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“When you step out on a newly made clay court that is clean, all the lines are perfect. It makes for a very pleasing visual experience,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said.
“But there’s also beauty when the courts are dirty and messed up and you can see all of the footwork and effort that has been put in and you have a visual of that, of how much work has been put in in order for you to succeed in what you do.” More
Yannick Noah was nervous.He was on familiar and, for him, sacred ground at Roland Garros, in the stadium that has been so central to his life, where he has watched, played and won so many matches, including the biggest of his life, and served as the ultimate tennis talisman and guru for his countrymen.There was even that night after the finals, long after he had retired, and it was late, and after many drinks had been consumed, he convinced the staff to keep the lights on just bright enough and let him and his friends play some tipsy, barefoot tennis on the red clay.But he had never performed on Philippe Chatrier court like this, which is to say, never given a concert as the version of himself that has for the past three decades dominated his life: the African-pop-reggae star of sorts. But then the band was waiting on the stage, and the public address announcer was calling his name, and nerves be damned, Noah, barefoot on the court once more and pulling off pedal pushers as gallantly as any 63-year-old man possibly can, was walking across the red clay, with the microphone to his lips waving and singing his opening song.“I lived my best moment here,” he said later, during a news conference more packed than it would have been for any active player. “I have memories everywhere here, including my first kiss.”Sorry, he did not drop a name, though wouldn’t we all like to know.Books on Yannick Noah and his triumphant victory at the French Open in 1983 were on sale at Roland Garros. Yannick Noah and Caroline Garcia cut outs stood by the Philippe Chartrier court.Forty years ago Noah etched his name into the history of France, winning the French Open men’s singles title. That victory, which stands as the only title by a Frenchman at the French Open in the past 77 years, is one of those sports moments that is part of the broader French consciousness, a precursor of sorts to France winning the men’s soccer World Cup in 1998 with a team filled with stars with African heritage.Everywhere else, Noah is known as the swashbuckling and effortlessly athletic Cameroonian-French player who won that big tournament a while back. Tennis fans of a certain age smile at the mention of his name.In France, his legacy and life loom over every man who has played tennis since as something nearly impossible to live up to — French Open champion, and the winner of 23 ATP titles.Then there is his post-playing life: international music star; the winning captain at the Davis Cup, which he celebrated by leading his team in an epic version of the African conga dance that accompanies his hit song; a leader of his village in Cameroon. It’s cool stuff.Early last week, on the eve of his debut in a Grand Slam tournament, Arthur Fils, France’s 18-year-old next big thing, was told that Noah had been talking him up. He cocked his head and opened his eyes wide. Fils was born more than two decades after Noah’s magic moment, but he has spent his life watching that match point replay on French television.“Of course he is one of my idols, from a long, long time,” Fils said.Nicolas Escudé, the former top-20 player who is now the national technical director for France’s tennis federation, said he and so many French players have been struggling with the burden of Noah’s legacy for decades. No Frenchman even made the third round this year.“In my position and even before when I was a player listening to this constant, ‘Hey, you know, we need a successor for Yannick Noah,’ listening to this again and again is a pressure,” said Escudé, who is 47.Grand Slam tournaments are tennis’s version of the Star Wars bar — lousy with past champions collecting pats on the back and paychecks to do television commentary or rub shoulders with sponsors. Someone like Noah, on the 40th anniversary of one of this tournament’s biggest moments, would figure to be all over Roland Garros.Noah at a press conference at the site of his triumphant victory at the French Open.Noah held his trophy after beating Sweden’s Mats Wilander and winning the French Open in 1983.STF/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNot so much.He stuck around for about 24 hours after the pretournament concert at Philippe Chatrier, where Mats Wilander, his opponent in the 1983 final, joined him for a rendition of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” The following day he attended the unveiling of a mural at Roland Garros celebrating his title. It was a private ceremony, closed to journalists and most of the public. And then he headed off to a music festival and his other life. On Sunday he performed in Caen, a small city a few hours’ drive west of Paris. . “For me, tennis is like some other time, like another life,” he said. “Once every 10 years, you know, they remind me I was a tennis player.”Like the rest of his life, the origin story involves that magical combination of destiny, talent and fortitude. Arthur Ashe spotted Noah at a tennis clinic during a tour of Africa in 1971, then quickly called his friend, Chatrier (the guy the stadium is named for), at France’s tennis federation. He told him there was a boy in Cameroon that had the makings of a champion.Soon Noah was living in France, and by the early 1980s his huge serve, speed and grace had made him a force on the professional tennis tour. His physique — 6-foot-4 and shoulders made for rebounding — is more common in this era than his own.Then came the dreadlocks that caused a stir in the staid world of an almost entirely white sport. Ahead of a Davis Cup final against Noah and France in 1982, John McEnroe, who was not exactly a creature of the establishment, remarked that he was “more afraid of his new hairstyle” than Noah’s game.The following spring, Noah romped to the French Open championship. He playing career officially ended after the 1996 season, with more titles than any Frenchman before or since.By then he was already deep into his music career. His song “Saga Africa” had become a hit in 1991, leading to a dual focus that soon began to tilt toward music.Noah during his concert at Philippe Chartrier. Noah began his career as a recording artist even before he finished his tennis career.Noah taking some time to sign autographs.“When I was losing tennis matches, I was telling people I was a singer,” he said.He moved back and forth between Europe and the United States, appearing in the stands of basketball games while watching his son, Joakim, became a college and N.B.A. star. Noah may not be around Roland Garros much this year, but Joakim was often in the player box of Frances Tiafoe, an American who is the son of African immigrants and is one of the tour’s few highly ranked Black players.Noah spends much of his time in Cameroon now. The photo that accompanies his mobile number shows him standing in front of a turquoise sea, sipping through a straw from a full martini glass, peering out from under the brim of a baseball cap.The dark dreadlocks are gone, replaced by tidy and appropriately thinning salt-and-pepper hair. There are lines across his forehead and bags under his eyes. But the gap-tooth smile, the soft voice, his “there-is-more-to-life-than-tennis” ethos, and that combination of swagger and approachability, it’s all still there. In the middle of the concert, he took a lap through the stadium, singing into the microphone in one hand, high-fiving and embracing the crowd with the other.The growing distance between the public and tennis players troubles him, he said, especially when social media is supposed to get them closer to fans. He has little use for the game’s code of conduct, which he said stifles players, preventing them from showing emotion on the court.Those emotional outbursts from McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, and even Noah on occasion, once helped draw the common sports fan to an elite game. Also, emotions are at the core of the sport, he said. Ask the players he coached to the Davis Cup title what he talked about with them, he said. He rarely mentioned tennis, just emotions.He worries about the future of French tennis. The are no coaches who have won at the highest level, so young players have no true expert guidance. Escudé dismissed Noah’s point of view, and said he’s not so available anyway, but Noah said he is around for occasional chats.“If the players call me, I’m here. But time is passing,” he said.For whatever time Noah has left, he will always cherish June 5. He looks at the video of the winning point and imagines people watching it when he dies. People stop him every day and tell him where they were when he won. Some have said they flunked their exams because they watched the match instead of studying, but they cherished being a part of the country’s cultural history.“For them it was a day that counted,” he said. “And I was there. I was at the core of that.”Noah walking barefoot on the court, a texture he described as being “like velvet.” More
