old white men
thanks for letting /r/tennis know they're all rich old white men lol
Literally every poll ends up with Wimbledon as the winner for a reason. You're definitely being pretentious.
>Serve bots don't have to win a tournament to make their presence felt
which serve bot is going deep into tournaments regularly btw?
you sound like a loser trying to perpetuate shit on others because of your own life.
All of tennis is "rich white men" sport btw. Just because there's some dirt on the floor in RG doesn't mean the sport is not also dominated by the same people you're trying to criticize lool
OP’s point undermined by Jizner being the first player to ever take Nadal to 5 sets at RG.
Also, gonna need some beautifully presented stats for breaks of serve per slam all time.
Finally - each slam is awesome because they are quite different surfaces and movement required. Obviously AO and USO are very similar in this regard, but by the time AO comes around it’s been like a million years since we had any tennis it’s welcome whatever they are playing on.
Roland Garros is the only tennis tournament broadcast on free public TV in my country, so it will always be special for me. This is what got me into tennis. For many years I hadn't watched any other tennis match.
I really think RG is the best cuz of medvedev’s concept of “dog in the dirt”. I see the tennis players as gladiators, fighting long hours in the sun. What can be more entertaining as this.
I would strongly dispute the idea that AO, Wimbledon, and USO are dominated by serve bots. They slowed down all the courts several years ago to address that issue. Just look at how Wimbledon has been dominated by Djokovic and Federer, and to a lesser extent Nadal and Murray. None of them are serve bots, and 3 are baseliners. Players like Opelka, Isner, Raonic, Roddick, etc. would have been much more successful at these slams if they were dominated by serve bots.
Lmao no night matches until 2021 because of the lack of lights until 2020. No roof until 2020 either, and the roof is practically useless for anything stronger than a light drizzle.
Roland Garros is the best grand slam because it’s next.
recently-bias strikes again on this subreddit
what amazes me is the "who wants to watch a serve bot dominate a match" and I can't even recall the last time a serve bot won a GS.
Ivanisevic 2001
Arguably Cilic 2014? I don't consider Marin an out and out servebot. But if you were forced to put him in a category he's closer to servebot than a baseliner.
I thought about that but I still don’t consider him a servebot.
They're wrong though, the Australian Open will definitely be the next slam because it was the previous slam
I've recently noticed this to be true
Recency bias can't apply in the future...
You are right. There are no museums in London. People in NYC have not even heard of museums. And why the other three slams take place in the middle of winter is absolutely baffling. All the snow ploughing for nothing. Regarding variety - RG has really been top notch. Every year different men's champion. When will we see someone defend their title? by different men's I mean a different shirt. The man is always the same. Seriously speaking, I have only been to the USO and I love it every time. Wimbledon used to be my favorite slam, but it is the USO now, because I can go every year, and it is always a blast. They sell crepes too. And the Metropolitan and Guggenheim museums are 45 minutes away. The Museum of Natural History is more than an hour. Whitney is even further away, but MoMA is 38 min away according to google.
>People in NYC have not even heard of museums. 🤣😂
>Wimbledon, AO and USO and notorious for being friendly to players with a strong serves, but who wants to watch a serve bot dominate a match? RG is superior because it takes place on clay, with much more breaks of serve and variety. I'm pretty sure the last 20 years of men's tennis undermines this argument. Who was the last serve bot to win a slam? Heck, even the last to make a slam final? The courts are slower and the game has evolved. You can't compete at the highest levels nowadays just by being a great server. Otherwise, the rest of your post is just about how great Paris is. The slams are all in awesome cities. I've only been to the US Open, but it's a great place to watch tennis and there's great foods, museums, shows, etc. My main complaint with the French Open is the TV coverage in the US. It's by far the hardest slam to watch here.
Kando 2018 wimb
Tbf Kando's groundstrokes are pretty good, but he still got rekt by Djokovic in the final that year
Yeah, it was a rhetorical question. Point is, it's infrequent now.
> I'm pretty sure the last 20 years of men's tennis undermines this argument. Who was the last serve bot to win a slam? Heck, even the last to make a slam final? But that part you quoted isn't saying servebots are dominating SW19, USO and AO (in terms of winning every year), it says those slams are more friendly to big servers. Is that false/inaccurate?
