Recently I wrote that the Notebook article is a reporter’s best, or at least most dependable, friend. No deep thoughts to painstakingly develop, no transition sentences to craft; you see something, you just put it down and move on to the next item of interest.
Blogs, of course, are made for notebooks, so much so that they’ve spawned a whole subgenre of them: the “5 things we learned at [insert tournament name here]” blurbs that we see on various sports sites—we've obviously been learning a lot lately. I’ve learned a few things myself, having written this type of piece more than once. After 10 days at Roland Garros, I’m feeling a little out of the tournament’s loop back in the States—you forget, when you’re there, that on TV there are these people called commentators who stand between you and the match itself. So it seems like an opportune moment to go the notebook route and leave the grandiose analysis for another day (and we will get grandiose, don't worry). What have I learned at the French? This week it's been more like: What did I already know, but had temporarily forgotten?
Robin Soderling is a Human Being
The Sod’s performance against Roger Federer was so fearsomely competent that even Bjorn Borg, long a contender to be named the World’s Least Excitable Man, threw down whatever he was doing and told us that there was no question Soderling, his countryman, was going straight to No. 1. That reaction, while surprising, didn't seem totally implausible.
It continued to seem that way through the first set of Soderling’s semi with Tomas Berdych today. The Sod looked like he was trying to prove that the Roger Federer era never happened, that style in tennis is useless BS—just take your racquet straight back, and swing it straight through, as hard as you can; nothing else matters. His backhand was so good, especially when he was moving to his left, that it began to look like a second forehand.
But then, as in last year’s final, and as he has over the course of this clay season, Soderling turned into himself again, the guy who struggled just to wins matches on clay for most of his career. He began to miss his forehand for no discernible reason and lost the next two sets to Berdych. The world should breathe a sigh of relief: Sod's domination of it will likely have to wait.
That said, a French Open title for Soderling may not. Whatever his form, his bedrock confidence is intact, as he showed by digging out of a two-sets-to-one hole on Friday. As he said this spring, the biggest reason for his improvement is his newfound ability to win when he’s not playing well. Soderling in a good mental spot for this final. He made it there and lost last year, which means he almost certainly won’t be satisfied with another runner-up finish. At the same time, he won’t face the pressure of being the favorite. The only question will be, if he does get a lead, whether he can handle being on the verge of winning a major. The Sod has been fearsomely competent up until now, but that will be an entirely new situation, one that his opponent has faced many times.
Rafael Nadal Gets Nervous
Of course, everyone does, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nadal get as blatantly tight as he did at the end of the third set against Melzer today. Serving for the match, he sent his first forehand deep into the doubles alley and then, in the tiebreaker, hit the first overhead I’ve ever seen him hit into the net (maybe it was the sun, but it was an unprecedented occurrence nonetheless). The important thing in the end was that Nadal didn’t cave to his nerves, and Melzer didn’t have enough game to take advantage of the opening.
Nadal has been very good at this tournament, obviously—if he’s not leveling people the way he did in 2008, he also hasn’t lost a set, which means he hasn’t had any extended drops in form. He lost to Soderling at Roland Garros last year, but he did beat him 1 and 0 in Rome a couple weeks before that. He has to be the favorite, based on his clay record, and the fact that he can win with his average game while Soderling will need to avoid the dips that he normally goes through, and which he went through today. Still, there’s something about this particular match-up, its edge, its history, that makes me believe Soderling, who has never been awed by Nadal, has a good shot at a win. As he reminded us today, Rafa can get nervous, and he’s going to get nervous at some point in the final. The question may be which Soderling—the brilliant or the awful—happens to be on the court when he does.
Francesca Schiavone Has a Nice Clay Court Game
I admit, I have never sought out a Schiavone match, unless I was interested in the person she happened to be playing. So I was happy to be reminded in her one-set semifinal that she’s been winning with an appealingly old-school clay game. She caresses the slice with a one-handed backhand, floats it at a sharp angle, closes when she sees the other player out of position. It’s an artful way of carving the other woman up. I’d love to see it work in the final, but I have my doubts. Either way, while it’s no rating blockbuster, I I’m finding the prospect of this women’s final to be a refreshing change of pace. Two first-time Slam finalists, neither of them from the U.S. or Russia or Belgium; plus, in Stosur, you have the potential to see a serious new contender make a breakthrough.
* !Ss What a Difference a Kick Serve Can Make in a Women’s Tennis Match*
Admit it, you thought Sam Stosur was going the Novotna route at the end of the third set against Serena Williams. Or at least that’s what I thought when a couple of her forehands landed in the vicinity of a line judge. The one shot Stosur could count on, though, was the most important, her serve. She didn’t fire bullets with it, but she also didn’t lob it in. She’s one of the few women capable of hitting a heavy and reliable kick, one that was immune to the nerves that she undoubtedly felt against Henin and Serena. Stosur, who has a winning head to head record against Schiavone, and who has been working toward this moment through the clay season, should have too much firepower. But like Soderling, the one thing we don’t know about her is how she’ll react to trying to close out a major final. Stosur only cracked the Top 10 for the first time in March. Behind those glinting and intimidating shades, does she really see herself as Slam winner? Like I said at the start of the tournament, we’ll find out what’s behind them on Saturday.
Tomas Berdych is Not There Yet
Something in the eyes has always looked a little blank. He played an awesome but cold brand of tennis—was Berdych capable of putting himself on the line emotionally? There were positive signs this year, a win over Federer and a runner-up finish in Key Biscayne, but today, up two sets to one, he couldn’t match Soderling’s ambitious and self-assured edge, he couldn’t match him in desire. It’s not that he didn’t want to win every bit as much as Soderling, but he couldn’t channel it the same way. He hit a ball just wide here, he clipped the tape there, he double-faulted at the wrong time. Berdych blew people out in this tournament—world No. 3 Andy Murray looked like a junior in their fourth-rounder—but he couldn’t win the close one, the battle. He couldn’t win ugly. Soderling has no trouble in that department, and that’s why we’ll be watching him on Sunday.