Nadal, the Spanish star, has battled a core muscle injury since January. He said that next season “probably is going to be my last year in the professional tour.”Rafael Nadal, the 14-time French Open men’s singles champion, will not compete in this year’s edition of the event that has defined his career because of an injury that has sidelined him for months.Nadal, who has competed in Paris every year since 2005 and has an astonishing record of 112-3 at Roland Garros, made the announcement in a news conference Thursday at his tennis academy on the Spanish island of Majorca.Nadal said he would further extend his break from the game to try to get healthy and then attempt to play next season, which he said “probably is going to be my last year in the professional tour.”“That’s my idea,” he said. “Even that, I can’t say that 100 percent it’s going to be like this because you never know what is going to happen, but my idea and motivation is to try to enjoy and to try to say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important to me in my tennis career.”His withdrawal from the French Open, which is scheduled to begin on May 28, was not a surprise. He has not played since suffering an injury to his lower abdomen and right leg at the Australian Open in January. But the reality of the announcement, and his approaching absence from the red clay he has ruled for so long, jolted the tennis world.“I was working as much as possible every single day for the last four months and they have been very difficult months because we were not able to find the solution to the problem I had in Australia,” Nadal said. “Today I am still in the position where I am not able to feel myself ready to compete at the standards I need to be to play at Roland Garros.”Nadal won last year’s French Open to claim his 22nd Grand Slam singles title, and he has repeatedly called the tournament, the year’s second major, the most important of his career. His absence will create a massive void that the statue of him just steps away from the main stadium ensures will be a theme throughout the event.Nadal made it clear that he did not want to play the tournament with no realistic chance of being truly competitive.“I am not a guy who is going to be at Roland Garros and just try to be there and put myself in a position I don’t like to be in,” he said.“My idea and motivation is to try to enjoy and to try to say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important to me in my tennis career,” Nadal said on Thursday.Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNadal said that after pushing himself through pain to try to get ready for the French Open, he will now take an extended break from practice in an attempt to get healthy.“I don’t know when I will be able to come back to the practice court, but I will stop for a while,” he said. “Maybe two months. Maybe one month and a half. Maybe three months. Maybe four months. I don’t know. I’m not the guy who likes to predict the future but I am just following my personal feelings and just following what I really believe is the right thing to do for my body and for my personal happiness.”For weeks, as the pro tennis tour has meandered through the European clay season, which he has dominated throughout his career, Nadal’s health and his halting rehabilitation process have been some of the game’s main plot points. The conversation has gotten louder each week his withdrawals — from tournaments in Monte Carlo, then Barcelona, then Madrid — mounted.His most expansive comments before Thursday came in a video posted on social media last month in which he explained that his ongoing battle to recover from the tear in his psoas muscle in his lower abdomen and upper right leg had not gone as planned. Nadal suffered the injury in January during the second round of the Australian Open, the year’s first major tournament, where he was attempting to defend his title.In the days following Nadal’s injury in Australia, his team stated that it expected him to miss six to eight weeks, a timetable that would have allowed Nadal to return in time for the spring clay court season in Europe.The announcement at the beginning of this month that Nadal would not play in Rome, where he has won a record 10 times, sounded major alarm bells. The conditions there are closest to those at the French Open. Over the weekend, the organizer of a challenger event on red clay in France next week said Nadal had not sought entry into that tournament. That meant his opening match at Roland Garros would have to be his first real competition in more than four months.Nadal had said last month that he planned to seek additional treatment for the injury but did not specify what that treatment entailed and said he had no idea when he would be able to compete again. Throughout a record-setting but injury-plagued career, Nadal has mainly relied on a group of medical specialists in his native Spain, including Dr. Angel Ruiz Cotorro.It is not unheard-of for Nadal to enter a Grand Slam tournament without having played a tuneup on the corresponding surface. Nadal entered Wimbledon last year without having played a competitive match on grass since the middle of 2019. He made the semifinals but had to withdraw because of an abdominal injury.The psoas muscle injury is the latest in a string of ailments over the past 18 months — the flare-up of a chronic foot injury, a cracked rib and a pulled abdominal muscle — that have caused Nadal, who turns 37 on June 3, to miss many of the tournaments that are usually on his schedule. It comes at a time in his career when retirement has begun to feel less conceptual and more like a looming reality with each passing week.Nadal won his 14th French Open men’s singles title in 2022.James Hill for The New York TimesMaking matters worse, tennis punishes inactivity in a way that can make coming back from long layoffs especially difficult. If Nadal misses the entire clay court season, he will experience a calamitous drop in the world rankings unlike anything he has been through during the past two decades.In March, Nadal dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in 18 years. By missing the French Open, he is likely to drop out of the top 100 for the first time since 2003. While he will still be able to gain entry into any tournament by requesting a wild card, depending on how long he is sidelined and whether his ranking will qualify for protection, he may not be seeded and is likely to face top players far earlier than he usually would.That will present a special challenge for Nadal, who has often talked about needing to play himself into form and finding his rhythm with a series of wins against lesser competition. That opportunity will not be available without a higher ranking, and winning matches is the only way to achieve a higher ranking. Andy Murray of Britain, who turned 36 on May 15, is a two-time Wimbledon champion who climbed to No. 1 in 2016 and has been battling this dynamic since his return from major hip surgery four years ago.Nadal’s absence figures to leave the door wide open for Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish sensation who turned 20 earlier this month and last year became the youngest man ever to achieve the world’s top ranking after winning the U.S. Open; or Novak Djokovic, who is tied with Nadal with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Djokovic has had his own injury problems during the clay court season, though he has appeared to be in solid form this week in Rome at the Italian Open.When he rejoined the tour in April, he aggravated an elbow injury in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Then he withdrew from Madrid so he could rest for Rome, where he has won six times, and Roland Garros, where he has won twice, most recently in 2021.Djokovic, the world No. 1, missed two important hard court tournaments in the United States in March because he could not gain entry into the country without being vaccinated against Covid-19. The Biden administration has ended that requirement, meaning Djokovic will be able to play in the U.S. Open. More
