With Clistjers win over Venus at Betty Barclay, Capriati wanting to defend, Hingis tryin to make it on her best surface, Monica playing well, Serena stating she wants to be #1, all adds up to a great French Open.

Not to mention Henin, Dokic, Mauresmo....

With the depth of talent and desire to win, this looks like the best slam of the year...

Who will win??

i think jen can beat venus on clay so if they were the final two, then there you go. but, like you said, with serena, clijsters and seles in form and hingis wanting to get back on probably the only surface she can beat the top players (throw junk balls and frustrate them) then this could get interesting... the winner will be one of these women.

i don't think mauresmo will be much of a threat. the french pressure has gotten to her in the past; don't know why it won't happen again.

Seeds for French Open look interesting. Since Hingis pulled out of the German open and will be losing points from last years semi-final appearance, looks like she won't be one of the top four seeds for the French.

Based upon upcoming results, 1-2 will be Venus and JenCap, with Clistjers at #3, and Serena #4. Not sure on 5/6, but will be split between Hingis and Seles.

When was the last time Hingis was seeded outside the top 4??

1996 or early 1997??

Another slam where the quarterfinals get reallllly tough. Serena, Hingis and Seles are so close in ranking points (as is Davenport?) that this week's points could make the difference in seedings at the French since they'll most likely base it on rankings as of Monday the 13th (or monday the 20th but that's less likely). I don't think Seles is even playing this week and Hingis dropped out. Is Serena playing the German Open? Cljisters' win over Venus shoots her solidly into #3 but of course she's got big points to defend at the French.
I agree though, this will be an amazing slam, and keep in mind, upsets always seem to happen at the French....

1997. She was ranked #7 when she started the year.

We have three weeks of tournaments before the French, this week the German Open/Warsaw, next week Rome, and Madrid/Strousburg. Most likely Madrid/Strouburg will not be in French seedings. Hingis was semi finalist at both German and Rome last year.

According to WTA website, Hingis ended 1996 ranked #4 and became #1 on March 31, 1977. So it must be in 1996 when she was seeded lower than #4 at a tournament.

My guess would be 1996 US Open, this is just a guess.

Martina Hingis


SANEX WTA RANKING (SEASON-ENDING, SINGLES)
2001-4; 2000-1; 1999-1; 1998-2; 1997-1; 1996-4; 1995-16; 1994-87

I would love to see Hingis end up with a 5th or 6th seed and end up losing as early as the quarters (or sooner).

I can't help it. She's just not my favorite.

After looking at rankings and points to lose/gain, it looks like this for French Seeds:

1. Venus
2. JenCap
3. Clistjers
4. Serena
5. Seles
6. Hingis
7. Henin
8. Dokic

Don't be surprised if after the French Clistjers is ranked #2, she can pick up points at the German and Rome, since she lost early at both last year, even though she is defending big points from runner-up at the French.

Prediction: Rankings after the French:

1. Venus
2. Clistjers
3. JenCap
4. Serena
5. Seles
6. Davenport
7. Hingis
8. Henin

Anyone know how serious Hingis's foot injury is? Is this a repeat of what felled her last year? Bad enough to keep her out of Rome or (shudder) Roland Garros?? I wish her well - the French Open would be much the poorer without her this year.

Also, can you imagine Clijsters ranked #2 without having won a Tier 1 tournament or Grand Slam!?

French Open Draw is on May 24, so today's rankings will determine the seeds:

1-JenCap
2-Venus
3-Serena
4-Clistjers
5-Henin
6-Seles
7-Dokic
8-Testud
9-Farina Elia
10-Mauresmo
11-Hantuchova
12-Shaughnessey
13-Dementieva
14-Tulyaganova
15-Sanchez-Vicario
16-Schett

The dangerous lower seeds are Mauresmo and Hantuchova.

If Serena wins it and Venus does not make the final, she is world #1.

Just my opinion....

[ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: bostonlob ]

The official seeds for both men and women. Only 3 American men and 7 American women are seeded.