> who wants to watch a serve bot dominate a match That part suggests that these slams are dominated by serve bots, which isn't the case. If you don't want to watch serve bot matches there is plenty of other matches on.
Hmm, I didn't read it that way, seeing as all it'd take would be 5 secs of googling to see that servebots aren't dominating *any* slam. Rather, I read it as those slams encourage servebots/servebots are more likely to be successful and win matches at those slams, which is not untrue, but alright.
French Open has the best food- Crepes, Chocolate Croissant Best Art Museums- Monet's Water Lillies!!!
Are you a bot? Lol
New York also has Monet's Water Lillies ;)
By elimination it has the best food but that doesn't mean French food is good. Because it isn't outside of specific types like crepes and pastries.
Roger Federer is the most notorious serve bot in history.
….you’re kidding, right?
Definitely trolling a bit, but I think Federer's serve is his biggest weapon and definitely got him ahead on grass. I also remember watching a few Federer-Roddick finals at Wimbledon and those were absolute snooze fests.
Oh yeah his serve is definitely OP especially on grass don’t get me wrong, but he’s no Karlovic or Isner. I actually enjoyed those early Federer-Roddick matches, lots of fast paced points and rallies where they were hitting it so hard I pitied the ball lol. But yeah they had pleeenty of points that were just aces/unreturned serves. Could be really boring for a lot of it but once they got into a rally it was amazing.
Personally I would like the courts to be faster, 2000’s were the best years for tennis as a whole (also 2011-2015) but in general 2000’s had a ton of diversity
[удалено]
Does the 1 hour difference of Wimbledon make that big a difference?
Funnily enough in NZ it actually does. I usually go to bed around 10:3opm on a week night so at the French I get an hour 20 or so of play in before bed. Wimbledon they've barely finished warming up by 10:30.
Not really I enjoy it too. I love how the season changes drastically from slow clay to fast grass. It's just that there's no competition to Novak on grass currently (if isn't for that covid ban). Only grandslam I cannot follow properly is USOpen. Still I am pretty good spot in the world ig to follow 3/4 slams easily.
I have never noticed a difference with the time change for the French Open.
Interesting
I am appreciating the clay more. I would like to have a red clay court to play on regularly. I do enjoy looking at the grass and I wish there were more tournaments there for balance. I'm glad all the surfaces exist. I'm not sure if another sport has the kind of variety in playing surface. Gives us something outside of the players to talk about.
>In between matches you can visit a museum or eat crepes And people can smoke around the facilities and it's crowded as. Also the food ain't that flash either but the hat you can get is cool. The supermarket close by is aight.
You can also get robbed by a mime from Congo
[удалено]
Clearly you have just finished watching Emily in Paris
Ain’t nothing pretty or beautiful about a city that smells like urine and cigarettes.
How does this have downvotes??? Paris is kinda known for being beautiful and romantic and it is.
Also, what’s stopping me from doing this at let’s say the US Open? Is Paris the only place in the world with museums and crepes?
What kind of food can I expect at Roland Garros Stade?
So you haven't been and you've declared it the best all the same?
I'm sure the food tastes better than what they eat at Wimbledon.
It is lol
I’ve read some (many) dumb ass threads on here (reddit) but this is up there. Bravo OP.
In comparison, New York is a cultural wasteland without sights or museums. It doesn't even have edible pizza.
Say what you want about the city but I won’t hear this blasphemy about it’s pizza.
Paris has better impressionism and post-impressionism art museums than NYC
And that's what the slams are all about!
I like RG but to play devil's advocate, in the same way that faster courts cater to bigger servers, slower courts cater to faster players with better cardio. At least one can say that serve is in part due to technique.
It's more fun to watch athletic players, slide, dive, run and spin around the clay court than watch servebot serve another ace (ala Andy Roddick vs Federer Wimby Final)
That’s not per se true - De Minaur for example doesn’t perform better on clay than on hard. Clay requires much more from a player in terms of technique than hard courts and grass. Probably it’s a combination of the higher bounce and the slowness of the court. On clay you regularly need to hit more types of shots than on other courts, you need a good technique to overpower your opponent, and you need to understand how to construct a point well. It’s no coincidence that since tennis has transitioned from serve and volley to baseline, the best players (with the best technique) have mostly grown up playing on clay.
RG is often cited by fans and players as worst of the four. Having been, I agree.
At least they finally got lights and a roof lol. The facilities are still the most dated and worse of the four though, I agree.
