Week 2 Of The French Open Had Me On My FEET...Lets Talk About It

the second week of Roland garos was a tale of Brilliance and controversy but most importantly history was made as we pack our bags to prepare for the grasscourt season now is the best time to relive the insane drama that went down at the French Open last week enormous upsets five set Thrillers even stomach bugs joined in on the action week two of the French Open definitely taught us some lessons here's everything that happened in tennis this week but before we get into it I have to mention that we just dropped our very first episode of Courtside tennis where we got some exclusive access to some of the best players on the WTA tour including Alina Spina Anna Bogden and we even got some commentary from Murphy Jensen too be sure to check it out if you missed it it's the dawn of a new era yanic sinner is the first Italian man in history to become world number one really it's been a long time coming for the fox with the big four spending a combined total of 19 years at top the rankings we're probably close to the end of an era if we're not Already There Yet CER faced demitro in the quarterfinal and it was one-way traffic for a large part of the match the bulgarians variety proved once again to be no match for Sinner's brute force and Brilliance from the Baseline after he took the first set 6'2 cner continued to pounce on dimitrov like it was personal here's how he broke him early on in the second set that single break was enough to get the job done for for CER as he held on to take the second set to his credit demitro refused to go away despite going down a break again in the third demitra finally broke Center when the Italian was serving for the match however the Bulgarian would fall just short and it was cner who won the tie break of course these highlights don't do much Justice because the match was full of long rallies and crazy shots but at the end of the day CER was just too good for his opponents as expected demitro slices weren't as effective as they would be on other surfaces so CER was able to dictate rallies off of them CER also neutralized dimitrov's deadly serve plus one combo with some ridiculous returning and I have to mention dimitrov made 49 unforced errors but no doubt dimitrov would have been proud of his performance at the tournament overall the Italian faced alcaraz in the semis in what was the most anticipated match of the tournament Legends like three-time Grand Slam champ guga Cen were in The Stance to witness another historic chapter in the CER alcarez rivalry with the head-to-head tied at for all we were witnessing another chapter of a rivalry that's going to potentially shape the future of tennis CER ended up falling to alcaraz in a roller coaster five- set Thriller in the semis and let's just say it wasn't the video game tennis which we're often used to seeing from both players anyway I did a breakdown of that match in another video which will also be dropping soon despite the semi-final disappointment for CER he still ascends to take the number one spot with Novak jokovic pulling out of the tournament because of his knee injury by the way CER is now 33 and3 in 2024 and just take a look at his season in a glance just like cner alcarez also entered Roland garos with big question marks around his health having missed roome with a forearm issue but by the time he faced sitas in the quarterfinal those doubts were emphatically put to rest as alarz dismantled cipas in straight sets however one of the major talking points in that match had to do with sas's complaint about alcaraz's grunts the grunts extended and I'm about to the so I cannot hear his grunt do you think tisas had a valid point that those grunts were actually putting him off or was it just the frustration personally I could see where Steph was coming from and also from the clip we see alcarez laughing as he walks past the umpire's chair which means he also knew what was up what were your thoughts about the whole situation with alcaraz coming from 21 down to beat CER in the semis we switched Focus to the other half of the draw where we had another Blockbuster Clash on our hands between Zev and Casper Roode with Nole out of the tournament with that knee injury rude had a free pass to the semis he even had some extra time to practice his golf swing ahead of his semi-final match against Sasha who was into his fourth consecutive Roland semi-final facing a familiar opponent at the same stage for the second year in a row rude Came Out Swinging early as he fired those forehand he was also mixing up the pace to disrupt Sasha's rhythm but after what was a brilliant first set Roode began to slow down and later on we would find out that he was dealing with a stomach bug and in fact he was even taking medication with Sasha cranking up the engine rude was no match for the German Sasha went on to win the match in four sets but not before he produced one of the shots of the tournament after the match rude said this about zov's game he has everything that uh you