PARIS — Perhaps 10 years ago, over a late dinner at la Porte d’Auteuil after a long day of covering matches at Roland Garros, I remember agreeing with Philippe Bouin, the great French tennis writer for L’Équipe, that if the French Open ever chose to join other Grand Slam tournaments and stage night sessions, it would be the right time to move on to other pursuits instead of filing stories long after midnight and missing any chance at a last-call bistro meal.There are certainly bigger issues in tennis, but Bouin more or less kept his word, retiring long before the French Open adopted its “sessions de nuit” in 2021. But I’ve kept coming, and there I was bundled up in a nearly full stadium as Tuesday turned into Wednesday and May into June as Rafael Nadal finished off Novak Djokovic in their stirring quarterfinal at 1:15 a.m.Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic on Tuesday night in four sets to reach the semifinals.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesThere I was, too, walking out of Roland Garros a couple of hours later and — with no public transport available — observing a few French fans still trying in vain to hail a taxi or book a ride.Night sessions have their upside in tennis, no doubt: electric atmosphere, prime-time coverage (depending on one’s time zone) and a chance for fans who work during the day to attend in person.Fans did the wave during a night match between Marin Cilic and Daniil Medvedev on Monday. Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBut the new night sessions at Roland Garros, created above all to increase profits for an event that trails the other the Grand Slam events in domestic television revenue, also have had plenty of downsides. That is largely because the French decided to do them their own way by scheduling just one match in that slot instead of two, the usual offering at other Grand Slam events.Guy Forget, the former French Open tournament director who was part of that decision, said it was made “so matches would not end at 3 a.m.”Ball kids watching the end of a match between Alizé Cornet and Jelena Ostapenko from a camera pit.James Hill for The New York TimesWimbledon remains a holdout on night sessions (grass gets even more slippery after sunset). But the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, which have had night sessions for decades, usually schedule a men’s singles match and a women’s singles match, and there have been a few all-nighters along the way, including a Lleyton Hewitt victory over Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open that ended at 4:34 a.m. (It was quite a sunrise on the way back to the hotel.)The French Open approach has been problematic in terms of value for money — is one blowout in the chill, like Marin Cilic’s rout of Daniil Medvedev — worth well over 100 euros a ticket?It also has been problematic for gender equality. The 10 Roland Garros night sessions this year featured just one women’s match: the Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet’s victory over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia. It was the same ratio last year, when the tournament debuted the night sessions, with no fans on nine of 10 nights because of the coronavirus pandemic.Djokovic serving during his match against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan.James Hill for The New York TimesThe disparity has continued even though Amélie Mauresmo, a former WTA No. 1 from France, is the new French Open tournament director. Pressed on the issue on Wednesday, the morning after the Nadal-Djokovic duel, Mauresmo displayed clumsy footwork, saying that, as a woman and a “former women’s player,” she did “not feel bad or unfair saying that right now” the men’s game was generally more attractive and appealing than the women’s game.Mauresmo said her goal after the draw came out was to try to find women’s matches that she could put in that showcase nighttime slot. But she said she struggled to find the marquee matchups and star power she was seeking. Women’s matches are also typically shorter with a best-of-three-sets format, compared with best of five for the men.A group in the crowd with a drum and trumpets and a portrait of Cornet roused the crowd during a break.James Hill for The New York Times“I admit it was tough,” she said. “It was tough for more than one night to find, as you say, the match of the day,” she said, sounding somewhat apologetic.Iga Swiatek, the 21-year-old Polish star, did not get a nighttime assignment despite being the new No. 1 and a former French Open champion.“It is a little bit disappointing and surprising,” Swiatek said of Mauresmo’s comments after running her winning streak to 33 singles matches on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jessica Pegula, an American. She added that it was more convenient for most players to compete during the day, “but for sure I want to entertain, and I also want to show my best tennis in every match.”Ostapenko discussing a line call with an umpire.James Hill for The New York TimesIn a text message, Steve Simon, the WTA chief, expressed disapproval with the nighttime scheduling and with the fact that women’s matches were usually picked to be the opening match on the two main show courts during the day sessions: a time slot in which crowds and viewership are often smaller.“The generation and depth of talent we are currently witnessing in the sport is incredible,” he said. “Our fans want to see the excitement and thrill of women’s tennis on the biggest stages and in the premium time slots. There is certainly room for improvement, and if we want to build the value of our combined product, then a balanced match schedule is critical in providing that pathway.”A D.J. performed to warm up the crowd at Philippe Chatrier Court in a nighttime showcase marketed as “D.J. Set and Match.” James Hill for The New York TimesThe WTA was short on superstar power at Roland Garros with the surprise retirement of top-ranked Ashleigh Barty in March, the first-round defeats of Naomi Osaka and the defending French Open champion, Barbora Krejcikova, and the continued absence of Serena and Venus Williams, who have yet to compete this year.But the one-match nighttime format also made it difficult to showcase Swiatek, who is winning most of her matches in a hurry at this stage. “The amount of playing time is certainly a factor,” Mauresmo said in a text message.Why not simply schedule two matches, or two women’s matches, at night to guarantee enough entertainment? Because, according to Mauresmo, the night-session broadcast contracts from 2021 through 2023 stipulate that there be just one match.Nishioka stretching for a shot during his match against Djokovic.James Hill for The New York Times“Impossible to change that,” Mauresmo said. “But we still will talk with our partners to think of other possibilities that could satisfy ticket holders.”That sounds like a fine idea, as does starting earlier than 8:45 p.m., even with a single match, if the idea is to spare players too many late nights and avoid irking the neighbors in the leafy and peaceful suburb of Boulogne, which was another reason for the one-match concept.The bigger issue in France is accessibility. Amazon Prime Video, the internet broadcaster that purchased the night-session rights here, has a small footprint compared with the traditional public broadcaster. And yet it is supposed to get the marquee match even if the contract, according to L’Équipe, allows the French Open organizers the final say.Fans watching a night match between Marin Cilic and Daniil Medvedev.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBut there was no doubt about the marquee match on Tuesday, and though Amazon Prime agreed exceptionally to allow free access to its service to viewers in France, the decision to schedule Nadal and Djokovic’s quarterfinal at night sparked debate and anger.“The French Tennis Federation’s decisions shocks me profoundly,” Delphine Ernotte, president of France Televisions, told Le Figaro. “It’s a low blow to our partnership after we have broadcast and popularized the event for years.”To have the matchup of the tournament end at 1:15 a.m. on a weeknight surely was not great for viewership in France, either. And though the atmosphere was still transcendent inside the main stadium after midnight, there was a price to pay on the road home.French Open organizers have yet to reach an agreement with the Parisian authorities to keep public transport operating after very late finishes.The Métro was closed, and so — as Bouin and I feared long ago — were the bistros.Nadal celebrating after defeating Djokovic early Wednesday morning.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times More