Men
1. Lleyton Hewitt, Australia
2. Marat Safin, Russia
3. Tommy Haas, Germany
4. Andre Agassi, United States
5. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia
6. Tim Henman, Britain
7. Gustavo Kuerten, Brazil
8. Roger Federer, Switzerland
9. Thomas Johansson, Sweden
10. Sebastien Grosjean, France
11. Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spain
12. Pete Sampras, United States
13. Andy Roddick, United States
14. Jiri Novak, Czech Republic
15. Guillermo Canas, Argentina
16. Younes El Aynaoui, Morocco
17. Carlos Moya, Spain
18. Alex Corretja, Spain
19. Thomas Enqvist, Sweden
20. Albert Costa, Spain
21. Juan Ignacio Chela, Argentina
22. Marcelo Rios, Chile
23. Andrei Pavel, Romania
24. Fabrice Santoro, France
25. Rainer Schuettler, Germany
26. Tommy Robredo, Spain
27. Max Mirnyi, Belarus
28. Nicolas Escude, France
29. Nicolas Lapentti, Ecuador
30. David Nalbandian, Argentina
31. Sjeng Schalken, Netherlands
32. Gaston Gaudio, Argentina


Women
1. Jennifer Capriati, United States
2. Venus Williams, United States
3. Serena Williams, United States
4. Kim Clijsters, Belgium
5. Justine Henin, Belgium
6. Monica Seles, United States
7. Jelena Dokic, Yugoslavia
8. Sandrine Testud, France
9. Silvia Farina Elia, Italy
10. Amelie Mauresmo, France
11. Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia
12. Meghann Shaugnessy, United States
13. Elena Dementieva, Russia
14. Iroda Tulyaganova, Uzbekistan
15. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Spain
16. Barbara Schett, Austria
17. Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thailand
18. Tatiana Panova, Russia
19. Anastasia Myskina, Russia
20. Patty Schnyder, Switzerland
21. Anna Smashnova, Israel
22. Magdalena Maleeva, Bulgaria
23. Anne Kremer, Luxembourg
24. Lisa Raymond, United States
25. Daja Bedanova, Czech Republic
26. Ai Sugiyama, Japan
27. Nathalie Dechy, France
28. Alexandra Stevenson, United States
29. Iva Majoli, Croatia
30. Amanda Coetzer, South Africa
31. Rita Grande, Italy
32. Cristina Torrens Valero, Spain

I see that the French is sticking to the entry ranking. I think the Spaniards have a point--if Sampras kept getting seeded #1 at the French all those years, why shouldn't Corretja or Moya get a high seed at Wimbledon?

I guess I never paid attention. How does Wimbledon seed? Using only results on grass?

Actually the Big W seeds according to however they want. But the basis they use is how players have generally done at past Wimbledons. One year Agassi and Chang got bumped up majorly. Steffi Graf did too in 1998 was it?

Some years though, they just go according to the rankings. Usually the year after major complaints.

Amazing to think that, depending on how Capriati holds up (she is defending tons of points), Richard Williams' prediction of Venus and Serena being 1-2 in the world could come to pass after the French Open. Venus is only defending a 1st round loss from last year, and Serena only made it to the quarters. Lots of ground they can make up here. History in the making. Maybe if they only have to face off in the finals, there will be a limit the mysterious last-minute injuries that seem to materialize when they find themselves facing off in the semis or sooner. Don't get me wrong. I love those two. I just wish I could see them play more!

I think it could definitely happen. However, I think that Capriati will do EVERYTHING in her power to make sure it doesn't happen. Too bad Hingis isn't playing, b/c she would too.

It's only a matter of time before they're 1 and 2. If they stay relatively healthy, it will happen by the end of the year. After the clay season is over, they will have to be favorites in any tournament they're in.

[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: PCC ]

Of course, after the French Open, the shoe(s) will be on the other foot, and it will be Venus (and Serena too, although to a lesser degree) defending big points against others who can make up lost ground. Venus won both WB and US, along with San Diego and Pilot Pen. Serena won Canada and Chase, and made the finals of US. Pretty amazing records. Unless they decide to play more tournaments, there's not a lot of room to add points from the same tournaments they entered last year. My bet is that both will play a few more tournaments and come out 1-2 at year end, although it is interesting to note that Serena might edge out Venus for No. 1, given how well Serena does at the Tier I's -- as of this week's standings, Venus leads Serena by around 500 points, but Venus has two more tournaments in her total than Serena (14 tournaments to 12), and two of those tournaments were Grand Slam victories. I don't see anyone but Capriati being a serious threat, and I'm not sure she's going to be able to do it.