need to play a good Clore tennis I would say with that the stage for the final was set alcaraz versus Zev Zev had the lead in their head-to-head at 54 and had won their only meeting at roling garos in 2022 both players were in top form and we witnessed a roller coaster final with wild swings and momentum across each set as the match went the distance Sasha ended up fading away in the final set and had this to say after the match yeah I mean look I I feel like I did everything I could today I've made a separate video about Caro's title run including analysis of the final and my takes on some of the controversial moments too it'll be dropping soon but we also need to talk about one of the top guys that's been flying under the radar Alex D Manor beat Medvedev in the fourth round as he reached his second Grand Slam quarterfinal personally I didn't have meddev among my favorites for the title I mean he hasn't won a title in like a year and was obvious ly playing on his worst surface however nothing changes the fact that demon or's win was impressive the Aussie had never been past the second round at Roland garos but we've seen him improve his game on Clay earlier in the season and he's added a lot more weight to his shots after losing the first set demor began playing out of his mind with super deep returns to trouble Medvedev and here's how he drew level deor served the russan a bread stick in the third set before were showcasing his durability to put the match Beyond medvedev's reach with this beautiful piece of play right here medev then self-destructed with a double fault in what was a pretty anticlimactic fashion throughout the match deor employed a really smart strategy hitting balls down the middle not giving denil many angles to work with deor has improved so much over the last year and I think his Improvement doesn't get talked about as much with the win he secures his fifth top 10 win of the Year tying cner and demitro for most top 10 wins this season he also became the first Australian man to reach the Ringo's quarterfinals in 20 years unfortunately he couldn't get past an informs verev in the quarterfinal but when we checked in on the women's tour we saw sabalenka and rebaka in unfamiliar situations sabalenka faced mea and draa in the quarterfinal and looked to be on course for another victory until the 17-year-old turned the match on its head she withstood sabala's power to draw level in the second set both players exchanged breaks in the third set until mea snatched the match from sabalenka at the death with this beautiful lob right here it was the biggest upset of the tournament as Andrea became the youngest woman to reach a grand slam semi-final since Martina hangus in 1997 taking nothing away from Andrea's win sabalenka looked sick during the match and was UN able to attend her postmatch press conference after but the same couldn't be said about rebaka when she faced Jasmine palini palini exposed rak's movement early on creating sharp angles on the forehand crosscourt exchanges and with the third set dead even at four all rebaka made this costly error to give Pini the lead the Italian never looked back as she stuns the world number four as a result of her Superior movement and footwork palini won twice the number of points and rallies between 5 to8 shots rebaka won't also be too pleased with the 48 unforced errors she made in the match now rebaka who happens to be one of the best servers on the WTA tour also only had a measly 38% win percentage on her second serve and only 59% on her first serve it's one thing you sometimes see with rakina when she's having an off day on her serve you just know it's going to be a really difficult match for her on the other side of the draw we saw KOCO goof come from a set down to beat on jabber in the quarterfinal to reach the last four for the second time at roling garos early on jabber was making the highlight reels with shots like this one set away from defeat Koko showed why she's one of the best returners in the world as she came alive meanwhile On's level continued to drop and the final point of the match just tells you how bad it really got when Koko faced EA in the semis we knew that there could only be one winner EGA beat the American in straight sets to extend her lead to 11 to1 in their head-to-head Koko's forehand which is the usual culprit was spraying a lot of Errors against EA and you can't really blame Goff for trying to be aggressive at times it was literally her only option Goff would then have a contentious moment with the Umpire and state after the match that she wanted V in tennis do you think she has a point but despite the disappointment Koko will be proud of herself for winning the Roland garos doubles title with Katarina sakova palini booked her ticket to the final after beating mea Andrea 6361 in the semis coming into the match we already knew that Pini wasn't a great server standing at only 5' 4 in tall or 1.63 M palini has always been at a disadvantage from a height perspective the average Ace rate on the WTA tour is 