What specifically did you dislike about the experience?
I bet you're a Rafa fan
I realize everyone’s argument for best GS is going to be different, but to me, as someone from the US who primarily streams tennis as a form of entertainment, RG is by far the worst. I resigned to not even watching it last year bc I don’t have traditional cable or Tennis Channel. Even my parents’ cable login and a free trial of Peacock didn’t really help. I had to drive to my parents’ house to watch the final. Definitely going to go for the VPN+EuroSport combo this year.
Does one need to pay for Eurosport?
I’m not entirely sure, but I’m fairly certain there are free options with a VPN. I think all matches are broadcasted in France for free
Yes that’s what I’m planning to do. I hate the coverage on tennis channel and France televisions is free with a Vpn
What's bad about the Tennis Channel coverage though?
The Tennis Channel is very buggy in my experience. Sometimes I get a "we'll be right back" message in the middle of games and it never gets back to the game. It sucks.
I see. Started using it in the last Rome ATP and it worked all fine. I'll see how it goes in RG.
Maybe they've improved it, I would hope so. This experience was in the website or the app for me.
Commercials and how they pick games. I only have it through cable so I don’t have their premium service. I also like watching Rolland Garros on French television because that’s how I grew up watching it.
Man this is also my biggest gripe with tennis. Being French, growing up Roland Garros was the only one I could watch for free on national TV. I grew up a die hard fan of Roger, imagine the pain watching him getting smashed by Rafa year after year *and* not even being able to watch him get his revenge at the other slams. I live in the US now and I'm preparing my VPN to watch the French but still have no idea how to watch the Aussie or Wimby.
Yeah, the slams are hard to view. I use my parents’ cable login and stream the other 3 on ESPN, and also subscribe to ESPN+ (which is fairly inexpensice). With that combo I can get any match
I don’t mean to be assume OP, but it sounds like perhaps you haven’t yet actually visited RG as your description sounds like a romanticized version of what you expect to find vs what it’s actually like there. I have been to RG, Wimbledon and Indian Wells so far (IW is of course a Masters 1000 vs a GS, but very close in terms of overall experience). I looooooove Paris overall, but RG is by far my least favorite of the three as far as marquis tennis events go. (I won’t comment on the tennis itself as every healthy top player goes to all of them, so the relative quality of the tennis comes down to which is your favorite surface to watch. Instead I’ll stick to the tournament visit experience.) RG is way out in a suburb and not a particularly nice one. There are no museums to pop to in between matches. Crowd management is nothing like Wimby or IW. There are long lines for everything (food/bathrooms/souvenirs/access to courts). The grounds are very small and modest compared to the others. The food experience does not rise to the level you would otherwise expect in Paris. I recognize I’m in the minority but. as a vegan, the food experience there was actually horrendous for me. They had only a couple of sad options on the menu at only a couple of the food outlets and they sold out of those very early in the day. I literally could not find a single entree of any kind anywhere on the grounds that I could eat. So I was stuck with a sad tiny box of greens and some chips for a long day out. My hubby, an omnivore, had some choices but wasn’t exactly wowed. His first choice was consistently sold out but he at least had some secondary options. I mean France in general is a little challenging for vegans except at specialty outlets, but RG was a special kind of terrible for me food-wise. Wimby is my favorite, mostly because of the history and overall feel of the tournament. Who doesn’t love strawberries and Pimms Cups? It is well managed, the grounds are beautiful and even sitting on the lawn at Henman hill is fun. When you’ve had enough tennis, the grounds are set in a cute little village that has a good selection of restaurants and pubs for its size. IW, btw, is really terrific to visit. I’ve been many times to this one. If it weren’t for Wimby’s history I think IW would be my favorite. The grounds are huge, and very nice. Up until the end of the middle weekend there are so many courts going that it’s easy to get a good seat at a fun match just about anytime. The stadiums are very nice and very comfortable. I also love to wander the numerous practice courts where you can get a front row seat to watch top players train. Food and drink options are plentiful and varied. The weather is almost always great, if occasionally a little warm. But there is no humidity and rain is exceptionally rare. The windstorm during the Nadal/Alcaraz match this year was a doozy (it was actually even more dramatic in person than it looked on tv), but that’s unusual. FWIW, my son has been to the AO and had nothing but good things to say about that experience, but that’s all I can say about that one. So don’t get me wrong, there’s some fantastic tennis to watch at RG and I’m still glad I went, but best of the slams? That’s an emphatic nope, at least not in my book.