Djokovic, the world No. 1, and Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, will continue their epic rivalry on Tuesday in the quarterfinal at Roland Garros.PARIS — As the kids like to say these days, it’s on.Far sooner than many may have hoped, Novak Djokovic, the reigning French Open champion, will take on Rafael Nadal, a 13-time champion at Roland Garros, in a quarterfinal match on Tuesday, the first rematch of two of the leading men’s players since their epic semifinal last June.It took some of Nadal’s greatest tennis to survive a five-set, four-hour, 21-minute thriller Sunday evening against Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, but the match that so many crave is on the horizon.“A huge challenge and probably the biggest one that you can have here in Roland Garros,” Djokovic said, anticipating Nadal, after his fourth straight-sets win, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3, a pummeling of Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. “I’m ready for it.”Perhaps more than Nadal, who survived one of the great scares of his storied French Open career against Auger-Aliassime, the athletic and tireless Canadian with a booming serve and big forehand.“We have a lot of history together,” Nadal said of Djokovic.They have played each other 58 times, with Djokovic holding a 30-28 edge. It is a classic clash of styles, Nadal blasting away and running wild on the clay, his favorite surface, and Djokovic bringing his exquisite timing, incomparable steel, and the most varied arsenal in the game.Even more, it is a clash of two men whose personalities and trajectories, especially over the past year, have pushed them into different realms of the sport and public consciousness. One is a beloved citizen of the world, the other a polarizing, outspoken iconoclast so set in his beliefs that he was prepared to spend his last prime years on the sidelines rather than receive a vaccination against Covid-19.There were scattered boos as Djokovic was introduced on the Suzanne Lenglen Court on Sunday. Fans at the main court, Philippe Chatrier, chanted “Rafa, Rafa,” through the evening, urging on the Spanish champion who is immortalized with a nine-foot statue outside the stadium.Since Djokovic pulled off the nearly impossible by beating Nadal at last year’s French Open, Nadal has been jousting indirectly with his chief rival.Novak Djokovic beat Diego Schwartzman in straight sets on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals against Nadal.Julien De Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDjokovic mounted an all-out quest last year to pull ahead of Nadal and Roger Federer in Grand Slam tournament titles and nearly did it, evening the Big Three at 20 wins each for six months and coming within one match of surging ahead. Nadal, who largely ended his 2021 season after the French Open because of a chronic foot injury, said finishing his career with the most major championships mattered little to him.Djokovic has refused to get vaccinated and questioned established science. Nadal got vaccinated long ago, because, he said, he is a tennis player and in no position to question what experts say is best for public health.Djokovic has tried to spearhead an independent players organization, the Professional Tennis Players Association, which he launched with a handful of other players in 2020. Nadal has refused to join the group and remains a member of the player council of the ATP, which has kept Djokovic’s organization on the outside of the sport’s decision-making process.On the court, they have captured each other’s most treasured possessions. After beating Nadal in the semifinals last year, Djokovic erased a two-set deficit and beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final to win his second French Open title.In January, after being largely inactive for six months, unsure whether his foot would ever allow him to play again, Nadal won the Australian Open, which Djokovic had won nine times, more than any other Grand Slam tournament.Djokovic had won three consecutive Australian Opens and traveled to the country expecting to be allowed to defend his titles. He had tested positive for Covid-19 and recovered in mid-December. He thought that was supposed to gain him entry into the country despite its strict rules prohibiting unvaccinated visitors. He was detained at the border and deported after government officials deemed his stance against vaccinations a threat to public health.As the controversy unfolded, Nadal said in some ways he felt sorry for his rival, then kicked a bit of dirt at Djokovic, who was locked in a Melbourne hotel with asylum seekers.“He knew the conditions since a lot of months ago,” Nadal said, “so he makes his own decision.”The shadow sparring has continued in Paris. Djokovic complained that the ATP had not involved his player organization in its discussions with Wimbledon after the tournament barred players from Russia and Belarus in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The tour responded by announcing it would not award rankings points for the event, a move Nadal defended as necessary for protecting all players.They even have different approaches to their careers. Djokovic said Sunday that being ranked No. 1 was “was always the highest goal beginning every season, particularly being in the era with Federer, Nadal.”A few hours later, Nadal, currently ranked fifth, said he never paid any attention to his ranking. Just a number. Not important to him.With their showdown now less than 48 hours away, the conversation has turned to whether they will play during the day or night, with each making his preference known to tournament organizers.Djokovic, left, and Nadal in their semifinal match at the 2021 French Open.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesNadal favors playing during the day, when the weather is warmer, and the ball bounces high off the clay, right into his wheelhouse, and flies off his racket.Djokovic excels at night, especially in Australia and at the U.S. Open, when conditions are colder and slower. His match against Nadal last year turned when the sun went down, the temperature dropped and Nadal struggled to hit the ball through the court. Nadal said last week he did not believe clay-court tennis should happen at night. Too cold and too damp, which makes the clay stick to balls, giving them the feel of heavy rocks on his racket.Nadal won the initial scheduling battle Sunday, playing his match on the Philippe Chatrier Court. Organizers put Djokovic on the second court, Suzanne Lenglen, a smaller and more open venue with just one level of seats, making it susceptible to high winds.Djokovic managed the challenge, making Schwartzman seem like a sparring partner who forced Djokovic to run and stay on the court long enough — a little more than two hours — but not too long. After one spirited sprint to the net for a perfectly feathered drop-shot return, he put his finger to his ear, asking the crowd to give him his due.Nadal had no such concerns, though he struggled from the start of the chilly and breezy evening. Forty minutes into the match, he was down 5-1 and two breaks of serve, the rarest of events for someone who came into the match with a 108-3 record in this tournament.Nadal often kicks clean the nub of tape in the middle of the baseline before heading to his chair for a changeover. As Auger-Aliassime, pumped his fist after clinching the first set, 6-3, Nadal spent an extra few seconds working the line with his foot, taking an extra moment seemingly to prepare for the challenging places this match was going.Nadal appeared to take control of the match in winning the second and third sets but, unlike Djokovic, Nadal has been anything but clinical at Roland Garros this year, losing opportunities to close out opponents like the assassin he has been in years past.It happened again on Sunday. In the end, at the crucial moments of the last two games in the final set, it took a magical, on-the-run forehand flick for a down-the-line passing shot, an all-out sprint to catch up to a drop volley, a perfect second serve on the T, two more all-out chases and two deep, signature forehands for Nadal to set up his showdown with Djokovic.Just as everyone was hoping. More