4.2% and palini by comparison only 1.6% % now that's way below the tour average and we saw that play out in the match against EA although palini got off to a great start and even broke EA to take a 2-1 lead in the first set the rest of the match almost looked like a formality as EGA completely annihilated palini IGA morphed into a destroyer of serves unleashing the most ridiculous return winners you'll ever see knowing that she couldn't get any free points off her serve palini only had the option of getting the better of EA from the Baseline but unfortunately she was also up against the best returner on the women's tour capitalizing on pini's lack of length on the wings sponch started to push palini from side to side as the match went on sponch raced away with the first set bringing the set to a close with this deep return right at pini's feet Jasmine could only manage a disastrous 28% win percent on her first in the first set that figure improved to 39% in the second set with also slightly better metrics on the second serve meanwhile ego was sitting around 70% on both first and second serves but in the end nothing could hide the fact that we were witnessing utter domination from EGA it was rinse and repeat as EGA continued to cash in on those return winners we already know that 's forehand is is the heaviest shot on the WTA tour so you can imagine how those balls would have been bouncing so high and going away from pini's Strike Zone in the final let's just say palini got thoroughly outplayed but it was nice to see that she never gave up until the end trying to be aggressive whenever she could that in itself only led to more errors especially on the backhand crosscourt however when you're up against someone who's on her way to becoming the greatest clayt player ever on the WTA tour there's really little you can do in the end a 6261 score line in 68 minutes Pini won only one game after getting that early break at 21 in the first set what in the world I told you guys in that EGA video I made a few weeks back that she was literally a walking cheat code on clay and that with the way that she Smothers opponents there was no doubt that she could win the Madrid Rome Roland Goos Triple Crown here's what palini had to say after the match I never played a player that had has this intensity before in my life I think it was the most challenging match I played in my enre career but to think that sponch was only one point away from defeat in that second round match against Naomi Osaka should make her appreciate the title win a little more EA dropped a total of 17 games against Osaka while she only dropped 20 games against all other players she played at the French Open combined yeah so she totally did struggle against Osaka and looked more vulnerable than ever on her surface however for those of you saying IGA is only Untouchable on Clay I would argue that she's on her way to doing great things on grass now maybe I might be getting a little ahead of myself but I reckon she will make a deep run at Wimbledon this time nothing short of a semi-final appearance but let me ask you guys instead how far do you see EGA going on grass this year here's what she thinks herself I feel like every year it's easier for me to adapt to grass in the meantime we also need to remind ourselves of just what EGA has done five grand slams at 23 years old she's the first player to win three consecutive Roland garos Titles since Justine henan between 2005 and 2007 in fact it's been 1,96 days since fantech lost a match at Roland garos sponch is only the third player to win her first five grand slam finals and the best of the bunch sponch is the only woman ever to win Roland Goos four times before turning 24 for palini she has every reason to be proud of what she's achieved so far and she's really becoming a threat this season palini started the year as world number 30 and at 28 years old she had never made it past the second round at any Grand Slam that was until she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open she then clinched her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai and now a French Open final appearance Pini becomes the third Italian woman in the open era to reach a role in G's final after Franchesca shavoni and Sarah arani for someone who said she never used to dream big palini will certainly be proud of everything she's achieved remember she's also beaten some of the best servers on tour despite not being known for her serve including rebaka twice sabalenka and also kolene Garcia all of whom are exceptional servers apart from pini's fighting Spirit her contagious smile is another thing we always love and appreciate about her as far as ranking updates go it's going to be quite a shakeup on the men's side Novak jokovic falls to the number three spot as he gets passed by CER and newly crowned Roland garos Champion alcaraz Alex D Manor returns to the top 10 after reaching the quarterfinal while cipas drops out of the top 10 for now holar Runa is now down to world number 15 hopefully he gets a big