Tennis Pal Chronicles : 10 Highpoints from Roland Garros part 1 + Fan Favorite Reports part 1 of RG19 review
Roland Garros has just ended and we are reviewing 10 highpoints from the French Open. Clay has been very good to Rafael Nadal and we cover how the Bull was able to power through to a historic 12th Roland Garros trophy and total 18 Grand Slams. We go in-depth discussing the match of the tournament between Stan Wawrinka and Stefanos Tsisipas and also the drama of Novak Djokovic vs Dominic Theim. We also hear from our Fan Favorite Reporters covering their player besties Serena Williams Stefanos Tsisipas and Rafael Nadal
Tennis PAL Chronicles is a tennis podcast to feed your passion for the game! We are tennis fans that interview tennis professionals and discuss tips, news, and reviews for your tennis obsession. Our global Fan Favorite reports are created by passionate fans who share news about their favorite players. Host Phillip Kim is the Tennis Pro at the historic Langham Huntington in Pasadena as well as the Director of Tennis for the City of Azusa and an avid player and coach. Visit tennispal.com to download the tennis app everyone is talking about and access the show notes! Send an email to pk@tennispalapp.com for more information. Download from iTunes here Thanks for recommending and listening!
- Rafael Nadal has the most men’s singles wins with 12. 2019 – Nadal becomes the first male to win 12 singles titles at the same major in the Open era.
- “He stepped on me,” said Thiem. “I’ve come from heaven [beating No.1 seed Novak Djokovic in the semi-final] to hell. You have to beat seven good players at this tournament, and one or two legends. That’s a unique and also brutal thing.“Beating Novak was one of my biggest victories in my career. I beat one of the biggest legends of our game. Not even 24 hours later, I have to step on court against another amazing legend of our game, against the best clay-court player of all time. I was feeling so happy, with such a good win, and now of course I lost.“I failed to make my biggest dream in my tennis life come true.” “In the first two sets I played very good tennis,” said Thiem. “And then I completely missed the start of the third set, and he came out like a rocket, full power. I had a little drop, which against most players would not be that bad, but he’s such a great champion that he took the chance and stepped right on me – a 0-3 double break, the set is almost gone. So that was the turning and the key point.“How he was performing is unbelievable. It’s very tough. Just the numbers are crazy. Twelve times the opponents in the finals failed to beat him. So also, me, I didn’t have the right choices or tactics in this match.“He won 18 Grand Slams, which is a big number, only two less than Roger. Definitely he’s one of the greatest of all time. In this match I saw why.”
- Tsisipas vs Stan Wawrinka : Stan Wawrinka and Stefanos Tsitsipas had never played each other before Sunday, and when they finally met, they competed like it was the only chance they’ll ever get.Stan won the first set, 7-6? Stefanos won the second, 7-5. Wawrinka won the third set, 6-4? Tsitsipas won the fourth, 6-3. They split the first 12 games of the fifth set. No one could distance themselves from the other by any significant margin. If this match was a best-of-seven, like the ongoing Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals, they’d surely still be out on Court Suzanne Lenglen, trading games and sets like they traded searing groundstrokes in one of this 5:09 match’s dozens of jaw-dropping rallies. But one of tennis’ great ironies is that a match which featured 389 total points came down to just a handful. Wawrinka saved eight break points in the fifth set, none more impressive than the sixth, at 5-5, with an exchange of shots so demanding that Tsitsipas ended up face up, on the terre battue. Stan held his fist up, ready for more. Was he ever. After returning a serve long on his first match point at 7-6, 15-40, Wawrinka used his famous one-handed backhand not to smack a winner crosscourt, but to carve a slice backhand—one that curved around the net post, and delicately caught the sideline 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6. It was worth the wait.