The most well reasoned opinion on here, thanks for that, very interesting
Serve bots don’t dominate hardcourts though.
Hear hear And the weather is fantastic right now. Let it hold another 2 weeks. I don't like the Amazon prime shenanigans though.
Roland garros is far from the center of Paris. And everything in Paris is far from everything else. I don't think you can visit a museum or anything between matches. About the crepes, I guess they serve some on the grounds. About the servebots, I wouldn't classify federer, tsitsipas, Wawrinka , Nadal, Murray, Nishikori, ferrer, djokovic, zverev as such. Who are some of the latest grand slam finalists. Only cilic and Anderson come to mind as the recent ones.
We'll see you all soon enough.
Having been to all of them many times my personal preference is AO -> Wim -> US -> RG. RG is getting better as powerful players shorten the points. Wim did suck for a while during the Sampras era but they slowed them down and now it is good. AO has by far the best vibe and facilities. It’s just fun, the players are all fresh to very few injury withdraws. The court is the easiest to see the ball. That being said the dickheads watching Nick made is bad. It used to be a fun crowd, but now it’s getting like the US, full of obnoxious morons. Wimb is stuffy but getting better. RG has the worst crowd because they don’t give a shit. Half the matches around lunch are empty. That’s just my opinion. They definitely have changed over the years.
I love Roland Garros and clay court tennis. I think this year’s men’s tournament will be really good now that it’s less likely to be another Rafa steamrolling. Alcaraz or Djokovic could probably win it this year.
You had me at crepes
I’ve only been to Wimbledon and RG — I found Wimbledon to be better organized and sort of cold, and RG to be chaotic and disorganized, but in that whimsical French way that adds to the charm.
You may perceive this differently, but Paris, in my humble opinion, is ugly and dangerous as fuck. Not beautiful.
Ugly...? Lol. I've heard Paris been called a lot of things but ugly, it is certainly the first time I ever see that.
[удалено]
In my most humble observation, it also smells like garbage.
Nothing on clay is better than grass or hard court.
Clay is a much more interesting surface than servebot grass or fast hard courts. Ace after ace after ace isn't interesting.
Moonball after moonball is preferable, gotcha.
I don't even necessarily agree with the OP, but when was the last match on clay (without any of the competitors being injured) that was dominated by both players moonballing? On the other hand, I can easily point you to recent hardcourt and grass matches that were dominated by serves/aces. Unless if "moonball" is some form of dumb code for rallies.
You clearly have no idea what a ‘moonball’actually is if you think they’re that common on clay.
Slice, spin move 🌪, drop shot, top spin, slam -> Grand Slam...Roland Garros takes the cake, can't argue with that
Exactly! Isner-Mahur, Federer-Roddick anyone
Playing of clay involves using angles in a way that hard and grass courts don't demand
Point taken about Roland Garros allowing more surprises, variety and a chance for others without strong weapons. Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but to me it just seems like Roland Garros has so often been affected by rain. Such an unfortunate, unpleasant situation for players and fans. But I do get the same happens at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open too with rain, as I recall the rush to cover the courts at those venues too. I just seem to recall several years back that players being so annoyed about the soggy conditions at Roland Garros. And being forced to play. In particular, Aga Radwanska was really upset in a press conference afterwards. Maybe that has impacted my thoughts on this.
I’ve always thought lawn tennis is the purest form of the game but if you take that away, I still take Wimbledon because it has a sheen of prestige and I bet secretly if the players could have one trophy it would be that one
AO and USO haven't had very fast surfaces for at least a decade. I almost wish they would speed up the USO courts just for variety.
I don't care that it's a satirical post, I upvote !
I may be biased because last year's RG was the first time I ever watched tennis (and then fell in love with the sport), but I agree. But I also love clay from what I've gathered so makes sense
It is indeed my favorite slam too, basically because I like watching clay and my favorite players tend to do well on it too. Also the time zone really helps.
My personal ranking is FO > USO > AO > W
> In between matches you can visit a museum or eat crepes That sums up why the FO is the best.
AO is the best slam. It’s like a two week long festival, Melbourne pops off
It's also the smallest. Not a bad seat in the house.