ESPN has some pretty astute picks posted. The Outsports predictions should be up soon, too! On to ESPN's article:
http://espn.go.com/tennis/french02/s/2002/...21/1385215.html

The French Open Draws have been announced, and are available on-line at the following URL:
http://www.frenchopen.org/en/scores/draws/...s/ms/index.html

If the seeds hold:

Semis look like this:
1-Capriati vs 3-Serena
2-Venus vs. 4-Clistjers

Quarters:
1-Capriati vs. 7-Dokic
2-Venus vs. 6-Seles - Seles vs Hantuchova 16's
3-Serena vs. 5-Henin
4-Clistjers vs. 8-Testud Testud Vs Mauresmo 16's

Capriati has a much easier quarter than either Williams sister. Should not be teseted until the semi's.

Mauresmo drew Testud, should win, and might test Clistjers, or go out in the first round.

Don't count on Testud making it past her first round match-up with Paola Suarez. Other interesting early-round matches:

Seles v. Majoli, 3rd round?
Schett v. Rubin, 2nd round?
Mauresmo v. Serna, 2nd round?
Pierce v. Henin, 3rd round?
Smashnova v. Schiavone, 1st round
Kournikova v. Tulyaganova, 2nd round?

Henin's and Seles's paths to the quarters look toughest. But if the seeds hold, a Venus v. Seles rematch from Australia and a Serena v. Henin rematch from the last two big tourneys will be definite appointment television!

As far as the boys go, Hewitt AGAIN gets Moya in his part of the draw ... great fourth round matchup.

Best potential third-round matchups:

Robredo v. Agassi
Federer v. Gaudio (ouch)
Safin v. Nalbandian
Chela v. Blake (if he can upset Grosjean)
Correjta v. Johansson

And as for Sampras - if he can survive a couple of Italians (not impossible), he's got Costa and Kuerten in his eighth. Not looking like Pete's year.

The BMan weighs in for Outsports with his great analysis. We want your picks.

For all of you predictors out there, the finals are set for the last French Open warm-up events:

Madrid's final:
Monica Seles vs. Chanda Rubin

Strasbourg's final:
Jelena Dokic vs. Silvia Farina Elia

St. Polten, Austria's final:
Nicolas Lapentti vs. Fernando Vicente

World Team Cup:
Russia (Safin & Kafelinkov) vs. Argentina (Canas & Acasuso)

Look for Monica to move in the rankings. She will pick up points this week in Spain and has no points to defend at the French and Wimbledon. In addition, she did not play the year-end championships.

She could easily be ranked #2 or #3, by the end of summer. A win at the French for Monica would be great, it is possible, but not likely.

Not likely Bostonlob? I disagree! She is one of about 6 that wouldn't be terribly shocking to win it.....including Venus, Serena, Kim, Justine, and Jennifer.

If my feeble calculations are correct, in terms of "safe points," meaning basically Monday's rankings minus last year's French Open points, the top six seeds look like this:

Venus: 4590
Serena: <3850
Capriati: <3540
Seles: 3484 (before tomorrow's final)
Clijsters: <3350
Henin: <3285 (putting her below Davenport, at 3350, although Henin also has 59 points on her 18th tourney in case she bombs out in the first round or something)

The point is, it seems almost inevitable that Venus & Serena will be 1/2 after this tournament, unless JCap advances about two rounds further than Serena, making the finals. A #3 spot for Monica does look promising, if she can get past Venus in the quarters. It's going to be tough for JCap to pick up quality points - she just is unlikely to face decenlty ranked opponents until the quarters. And if Henin can somehow win the whole thing, beating Serena, JCap, and Venus in the process, she's got a shot at #2. Go Justine!!!

Day One is over.

Testud falls is day one, Mauresmo wins easily, maybe it is Amelie's year. The loss by Testud to Saurez is not that surprising. This hopefully will open up the draw for Mauresmo to make it to the quarters.

Lucic wins, after coming through the qualifiers. Wow, in 1999 she took a set from Graf in the semi's of Wimbledon.

And now for some discourse on the most anticipated draw at the event, Womens Doubles! Okay, maybe i'm the only one watching the way this draw plays out.