PARIS — In my 30th year of covering the French Open, I am in need of a map.The courts where I have watched so many matches on the crushed red brick of Roland Garros are almost all gone — demolished or remodeled beyond recognition, like the main Philippe Chatrier Court with its retractable roof. Passageways that led somewhere familiar now run into concrete walls or freshly painted gates or take you to new-age landscapes like the sculpture garden behind Chatrier with its rows of ocher deck chairs and its cruise ship vibe.All four of the Grand Slam tournaments have been on a building spree, but Roland Garros at this stage is the major that seems the most transformed.It is the one I know — or used to know — best. I covered it for the first time in 1991, the year Monica Seles defended her title and Jim Courier beat Andre Agassi in that distant time when all-American men’s finals were all the rage in Grand Slam tournaments. Most important for me, 1991 was the year I married Virginie, a Parisian, and moved to France from San Diego.In the early years, we lived in a studio apartment a few blocks from Roland Garros’s back gate. That meant that for two precious weeks a year, a tennis writer could walk to work from home, and I sometimes shared the commute with French players, like Guillaume Raoux, who had the good fortune to play a Grand Slam tournament in their own neighborhood.Roland Garros is technically in Paris, on the southwestern limits of the 16th Arrondissement. But in feeling, it is closer to village life. The vast Bois de Boulogne park is on one border. Low-rise, suburban Boulogne-Billancourt is on the other.Even with the expansion into the nearby botanical gardens in 2019, Roland Garros’s footprint is still the smallest of the Grand Slam tournaments, but the expansion also has made it the most eye-catching of the majors.You could already watch tennis in Paris with the shadows lengthening across the clay in the early evening, one of the most photogenic moments in sports. Now you can watch tennis in a greenhouse, too.It is high time for a visit to the new Roland Garros, and in lieu of a map, I called in a tour guide: Gilles Jourdan, who was once a ball boy at the tournament but is now the silver-haired manager of the stadium’s modernization project.Where’s the Bullring?A packed court one during the third-round men’s singles match between Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Andy Murray of Great Britain on Day 7 of the 2012 French Open.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesThere was no better seat in tennis journalism than in Court 1. In the front row along the baseline, you were so close to the action that you sometimes had to lean back to avoid a player’s swing on a wide return. Best of all was the venue: a 3,800-seat theater in the round known as the Bullring. It wasn’t the prettiest court in tennis, but it got something the architect, Jean Lovera, a former French junior champion, had not anticipated: acoustics that accentuated the strike of the ball. Courier used to love the unique thwack.“The sound moves and resonates in a bit of a different way,” Lovera told me in 2010. “And as it turns out, I think it lends itself to generating emotions and making temperatures rise and getting reactions from both the players and the crowd that are stronger than usual.”I can only concur, having once watched the Russian star Marat Safin drop his shorts midmatch to celebrate a drop-shot winner. But the Bullring and the sound effects are gone — demolished after the 2019 tournament to provide more space. The idea was to replace Court 1 with an open lawn, a flat French version of Wimbledon’s Aorangi Terrace, better known as Henman Hill. But there is not much open lawn this year. The void left by Court 1 has been filled by paving stones, new walkways, a coffee bar and other diversions.The Musketeers are backThe Place des Mousquetaires, former site of the Bullring.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros was built in a hurry in 1928 because of four men: Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon and René Lacoste, who was not yet a brand in those distant days. They were known as the mousquetaires (Alexandre Dumas’s novels were even bigger then), and in 1927, they won the Davis Cup in the United States against a team that included Bill Tilden. The Davis Cup, a team event, was as prestigious in those days as Grand Slam titles are today, and a new stadium was constructed in less than a year to accommodate France’s Davis Cup defense.The Italian sculptor Vito Tongiani made bronze statues of the musketeers in the 1980s and the early 1990s. They were put on display at Roland Garros and then stored during renovations. But they are back this year in the new Musketeers Garden, sharing space during the tournament with the deck chairs and a big-screen television. The last buildingThe cottage that is the last of the buildings from 1928 on the grounds of Roland Garros.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times“It’s in bad shape,” Jourdan said, standing next to a large, half-timbered cottage with some cracked windows that sits on the northeastern boundary of the grounds.It is largely out of view this year, used for catering supplies, but it deserves the spotlight. After all the demolition and renovation, it is the last building standing that was there in 1928, spared because of its links to the past even though sentimentality has not saved much else.The cottage predates the stadium. It was the clubhouse for a private tennis club whose clay courts became part of the original Roland Garros. “Above all, during the musketeers’ years, they changed in there,” Jourdan said. “It was the locker room.”It later became a gardeners’ shed and then a dormitory for young tennis prospects who were training at Roland Garros. The most famous former occupant is Yannick Noah, who went on to win the French Open in 1983 and become a pop star. He remains one of the most popular figures in France.The AshesGilles Jourdan, the manager of the stadium modernization project.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesA monument to Étienne-Jules Marey that also contains his remains.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros preferred rugby and has his name on a tennis stadium only because his friends wanted to honor his memory; he was an aviator and a fighter pilot who died in combat in the final days of World War I. But the stadium also honors another figure who was not a tennis player: the French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey, who died in 1904 and whose experiments with “chronophotography” helped lay the foundations for modern cinema.A research institute bearing his name, the Institut Marey, was opened on the current site of Roland Garros in 1903 and remained in place for 50 years after the stadium was built, allowing scientists, sometimes in white lab coats, to watch matches from the roof. But it was demolished to make way for Court 1’s construction in 1980, with the agreement that a monument to Marey would remain part of the stadium in perpetuity. The marble bas-relief monument, which contains some of Marey’s ashes, has moved around the grounds through the decades, but it is now in a prominent location in the new garden. “During the construction, Mr. Marey stayed in my office for two years,” Jourdan said with a chuckle, referring to Marey’s ashes. “I’m not sure the family would have approved, but he’s back where he belongs now.”A grander entranceCourt 2 during the 2001 French Open, with the old Chatrier Court in the background.Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT, via Getty ImagesThe Bullring’s demise is a pity, but the loss that really hurts is the old Court 2. It was my favorite spot: a close-quarters drama magnet where coaches, off-duty players and members of the news media shared the same box, entering through a door that felt like the portal to a secret garden. I once interviewed Boris Becker on a changeover.Built in 1928, it was a two-tiered court, so cozy it seemed that the fans on the upper tier were hovering over the players as they traded blows. But the expansion of the Chatrier Court left no room for Court 2, and its departure has made way for a new main entrance that allows the public to descend into Roland Garros down a wide flight of stone stairs.Jourdan remembers the old entrance, which was nearby. “In those days, the center court had no reserved seating, so as soon as the gates opened it was a sprint for the best spots,” he said. “One year, it rained, so the stones were wet, and people went down in a heap when they ran around the corner. We weren’t laughing then, but we laughed later.”There are no more morning sprints, and as you walk down the stairs, you cannot help but stop to gawk at another new statue: Rafael Nadal in larger-than-life stainless steel, following through on an airborne forehand. Nadal has, of course, turned Roland Garros into his personal playground, winning a record 13 singles titles. It is a measure of Nadal’s achievement that the first thing you see when you enter one of France’s great showplaces is a Spaniard.The oasisA small pond nestled among plants labeled with their scientific names at the entrance to the Jardins des Serres d’Auteuil.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesWe will see how the remodeled grounds work in 2022, but Roland Garros has long been oppressively overcrowded, like a rush-hour commuter train disguised as a Grand Slam tournament. For years, I would sneak away at lunchtime to the adjacent Serres d’Auteuil gardens with my ham-and-cheese baguette (and fondant au chocolat). It was a peaceful moment, although not a silent one. You could still hear the roars from the courts and the chair umpires calling the scores, which was handy in the days before the Roland Garros app.Now, after a long legal battle, one section of the gardens is officially part of Roland Garros. You can walk on a charming cobblestoned thoroughfare flanked by lovely 19th-century buhrstone buildings before arriving at the world’s only show court in a greenhouse: a semi-sunken 10,000-seat stadium that opened in 2019. It is a world apart after a short walk and a stroke of genius if you ask me, even if a few of the exotic plants appear to be wilting under glass and even if my secret picnic spot is definitely no more.Le shoppingThe Grande Boutique, a nearly 1,500-square-meter shopping space under Courts 2 and 3.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesRoland Garros has long had great loot, often too great on a sportswriter’s salary. The prices have not gone down, but the shopping has. A new and sprawling megastore has opened underground this year, and “megastore” sounds a lot better in French: La Grande Boutique. The long walk (or ride)Court 16, the westernmost court in the complex, is used exclusively for practice.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesIt is nearly a kilometer now from one end of the grounds to the other. It is a trek, but the players can make it faster than the masses, because they can travel below ground in the system of tunnels that connects the main Chatrier Court with the hinterlands.Players make part of the journey in golf carts to save their energy. We did it on foot with Jourdan, passing from tunnels to underground parking lots to walkways to a staircase that brought us back into the sunlight at Courts 15 and 16. These are the only fully dedicated practice courts left in Roland Garros, and I used to play here, too, but not on these courts and not on red clay.This area was once a public tennis facility with asphalt hardcourts before the French Tennis Federation took possession, as it has inexorably taken possession of all the nearby property on the same wedge of land as Roland Garros. You can understand the urge when you look at the size of the U.S.T.A.’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center or the plans for the next mammoth expansion of Wimbledon into the adjacent golf course. The competition among the Grand Slam tournaments is real, and one of the reasons the French Open stayed in Paris in 2012 instead of moving to bigger digs in Versailles was the promise of more land. Something still familiarChristopher Clarey in the stairwell leading to the news media seats at Court Suzanne Lenglen.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesJennifer Brady and Coco Gauff facing each other at Suzanne Lenglen Court.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesJourdan, it has to be said, is a great tour guide — witty, convivial and informative. I am no longer in need of a map, but nostalgia is tough to shake. So before heading back to the Chatrier Court with all its glass and steel, I made a final stop at Suzanne Lenglen Court, the second-biggest show court at Roland Garros. The court has been a fine place to watch tennis for nearly 30 years.I saw Roger Federer make his Grand Slam debut on that court in 1999 against Patrick Rafter — and lose in a backward ball cap. Lots of memories there, so I walked up the stairs, turned left and took a seat. No matches were on this late in the second week. The net was down, and a big-screen television was in place, but it still felt reassuringly familiar, and so it will remain until the new retractable roof goes up in 2024, in time for the Paris Olympics.I should have seen that coming. More
At the French Open, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion defeated her fellow American Danielle Collins, 6-4, 6-4, in her most convincing performance of the week.PARIS — Serena Williams’s tennis dress was green and billowed in the breeze. The tape on her right thigh was white and tight.It was a fashion clash, surely not what Williams had in mind when she approved this French Open ensemble. But the tape was a fitting symbol of her determination and persistence at age 39.Williams is not at her peak, and she looked rusty indeed when she returned to the tour and the red clay in Italy last month. But she is serving and scrapping her way into a much better place in Paris, and on an overcast Friday afternoon at a lightly populated center court, she produced her most convincing performance of the week to defeat a fellow American, Danielle Collins, 6-4, 6-4.The match was less straightforward and symmetrical than the score. Collins, who reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year, led by 4-1 in the second set after holding serve at love. The momentum appeared to have shifted, but Williams lifted, Collins dipped, and Williams did not lose another game.“Today in particular, this whole week thus far, I just needed a win,” Williams said. “I needed to win tough matches. I needed to win sets. I needed to win being down. I needed to find me, know who I am. Nobody else is Serena out here. It’s me. It’s pretty cool.”The one and only Serena is now back in the fourth round of the French Open, which is not unusual for a player who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles but is extraordinary at this advanced stage of her game.“I needed to find me, know who I am. Nobody else is Serena out here.”Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesShe is the oldest woman to reach the round of 16 in singles at Roland Garros in the Open era, surpassing her older sister Venus, who was 36 when she reached that round in Paris in 2017.