PARIS—I woke up to two thoughts this morning. First, I remembered that Virginie Razzano has to play a second-round match at some point; after one of the biggest upsets of all time, I hope she doesn’t suffer the biggest letdown of all time. Second, since the advent of the 32-, rather than 16-, seed system at the majors a decade ago, upsets of that magnitude are rare in the opening round. This has its pluses and minuses. A shocker like that is a thrill for an evening, and its buzz will reverberate for a few days. Unless Razzano turns this into a miracle run, though, we’ll be missing Serena’s presence at some point. No matter: Last night was one of those “this is what sports is all about” evenings, and you’re lucky to catch them, and to get caught up in the feelings of anarchy that they inspire, when you can.
But: Onward. It’s sunny again in Paris. Rain is in the forecast, but it’s been there a few times this week and hasn’t appeared yet. Here’s a look at a few of the things that were pushed to the margins on what was, in truth, mostly a very routine Tuesday.
Yesterday Rafael Nadal added his thoughts about the 2012 verstion of the Babolat ball: “It's fast. The ball is fast,” was his immediate, blurted answer, though he modified that assessment slightly as he went along. Nadal eventually concluded that, thus far, after one match on a hot day, they were a little slower than last year.
What did Babolat do to the balls, exactly? I asked Sylvain Triguigneaux, who runs the company’s equipment program at Roland Garros and other tournaments. He said that, despite having what he believed was a successful debut in 2012, “Some of the players complained that the ball was too hard. So we had a meeting with the FFT, who requested that we make an adjustment. We softened the ball a bit for this year’s tournament.”
Triguigneaux also said that the Babolats are used in the Nice, Brussels, and Strasbourg run-up events to Roland Garros, but getting them installed in Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome, and other big events is difficult, because each of those tournaments negotiates its own ball deals.
There has been a ball change in Paris this year. It’s just that, not all that surprisingly, the players can’t agree exactly what its effect has been.
Staying with Rafa for a minute, his presser yesterday upstaged his straight-set first-round win over Simone Bollelli. Most of the relevant Nadal bases were covered.
—First, the all-important question of the color of his shirt. What was this mysterious tint called, exactly? Nadal had no idea.
“I will check,” he said. “I let you know next time. I let you know exactly the name . . . That's a good question.”
—Did he have any idea whether Bjorn Borg would come to see him play the final? (Borg has said that he has no plans to make the trip)
“You know,” the practical Nadal said, “we are in the second round. That’s the thing. I have enough work to do thinking about the next round, and not think about if Bjorn will be here or if I gonna play the final.”
—The next reporter mentioned that a French player claimed that Chatrier was a difficult court to play on. Did he agree?
Nadal smiled and said, quite correctly, “I’m not the right player to say I don’t like that court.” What was he supposed to say, if only the match had been played somewhere else, I would have beaten Soderling in 2009? Nadal’s conclusion: “It’s one of the most charismatic courts in the history of tennis.”
—Blue clay: Would he go back on it if it were improved and wasn’t slippery?
“In my opinion, I already know was a bad decision," Nadal retorted, "and I didn’t change my mind two weeks later. We cannot accept in the middle of the clay-court season a tournament with completely different conditions.”
—His public injury talk: Did he see an advantage or disadvantage to mentioning his ailments, rather than not mentioning them?
“I don’t see an advantage or disadvantage,” Nadal said. “Because at the end the result is the same. You are injured, you are injured, even if you say or you don’t say. So all the thing we can talk about is if you prefer to come here and say the true, or you prefer to come here and lie. That’s the only point.”
—Finally, we went a little off topic:
Q: I read that your favorite place in Roland Garros is the locker room. Is this true?
Nadal: “You know, I spend a lot of hours there. That’s the true, no?...You can see all the matches, you have a nice lounge for the players. It’s one of the best locker rooms in the world.”
Roland Garros, owner of the GLROAT—greatest locker room of all time.
In the Herald Tribune, Christopher Clarey has a look behind a remarkable statistic: In 2002, there were 11 men at the French Open who were 30 and over; this year 37 over-30s started the tournament. The French already have a name for them: the "trentenaires." There’s no clear-cut answer as to why there are more of them these days, though one of the old-timers, Jarkko Nieminen, hazards a guess. “There’s more depth in the game every year, more good players, so the competition is tougher,” Nieminen says. “Over all, players are in very good shape, and obviously for a young junior, it takes a few years to build up the fitness.”
The leader of the senior set is clearly 34-year-old Tommy Haas, who qualified for the event and won his first-round match yesterday. Haas says he still relishes the opportunity to play, and wants to give his 1-year-old daughter a chance to see and remember him out there. He's not sure he's going to make it that long.
Favorite line from Virginie Razzano’s presser: “I always believe everything is possible, even if things are tough.”
Favorite line from Serena Williams’ presser, about Eva Asderaki: “Was that the one who did my U.S. Open last match last year? I just really had a flashback there.”
Wednesday’s play is set to begin as I write this, but here are a few things to look for:
—Top seed Novak Djokovic goes out to the second court, Lenglen, and he does it right away, at 11 A.M. sharp, against Blaz Kavcic
—Juan Martin del Potro is also out early; he faces Edouard Roger-Vasselin, a man who lives five minutes from Roland Garros. He shouldn't be late.
—Melanie Oudin gets a sterner test today, from Italy’s Sara Errani
—Folk hero Brian Baker returns, this time to Chatrier, to face Gilles Simon
—Roger Federer vs. Adrian Ungur, second on Chatrier
—Sloane Stephens vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands in an American girl battle; Stephens is looking to be on the proverbial verge of . . . we'll see
—Juan Carlos Ferrero vs. Marin Cilic, a nice one for little Court 6
—Pablo Andujar in a possible upset of Stan Wawrinka
—Another Williams returns late on Chatrier, when Venus takes on Aga Radwanska in the women’s match of the day
I should have a report on that last one this afternoon, along with a little local color. See you then.