Fresh off a record setting win last week, Navratilova and her partner Zvereva got the most unlucky draw to meet doubles pillars Raymond and Stubbs. Ouch. I'd love an upset here. I'd donate teeth for an upset here but i can't imagine it happening.

With the Williams sisters sadly not participating, we'll have to hope for upsets from Mauresmo/Loit, Dechy/Tu, or Molik/Serna. Other than that, i think the seeds will hold.

I just love Shaugnessy/Henin as a team and will cross my fingers for them, but they really haven't lived up to my dreams so i think they will also fall victim to Raymond/Stubbs. Sigh.

But I'm not giving this title to the number one seeds. I think the champs will come from the winner of a probably whiley semi between Hantuchova/Sanchez-Vicaro and Pascual/Suarez.

That said, i think this is the toughest surface for the Williams sisters and since they both have so much to gain in the singles draw, it's probably smart for them to focus on the soplo game this time. And with them out, and Hingis out, that leaves out all the players most notorious for dropping their doubles partner. So there will be some great doubles matches along the way.

[ May 27, 2002: Message edited by: curtj ]

It is raining in Paris, but some close calls already. Clistjers wins 8-6 in the third for a first round victory over Poutchek. Poutchek served for the match.

Seles also goes three, but is 6-0 in the third. Did anyone else see the Seles match, when Montolio put her racquet between her legs and jerked it towards Seles, and was given a warning.

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: bostonlob ]

[quote] Did anyone else see the Seles match,
when Montolio put her racquet between her legs and jerked it towards Seles, and
was given a warning.

---

No way! The handle of her racquet? As if she were...um...shaking hands with Mr. Happy? (Or Mr. Unhappy, as the case may be....) That's horrible.

Angeles is very emotional (very spanish) so not a shock but Monica should have won that match in two. she was down 0-5 in first set, wons 6 games in a row and serves for the set at 6-5 only to lose in tie break. she needs to tighten her game for the nxt matches.

Yes, Montolio was shaking hands with Mr. Unhappy. At first Pam and MaryJoe said she must have said a bad word in Spainish, than the TV replay, and the shaking of the racquet/hand, MaryJo and Pam were speechless. Can you imagine, Pam Shriver speechless..........

AHHHHHH! Henin is down 2-0 in the third to Anna Kapros. This isn't happening! I hope she's not seriously injured...

Something WIERD is going on at Roland Garros... Seles lost her opening set and had a fairly tight second set, Clijsters barely eeked out a win, and right now...

Roger Federer is about to go down two sets to Hicham Arazi

Justine Henin is down a set and a break to Aniko Kapros. Uhm...who the hell is Aniko Kapros?!

Yikes!

Is Henin hurt?? She's down 3-0 in the third and about to be broken again!! She's tallied 65 unforced errors and climbing.

If she doesn't pull herself together, her part of the draw is going to be wild.

I was thinking the same thing, curtj...

Either Henin's mentally and physically exhausted from all of the tennis she's played recently or she's injured. Henin just lost 0-6 in the third. Ouch!!!

With Henin out, it looks like a Serena vs JenCap semi-final.

Not much in that half of the draw. Dokic and Farina-Elia are the other top seeds left, Dokic vs. JenCap and Farina-Elia vs. Serena.

Wow. I'm stunned. But looking at the draw this is a huge oppotunity for Pierce.

How bad will this be for Henin's points since she did so well last year??

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: curtj ]

Curt, she'll get about 300 points knocked off - meaning she'll fall below seles and Lindsay Davenport ... But Hingis can't move up, and Dokic would have to bascially become a finalist or semifinalist to pass her. She's safe at #7 (until Wimbledon, that is ... yikes!!!)

Poor girl, she's got such a great attitude and game. See what I mean about doing too well at the Tier I warmups!? Let's see if the same thing happens to Serena...if not, her path to the semis looks pretty cinchy.

I agree again with curtj: it's been a while since Mary Pierce played Serena. Serena leads the series 2:1, but, heck, this is clay and there have already been near misses and upsets.

I read an article on-line the other day that reported Mary was hitting with Kim Clijsters and...Andre Agassi! The reporter wrote that Mary was hitting the ball as hard as 'Dre...

Pierce vs. S. Williams would be an excellent match-up, and the player who emerges will have excellent prep. for a semi with Capriati.

