Look, I’m not new to this game. I know how tennis works and I understood that Rafael Nadal’s chances were not the best, even in the first round of the French Open. (If this were a place we were visiting in the movie “Interstellar,” we’d be sliding around on Rafa’s Planet.) Still, knowing that and seeing him lose in straight sets to Mr. Whack-a-Girl (or really anything) was difficult. Nadal apparently wouldn’t allow a farewell ceremony to be held which holds hope that he might be back. That’s the only saving grace here. Because it wasn’t just who Nadal had to play, it was how nice the French crowd was. I don’t understand these people. You question a call and they rain down boos. You roll out on court while you’re currently on trial for assault and they love it. De plus! Nous aimons le voir!! I couldn’t have been the only person flipping off my bootleg YouTube stream of the match, could I?
Speaking of, why is it so difficult to watch the French Open anymore? Before I was a tennis fan, it was living on NBC while I was wondering why I couldn’t watch Another World this week. Now you need a long list of streaming options – half of which don’t work – or try to find someone on YouTube or Reddit who might have a fix. This feels harder to do than buying drugs, honestly. I accidentally discovered that I have Tennis Channel 2, so I’ve been catching some matches there, but they will cut away mid-day so we can watch a two-week-old match. And the tennis powers-that-be are always tinkering with the rules of tennis, wondering why no one watches it. Are you serious? No one knows about the rules you’re tinkering because no one can find tennis on television to watch it! That’s not the problem! Gah. I feel like an old woman yelling at kids from her front porch.
Unless you have the hookup so I can watch tennis. Then you may have a seat.
There have been other compelling matches happening at Roland Garros this week. But the one I’m still thinking about is Naomi Osaka v. Iga Swiatek. I mean damn. First of all, big props to Osaka, who has been methodically working herself back into form. It’s probably been really hard for her to take these Ls knowing that she is a four-time Slam winner and former No. 1. But this week, it all came together for Osaka in her second-round match against Swiatek. Almost. Osaka had that on her racquet after pushing Swiatek around for most of that match. Swiatek was fighting for her life out there and barely escaped. Women’s tennis has a lot of girls gunning for that throne right now and adding Osaka back into it is great for fans. For Swiatek?
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