Roland Garros: Five things we learned on Day 3
Bernard Tomic goes nuclear while Naomi Osaka avoids meltdown on her first trip to centre court. In the fall-out, her crushed opponent responds to the mercy of the review.
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Brothers in arms
Bernard Tomic shot to fame when, as a teenager, he reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2011. The Australian’s style was widely lauded and he was hailed as the next big thing from the country that had produced the likes of Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Yvonne Goolagong and Margaret Court. But he slumped. His attitude was called into question and he even earned the nickname: ‘Tomic the tank engine’.
Before he steamed out of Paris after a straight sets defeat to Taylor Fritz, Tomic said his compatriot Nick Kyrgios was right to have had a pop at the French Open. “Get rid of the clay, man. Who likes the clay, it is so bad,” said Kyrgios as he cried off from the tournament with an elbow injury.
"The tournament is not for me," carped Tomic on Day 3. “You know, the surface is not good for me. I mean, it's not difficult … it's just my game is not built for this surface. Everything I do is not good for it.” Well, ooh la la
Love that clay, love that city, just love
Taylor Fritz might not concur with curmudgeonly Bernie. His victory over angry man was his first win at Roland Garros. And it came after a fairly solid run on the European clay court swing. The 21-year-old American was a semi-finalist in Lyon just before the French Open and he emerged from the qualifying tournament to play in the main draw at the Madrid and Rome Masters before falling to Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori respectively. There’s another reason to like Paris. Fritz proposed to his lady love Raquel Pedraza in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in 2016. She accepted and they now have a son called Eiffel – no just kidding, he’s named Jordan.
Strange day, part I
World number one Naomi Osaka looked out of sorts as she lost the first couple of games against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. She’ll get the jig back, you thought. But Osaka didn’t and Schmiedlova won the set 6-0. Osaka raced into a 3-0 lead in the second and again it appeared that the normal order was about to be restored. But no. The world number 90 came back to 3-3. At 4-4, Schmiedlova broke to leaed 5-4 and give herself the chance of a famous win. Osaka blubbed into her towel at the changeover. Schmiedlova couldn't capitalised and the top seed levelled at 5-5. But she promptly coughed up her serve again to allow Schmiedlova a second shot at celebrity. No. Not taking the chance.
Osaka broke back, romped through the tiebreak and slapped away her adversary in the decider 6-1. Osaka said nerves got her into the mess and will power got her out. Difference between good and great.
Strange day, part II
Shall we sit awhile in the Roland Garrospitality lodges and sing plangent songs about dreams gone wrong? Maybe, around Day 12. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova had two chances to put Naomi Osaka to the sword but did not do it. Ever vulture like, the review went to see Ms Schmiedlova after her defeat. Did we dwell on her inability to kill? No. We let others do such scraping of the mortal coil. We wait for the transcendant soul to be laid bare.
Review: "Well, let's go back to the good part of the match. 6-0. You were swinging, you were hitting, you were finding the corners. Describe those moments when you were pulverizing the world number one?"
Schmiedlova: “Yeah, I think, yeah, it might be true. Well, it was important for me to start well. And I know it was going to be really difficult. But she made also a few mistakes and maybe she didn't serve as well as later in the match. But definitely I was happy with my game. I was happy with how I served. And I was happy that I played also aggressive and I didn't let her play her game all the time so ... Thank you.”
Yorkshire! Get those puddings ready
Alex Zverev struck up a brilliant rapport with the British journalist Jonathan Pinfield last year at the French Open during the post-match press conferences. Zverev adored Pinfield’s Yorkshire accent. So, naturally on Day 3 after Zverev’s first round match against John Millman, Pinfield asked the first question.
“Sascha …” said Pinfield. “Here we go again,” interjected Zverev.
“People loved you on and off the court. What would make Roland Garros special for you again?”
Zverev said he didn’t have an answer to that but he did make a vow. “If I win the title, I'm going to Yorkshire. That's the first thing I'm going to do.”
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