Serena has to get through ASV first, which I think will be a tougher match for her than still-on-the-mend Pierce. ASV leads their series 4-3, albeit having lost the last three (on hard courts) with hardly a whimper. But consider: Serena has never beaten ASV on clay.

Federer falls in three sets to Arazi. Big upsets in Paris, with Henin and Federer both out in the first round and both were cosidered likely finalist.

Both Henin and Federer out in the first round? What a shocking start to this grand slam. Henin was apparently pretty ill and the weather just sucked but it sounded like Federer just had a fatal attack of youthful nerves...

Serena just took a deep sigh of relief not to have to face Henin before she faces Capriati...should enable her to enter the semi's relatively easily...ASV and Pierce aren't capable at this point in time of touching Serena's power but, and this is a big but, if the weather continues to be rainy and cold causing the balls to play heavy and the court to play slow, all bets are off for all the big hitters - that's a top ten player's worst case scenario at the French Open....

Seles started slowly, having not played much red clay tennis at all, but winning six games in a row in the first set, then nine in a row to close the match after the rain delay, tells me she's got her slam face on and through sheer will and firepower will get to where she needs to go...I get the sense that she's ready to go the distance if simply because the end is near....

More seeds to fall today:

Men's-Chela (21), Escude (27), Lapentti (28) and Ljubcic (32).

Women's-Maleeva (22), Raymond (24), Bedanova (25) and Coetzer (30).

Only two American men have moved past the second round-Andre Agassi and VINCE SPADEA!!! Spadea won another gutsy 5 setter, beating Voinea 8-6 in the fifth.

Spadea only two years ago lost something like 20 consecutive first round matches to fall out of the top 200 after getting as high as #20. I saw him a few years ago at the US Open and he had just lost an early round match. His father was on the court sreaming at him! I felt so bad for Vince. Nice to see him playing well in Paris.

This is slightly off topic and very early but...why is the women's final being shown tape delayed but the men's final is live. It's very likely that there will be at least one American woman in the finals, possibly two, possibly two from the same family . There is a high likelihood that no American men will be in the finals. Yet they'll show that live and the women tape delayed.

It can't be because of ratings. Who the hell cares about ratings at 9:00 in the morning on one Saturday in June!

Another stunning upset! 87th ranked Clarisa Fernandez pounded Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-0! Wonder if she caught what Justine Henin had!

Clijsters gets whooped and most surprisingly says it had nothing to do with her previous shoulder injury. I kind of like her no excuses approach. She just said she was tired and that Fernandez played her well - that she got 'confused' by fernandez' short second serves. She also said there are worse things in life than losing a tennis match. Sounds pretty healthy, if she's being honest. I think we all know most of the other top players would have brought some sort of ailment excuse to the press conference.

In other news, Suarez just took out her second french woman, Dechy. I believe she'll face Mauresmo next. I think Mauresmo will win, but if Suarez manages to beat Testud, Dechy and Mauresmo in France, she's going to be very, very unpopular.

Finally, since the fashion fight was lost in the message board upgrades, I'll restate my position. Kudos to Serena for having fun on the court! I love the 'cant miss me colors' and that she brought knee-hi's to tennis. There's no reason tennis apparel has to be stodgey so save your plain janes for Wimbeldon! The kids that were on here bashing Serena's look probably didn't like Anna's hot pants or Flo-Jo's hood either.

[ May 31, 2002: Message edited by: curtj ]

OH, right, the fashion. It's really all about what they're wearing.

Serena's too much. She overaccessorizes. Everyone keeps talking about her outfit but no one really knows what to say. A couple years from now, we'll all look back on pictures of that getup and everyone will laugh at her openly rather than behind her back. God help her if she wins the whole tourney in that ensemble.

I love Anna's outfits. Also think Venus dresses cute...sorta a subtle Serena. (That Aussie Open outfit where her boob fell out notwithstanding.) Hingis dresses cute, not counting the one sleeve thing. You see, everyone can make a mistake, but Serena's always out of control.

Serena's does have company in the bad dressers category. Jennifer thinks she's thinner than she is. Monica never dressed great and I don't think she's cared at all since coming back. Almost dying on court will give you that kind of perspective.

xoxo,
G4G