result soon Karen hatov drops outside the top 20 following his second round upset against kovalik meanwhile Coran M takes a giant leap and moves up 23 spots he now has the chance to break into the top 50 for the very first time in his career elsewhere zizu Bears finds himself inside the top 100 for the first time however Andy Murray slides 22 spots down and is now at risk of falling outside the top 100 on the women's side igas spanch puts more Daylight between herself and her Rivals however KOCO goof Leap Frog sabalenka as she reaches a new career high of world number two quite an achievement for the American who's the youngest player inside the top 20 meanwhile marqueta vrusa reaches a new career high at number five after making the quarterfinals but a certain Italian grabbed all the headlines although she was no match for spanch in the Roland G final Jasmine palini created more history by becoming the fifth italion to reach the WTA top 10 after moving eight spots up now currently occupying the seventh spot palini has no points to defend at Wimbledon so we could see her climb even higher em and Navaro continues to climb up the ladder and we could say the same thing for 17-year-old mea Andrea who's now on the verge of breaking into the top 20 karolina mova loses her finalist points from last year and slides down the ranking while we see some significant moves from Sophia Kennan and Anna Bogden ktie volet is one of the biggest movers of the week and same for Olga danovich who had an impressive French Open run herself but it gets more interesting when you look at how the WTA finals race is shaping up EGA has already booked her ticket to the final while palini is now up to the number five spot mea Andrea puts herself in the finals conversation after gaining ground on the other players while we recover from the highs of Roland garos we have a couple of 250s on both tours to help us cool off I'm not going to be doing a recap of the tournaments this week but no worries guys I will be sending you some insight through the newsletter so if you're not subscribed yet now would be the time to do so I'll leave the link in the description we have some popcorn matches in the first round in Stuart oh here's the draw on the screen Shelton looks to begin his campaign on the grass while Sasha bublick who won the biggest title of his career on grass last year in Hala will be counting on his serve for more success here our man Francis Tifa will also be looking to ReDiscover some form as well the results of the cagen Bosch ATP 250 draw came out over the weekend and here's what it looks like Alex deor is the top seed with second seed Tommy Paul on the other half of the draw Paul hasn't had the best results at this tournament with early round exits in the last couple years Ugo Amar Karen hainov Greek Sport and Corda are all seated so there are some big names in there for sure also NextGen ATP Stars Archer F and jaku menik look to also compete in cagen BOS too f is yet to get his first tour level win on the surface and menik hasn't even played an ATP match on grass this year's cagen tournament got a big boost on the women's side when former world number one Naomi Osaka accepted a wild card to start her grasscourt season now it's Naomi's first grass event in about 5 years she'll be looking to adapt quickly on the grass in a bid to get past the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in her career Jessica Pula is also looking to return to action as the top seed in the event other big names to look forward to are two-time Champion acerina alexandrova Bianca andrescu and Emma Navaro elsewhere an Zur headlines the entry list as the top seed at the Roth open in Nottingham we also have Marta kostuk and last year's winner ktie Bolter as the second and third seeds respectively meanwhile former US Open champ Emma raducanu has also accepted a wild card raducanu withdrew from Roland G's qualifying in order to focus on the grass and hardcourt swings so we have a couple of interesting story lines at play in Nottingham we now know that Danielle Collins is now confirmed in the lineup for the USA as a women's Olympic team I couldn't be happier for her it's been one hell of a ride for Collins and this is just the cherry on top for her meanwhile all hands were on Deck to keep Roger Federer away from grass and when we finally did Roger then went on to give this iconic speech I just came here to give a speech but I get to go home as Dr Roger but perhaps the biggest news off Court last week was the update on Sasha verb's court case the domestic abuse case was dropped and Sasha reiterated his innocence and the fact that he never wanted to hear of it again here's some part of the press release the 2024 French Open shattered the ceiling of expectations for many of us fans and the grasscourt season is shaping up to be just as crazy if you love what we're doing on the channel be sure to smash that subscribe button and as usual if you missed out on last week's videos no worries I've got them showing on the screen for you right here