“I personally can’t imagine still playing at this level at almost 40 years old,” said Chanda Rubin, a former top 10 player who is now a Tennis Channel analyst. “People get used to things, and we’re all guilty of it. You start seeing it more often, and it becomes less amazing, but what she’s doing is still amazing to me.”Success among older athletes is all the rage with Phil Mickelson winning the P.G.A. Championship last month at 50, Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl in February at 43 and Sue Bird winning a W.N.B.A. title last year at 39.There is clearly a role-modeling effect underway. Venus, who will turn 41 on June 17, is fading but still on tour, playing with tape and day-to-day pain of her own yet still hitting winners past women half her age.Roger Federer, who will turn 40 in August, remains in contention at this French Open after looking quick off the mark again on Thursday as he defeated his longtime rival Marin Cilic in four sets on the same patch of red clay where Williams beat Collins in cooler, heavier conditions.Seven Americans played third-round singles matches on Thursday, including four men: John Isner, Steve Johnson, Reilly Opelka and Marcos Giron. Williams was the only American to prevail, and I asked the 27-year-old Collins afterward if seeing Williams and other icons succeed late into their 30s and beyond made her view her own future differently.“I think that should give a lot of different athletes confidence, younger athletes especially, not to put as much pressure on themselves,” Collins said. “You’re seeing some of the greatest athletes in the world have some of their best success once they’re a little bit older. I think that goes to the maturity, the experience that they have at that point. It just shows how much of sports is a mental game, more so than just a physical game. It should give players confidence to see somebody like Serena or Tom Brady or Phil Mickelson.”Of course, Williams, Federer, Brady and Mickelson were all young phenoms before they became enduring superstars. What made them exceptional initially has helped keep them exceptional, but they have also had to adapt: training differently, eating more carefully and, in the cases of Williams and Federer, competing more efficiently.“Serena has had to make adjustments, just like Roger, to remain a factor at the majors,” Rubin said. “Look at Roger, being more aggressive and moving in, taking on that challenge, so I think that kind of adaptability is a requirement.”Even so, it has been quite some time since they reaped tennis’s biggest rewards. Federer’s last major singles title came at the Australian Open in 2018; Williams’s came at the Australian Open in 2017, when she was two months pregnant with her daughter, Olympia.Serena Williams acknowledged the crowd after her win on Friday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesBut both have continued to give themselves major opportunities: two match points for Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final against Djokovic; four different Grand Slam finals for Williams since her return from maternity leave.The odds of winning another major are against them. Federer, who will play Saturday night against Dominik Koepfer in the third round, is still in the half of the men’s singles draw with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. But Williams’s section of the women’s draw has opened up promisingly. At No. 7, she is the highest seed left in the bottom half after No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka experienced her latest Grand Slam setback by losing, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0, on Friday to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.The only Grand Slam singles champions left in the bottom half are Williams and Victoria Azarenka, who is not at her most dangerous on clay. There is also Marketa Vondrousova, a left-handed Czech who reached the final here in 2019.“There are some real challenges in front of Serena, but of course it’s possible,” Rubin said. “If you look at who’s left in her half, she has to feel pretty good about her chances. She can go toe-to-toe in any of those matches and lose them, but they are also winnable. That’s what you want, and she has to be feeling better about her game after seeing how she handled a tough challenge against Collins today.”Williams served and competed well, and will need more of the same in the next round when she faces Elena Rybakina, a 21-year-old who is seeded 21st. Rybakina, who was born and raised in Moscow, now represents Kazakhstan and has Williams-level power.But Rybakina has never faced Williams and never played a match of this magnitude. Even at 39 on her least favorite surface, Williams deserves to be the favorite. More
Iga Swiatek, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic feature on Court Philippe-Chatrier on the second day of third round action.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel, noon to 2 p.m. on NBC and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Peacock; streaming on the Tennis Channel+ and Peacock apps.It is difficult to ignore the fact that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will all be playing on Saturday afternoon in Paris. As appealing a draw as they might be, against three unseeded players, there are minuscule chances for upsets as the “Big Three” march forward.Direct your attention to the women’s draw; packed with exceptional matches from dawn on the East Coast until dusk in Paris. Although last year’s champion, Iga Swiatek, will be the main focus, plenty of other contests are sure to entertain.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Suzanne Lenglen Court | 8 a.m.Sofia Kenin vs. Jessica PegulaSofia Kenin, the fourth seed, has had a pair of tough matches to start at Roland Garros. The former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko was an early test in the first round. Kenin reached the final last year but lost at the Australian Open in the second round earlier this year. Now, with a couple of wins under her belt, it seems that Kenin is regaining the confidence necessary to push into the second week of the French Open.Jessica Pegula, the 28th seed, has had an excellent run of form this year. She reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in February, recording a pair of upsets over Victoria Azarenka and Elina Svitolina along the way. In the past few months, she has also recorded multiple victories over Karolina Plíšková and Naomi Osaka. With this in mind, Pegula will feel she is well matched to challenge Kenin, even though Kenin came out victorious in their match earlier this year.Rafael Nadal returns the ball to France’s Richard Gasquet during their second round match.Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSuzanne Lenglen Court | 10 a.m.Rafael Nadal vs. Cameron NorrieCameron Norrie, ranked No. 45, has had a breakout year. He has reached the third round of a Grand Slam event in three of his past four attempts and reached the final of two clay court events in May. This run will push him into the top 40 for the first time in his career, but Rafael Nadal is likely to end Norrie’s French Open.Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, has won 102 of his 104 matches played on the grounds of Roland Garros. It’s a stunning statistic, even without considering the caliber of players that he has battled against throughout the years. He has once again looked dominant, not dropping a set on his way to the third round. For the time being, there doesn’t seem to be any challenger worth discussing as a successor for Nadal, and it makes his march to the final an almost foregone conclusion.Coco Gauff playing a forehand during her second round match.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesSuzanne Lenglen Court | 1 p.m.Coco Gauff vs. Jennifer BradyJennifer Brady, the 13th seed, needed steely determination to push through her second round match against Fiona Ferro. Brady was down a break on two occasions in the final set, but she managed to fight back, using her powerful forehand strokes to force Ferro around the court. The match took over two hours, and it will be interesting to see whether Brady can bring that same energy into her next challenge against talented Coco Gauff.Gauff, the 24th seed, has slowly been establishing herself as a serious contender on the WTA Tour. After breakout performances at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2019, Gauff had a quiet 2020 season, but she is now working her way up the rankings. Although she has lost her only match against Brady, Gauff’s game has progressed well since then, and she will be confident that she can edge out an upset in this competitive matchup.Court 14 | 7 a.m.Jannik Sinner vs. Mikael YmerJannik Sinner, the 18th seed, is at the lead of an Italian renaissance in tennis. The 19-year-old reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2020, and the finals of the Miami Open, a masters level event, earlier this year. Although he has looked slightly inconsistent on clay over the past few months, there have been shining moments, even in defeat to some of the best players on the tour. If he can settle into matches early and try to control them from the start, anything could be possible.Mikael Ymer, ranked No. 105, upset the 14th seed, Gael Monfils, in the second round over four sets. Ymer has begun to show serious results in 2021, reaching the third round at the Australian Open and now again at Roland Garros. Ymer’s hard-striking baseline game is not particularly well suited to clay, but his athleticism can help him overcome deficiencies in his play on any given day.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Sloane Stephens vs. Karolina Muchová; Simonne-Mathieu Court, 5 a.m.Elina Svitolina vs. Barbora Krejčíková; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 6 a.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Ričardas Berankis; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 8 a.m.Ons Jabeur vs. Magda Linette; Court 14, 10 a.m.Iga Swiatek vs. Anett Kontaveit; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 11 a.m.Roger Federer vs. Dominik Koepfer; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 3 p.m. More
