French Open

Many years ago, I'd watch an entire French Open from beginning to end. These days, I'll catch a set or two, here or there, and do something else instead.

I watched the first set of the women's final, between Justine Henin and newcomer, Ana Ivanovic. Ivanovic looked, for all the world, like she was going to pummel Henin. She broke Henin's serve to start the game, and went up 40-0 on her own serve. But, if anything, Henin is plucky. She'll fight, play smart, hit hard when she has to. Henin won that game and the rest of the set.

When people say tennis is mental, this is what they mean. If Ivanovic had the fight of Henin, if she believed she could keep up, pressure Henin, she might have won this match. Instead, nerves affected her, and she was unable to control the shots she used to demolish Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

The bigger story surrounding Henin was how she was trying to reach out to her family. To be a successful player, Henin cut off her family, who she felt did not understand the kind of dedication a person needed to be a top player. Even as she won her first French, she did not receive any congratulations from her family--and she was happy they didn't bother her, claiming she wanted space to be herself.

But as she separated from her husband a few years ago, she decided to reach out to her family, her brothers and sisters and her father. Her mother had passed away some years ago. The siblings were tense, hoping Henin would be able to hang in there, but eventually realizing that Henin was going to have her way.

The men's final seemed much more inevitable than the women. For the last year, the story had been Federer and Nadal, Nadal and Federer. Federer was the best player in the world. Nadal, the best on clay. Federer had even recently beaten Nadal on clay, and had to feel great confidence as he made the finals.

But Nadal also fights. Unlike last year where Nadal came out nervous and was blown away in the first set, Federer and Nadal played a tight match. It says something that in the first two sets, Federer had some 16 break opportunities and broken only once. Nadal frequently fell behind two, three break points, and played long deuce games, but never cracked.

Nadal's basic strategy was to run around his backhand and basically punish Federer's own backhand. Federer seemed content to exchange his backhand with Nadal's forehand (Nadal being a lefty player). Surprisingly, Federer didn't try one of two things. He didn't serve and volley much, nor did he chip and charge much. To be fair, this is clay, and you don't expect such tactics, but still, it would be nice to see Nadal have to pass more.

Federer also didn't try to do the same to Nadal. He could have tried to force his own backhand to Nadal's backhand, and then try to attack Nadal's backhand, or he could have tried running around it (which he did more of in the second set).

I only saw Nadal go up 3-0 in the third before I went to lunch, so I can't say I know what happened.

Nadal's strategy had one interesting effect. By hitting to his backhand so much, Federer's tendency was to lean to his backhand, which meant Nadal had chances to strike into the open court to Federer's forehand.

Perhaps what really did Federer in was his unforced errors. Nadal played generally error-free tennis, while Federer went for more on his shots and missed more as a result. Federer served pretty poorly the first set, so it was amazing the set was as close as it was (Nadal did break twice, though it's hard to tell with a 6-3 score).

Still, Federer can view this much like Sampras. There's always Wimbledon where his serve is much more of a weapon. Can Nadal make it to the final again? Players like Roddick should do well, but he has a tendency to lose early. Nadal should be the wildcard again, and is more likely not to make the Wimbledon final than Federer.

Three more weeks til Wimbledon!