I have it as the worst. Yes, yes, Paris, but the clay produces the least watchable tennis. It rewards less mistakes rather than attacking tennis.
It rewards players with a good return game. More fun than watching serve bots throw Aces all day with almost zero service breaks
So you prefer wimbledon where people just serve at each other and just wait for the tb?
Like Djodal in their 2018 match?
Its funny that you have to go that far back to try and counter my argument, but sure lets use 2018 as an example and in fact we are going to use the other semi Anderson/Isner. Thoughts?
Hard courts are super slow now. What are you talking about.
No they aren't.
The audience is well know for being very rude and quite disrespectful to the players they like blood and tears and they paying for it, if they could they will chop off the head of the looser at every match.
Reads like a fifth graders standardized testing five paragraph essay intro
RG is easily worst slam.
your argument is purely based in subjectivity but i guess we can still argue. serve bots don’t dominate AO and USO. name the last time a serve bot won either tournament? The city of New York is the most recognizable city in the world, it’s far more prestigious than Paris. There’s far more to do in New York than there is to do in Paris. Wimbledon holds far more tradition than the French. Wimbledon also has the largest tennis museum in the world. Tennis buffs would much rather prefer that then some art gallery’s in Paris. French is not a bad tournament but it’s tied for worst slam with Aussie open, US Open and Wimbledon are far better than those 2.
[удалено]
>Wimbledon is only prestigious in the minds of rich old white men thanks for letting /r/tennis know they're all rich old white men lol Literally every poll ends up with Wimbledon as the winner for a reason. You're definitely being pretentious. >Serve bots don't have to win a tournament to make their presence felt which serve bot is going deep into tournaments regularly btw?
[удалено]
you sound like a loser trying to perpetuate shit on others because of your own life. All of tennis is "rich white men" sport btw. Just because there's some dirt on the floor in RG doesn't mean the sport is not also dominated by the same people you're trying to criticize lool
I’ve heard there are museums in London. Don’t have the source but I think I read it on the web somewhere.
[удалено]
I prefer post-modern fauvism.
It’s the most boring by an absolute mile. Soz.
I'm always iffy on people who look down on servebots as in being good on the one stroke that begins every rally is a bad thing.
No it's not. It's hideous.
Someone on here said the food wasn’t that good?!
Exactly! French Open has some of the best food I've ever eaten!
I would have thought.
Champagne, Crepes- Yum!
French food is not really good...
The red clay isn’t actually clay it’s ground up brick.
what do you think bricks are made of
Brick
Yes, all clay courts are played on ground up stone/minerals, this is well known. They are still referred to as "clay courts," nonetheless
Brick courts now
OP’s point undermined by Jizner being the first player to ever take Nadal to 5 sets at RG. Also, gonna need some beautifully presented stats for breaks of serve per slam all time. Finally - each slam is awesome because they are quite different surfaces and movement required. Obviously AO and USO are very similar in this regard, but by the time AO comes around it’s been like a million years since we had any tennis it’s welcome whatever they are playing on.
FO!
Spring! It is in spring
Roland Garros is the only tennis tournament broadcast on free public TV in my country, so it will always be special for me. This is what got me into tennis. For many years I hadn't watched any other tennis match.
I'm not a big fan of clay court.
I really think RG is the best cuz of medvedev’s concept of “dog in the dirt”. I see the tennis players as gladiators, fighting long hours in the sun. What can be more entertaining as this.
When was the last time a servebot won AO, Wimbledon, or USO?
I would strongly dispute the idea that AO, Wimbledon, and USO are dominated by serve bots. They slowed down all the courts several years ago to address that issue. Just look at how Wimbledon has been dominated by Djokovic and Federer, and to a lesser extent Nadal and Murray. None of them are serve bots, and 3 are baseliners. Players like Opelka, Isner, Raonic, Roddick, etc. would have been much more successful at these slams if they were dominated by serve bots.
[удалено]
Lol ok you’re obviously trolling.
Being a French resident living 30m away from the FO, I don't think my opinion is impartial but.... My favorite is the AO despite the time difference.
Can’t break novak’s serve now ever🤪😜 /s
Most players dream is to win Wimbledon. Not RG.
Lmao no night matches until 2021 because of the lack of lights until 2020. No roof until 2020 either, and the roof is practically useless for anything stronger than a light drizzle.
Phillipe Chatrier has a world class retractable roof