Just eight of the top 16 women’s seeds at Roland Garros remained after Barty withdrew during the second round because of an injury, but the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, has looked very strong.PARIS — Naomi Osaka, the No. 2 seed, did not play her second-round match at the French Open. Ashleigh Barty, the No. 1 seed, could not finish hers: She trudged to her chair in the second set on Thursday, leaving her racket behind, and then walked to the net to shake the hand of her opponent, Magda Linette.“It’s disappointing to end like this,” said Barty, the matter-of-fact Australian who won the French Open in 2019. “I’ve had my fair share of tears this week.”Barty’s comment on the setback was made at a post-match news conference, a virtual gathering in which she shared background on her left hip injury and her decision to stop the match when trailing by 1-6, 2-2. Osaka, who has recently revealed her bouts with depression and social anxiety, withdrew on Monday because of a dispute with tennis officials over participating in similar media duties.Barty, 25, said her injury had occurred when she landed after a serve during a practice just before the start of the French Open.“Completely new injury,” she said. “Something that I’ve never experienced before.”Now Roland Garros is running low on top seeds. After just two rounds, eight of the top 16 women are out. But that does not mean this Grand Slam tournament has become a wide-open landscape of red clay and great opportunity for all.Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, has yet to drop a set, just as she did not lose one — or even go to a tiebreaker — in the seven matches of her surprise run to the 2020 title. Last month, she won the Italian Open on clay, defeating the former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, 6-0, 6-0, in the final.Swiatek, a 20-year-old from Poland, has carried that momentum into Roland Garros, where she is seeded No. 8, and where she recorded another steamroller score line on Thursday, defeating Rebecca Peterson, 6-1, 6-1. To make matters more ominous for the rest of the women’s field, Swiatek practiced with Rafael Nadal for the first time last week.On Thursday, which was his 35th birthday, Nadal also rumbled into the third round, defeating his longtime foil Richard Gasquet, 6-0, 7-5, 6-2. (At least during the first set, it was perhaps best for Gasquet, the only remaining French singles player, that spectators were not yet allowed to attend the new night sessions at Roland Garros.)Ashleigh Barty, the top seed, waving goodbye after retiring from her second-round match because of a hip injury.Michel Euler/Associated PressSwiatek has modeled more than her heavy topspin forehand after Nadal, a 13-time French Open champion. Like Nadal, she seems to grasp the importance of concentrating on the rally at hand instead of on the draw at large.Her margins of victory are related not only to talent but also to her ability to focus, which is probably linked to her decision at an early age to prioritize mental preparation.“Your mind can fly away,” she told me on Thursday when I asked about her score lines. “You have advantage for sure, but you have to always be aware that this can change.”Swiatek comes across as a particularly thoughtful young athlete, even in a second language, and she is exceptionally powerful, too. It should require a special performance to stop her in Paris. Though Nos. 1 and 2 are gone, she is well aware that her next opponent, the No. 30 seed Annet Kontaveit, has won both their previous matches.“We see that so many players can win a Grand Slam not having so much experience; I had that situation,” Swiatek told me. “I don’t care that many seeds have pulled out or already lost. I’m just focusing on my next round.”The third round at Roland Garros has quite a lineup and quite an age range. Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, became the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Nadal at the 2004 Australian Open. Coco Gauff, the 17-year-old American, reached the third round for the first time in Paris and will face Jennifer Brady in one of three upcoming all-American women’s matches. In the others, Sofia Kenin will face Jessica Pegula, and Serena Williams will play Danielle Collins.Kenin, seeded fourth and a finalist here last year, has struggled this season but played better after arriving in Paris without a coach; she has ended her coaching relationship with her father, Alex. Pegula is having a breakout 2021.Williams, still chasing a 24th Grand Slam singles title, is not the only 39-year-old remaining in the French Open. Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4) 6-2, on Thursday.Federer and Cilic have played on bigger occasions, with Federer prevailing in the 2017 Wimbledon final and the 2018 Australian Open final. But this second-round match had plenty of high-level shotmaking, as Cilic repeatedly hit thunderous groundstrokes into Federer’s backhand corner.Federer generally held firm but uncharacteristically lost his patience when trailing by 1-3 in the second set, as he was called for a time violation while toweling off as Cilic prepared to serve at deuce. It is rare for returners to be hit with a time violation, and Federer, generally one of the game’s most expeditious players on his own serve, was indignant. He debated the decision for nearly three minutes in French with the chair umpire, Emmanuel Joseph.“Are you listening to me or are you speaking?” Federer said at one stage. “I listened to you before. Now you can listen to me.”The Grand Slam rule book says players shall play “to the reasonable pace of the server,” and though the rule is enforced inconsistently, Cilic was clearly irritated earlier in the set by Federer’s making him wait, knocking a serve that did not count in Federer’s direction.Roland Garros spectators have an infamously low tolerance for players’ arguing with the umpire, but they also like Federer, so they cheered or stayed silent instead of booing.During his debate with Joseph, Federer asked Cilic directly if he was playing too slowly, and Cilic reminded him of the rule. Federer returned to the baseline, lost the game and continued bantering with Joseph, saying he should have warned him there was a problem before issuing a code violation.Joseph said he thought Federer had understood and could have gotten the message from Cilic’s behavior. “Try to think it through a bit, not just think,” Federer said before returning to the court and complaining that he no longer even “dared” to use his towel during return games.It was all quite extraordinary, as was Federer’s decision to overrule Joseph and concede an ace to Cilic on the first point of the tiebreaker in the third set. To sum up: Federer, who has played so little since the pandemic rules on towel use were put into place, is still adjusting.“I just feel like it was a misunderstanding on many levels,” he explained later at a news conference that provided useful context.“I didn’t understand it and figure it out, and I guess I’m just new to the new tour,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers and chuckling as he said the word “new.” More
