These French Are a Tough Crowd

Fans at the French Open have always been a tough crowd and they've been known to hold grudges for years (maybe nobody will hold it for them?) but today's action left me wondering if these may be the hardest fans to please ever. And, to put it in a Dave Chappelle kind of way, can they be pleased at all?

But today's jeering of Andy Roddick left me to think that they may be the nastiest fans of all, too. The jeering was utterly classless and uncalled for. It wasn't as if he had suddenly quit a match do to, say, a "stomach-virus." Roddick had been limping for two sets and had had the ankle repeatedly taped. There were points where the man could hardly move. He did what he had to do for his health. Even his opponent was utterly confused by the spontaneous booing that erupted when Roddick left the court. He wasn't the only one. Anyway, consider the history of fans at the French.

• Amelie Mauresmo, native Frenchwoman, gets roundly booed every year for not winning the tournament. Sure, she has nerves as tough as overcooked spaghetti noodles but give the poor girl a break. Counter this with the reception Tim Henman gets at Wimbledon every year, win or lose. Come to think of it, especially when he loses the English give him a hearty round of thanks. One would think part of Mauresmo's worries might be upsetting the French faithful.
• Mary Pierce, another Frenchwoman, was booed during the 1994 final when she lost in a valiant 4-6, 4-6 effort. And this was after she had beaten Steffi Graf who at that time was the undisputed Queen of tennis. Indeed, she was in tears after losing last year's final 1-6, 1-6 to JHH. In her address to the crowd she actually apologized to them.
• Come to think of it, it's pretty damn tough being French and playing at the open. Today, Gael Monfils was booed for disputing a line call. Aren't you supposed to be supporting him? And Tatiana Golovin barely got a whimper out of the crowd when she was desperately trying to stay in a tie-break that would have sent her match into the third set. How about some home court advantage here, guys?
• And just because I can: can we have more than a lukewarm reception for the Chuckster as she makes her comeback? The Aussies were great and I'm sure she'll get a fine reception in London and New York. Granted, the match was early in the morning (11 AM!) but come on. She's the Chuckster! You know you love her.

Some other thoughts after the first few days of action.

• I've never been that big of a fan of JHH preferring her more affable compatriot Kim Clijsters. But, my God. What a gorgeous backhand she has. You can watch that thing for hours. And the movement on the court. She just flows out there. In terms of overall movement and game, she's the prettiest player on the court to watch.
• Note to Rafael Nadal. There are many good times to be dressed as a pirate: Halloween, Talk Like a Pirate Day, or when you're competing to become the best Pirate dresser in the world. But never during a grand slam!
• Thank God Dominik Hrbaty decided to get rid of the holes in the back of his shirt. Now if we could only convince him that he doesn't have to go 5 sets every time out if he doesn't want to.
• The screaming in the women's game started by Monica Seles (but we'll give her a pass because she's also one of the nicest people in the game) and perfected by Maria Screampova has now spread almost everywhere. People: it's okay to shriek out once in a while. But not on every single goddamn point. Yes, I'm looking at you Jie Zheng. And also, we cannot stress this enough. Just because your opponent hits a backhand into the net does not give you grounds to jump up in the air and do a fist pump. This is called rude. Please make a note of it. I guess they're just two more reasons to love the Chuckster even more!
• Speaking of love for the Chuckster: she has the prettiest drop shot in the game. And perhaps the most effective. And that includes the men. The Baghdatis/Portas match today seemed to be an exercise in who could hit the less worse drop shot. I think I'll actually have to watch Pirate King Nadal tomorrow just so I'm certain that at least somebody on the men's side knows how to hit one.
• Where are they finding all of these kewpies for the WTA? Today, for instance, JHH plays some random girl from Estonia. Total kewpie. Do they have a factory or something?
• Phooeyhoo reader Nicole points out that Marat Safin has Mongol blood. I'm inclined to agree, especially after seeing him with long hair. Sadly, there was no Samson effect for him today as he lost in 4 sets.

Screw You, Sprint!

Skype has just announced that they're allowing free use of SkypeOut until the end of the year. What does that mean? If you have a computer hooked up to the Internet you can call anybody in the U.S. for free until the end of the year. Those who spend tons of money calling people overseas will want to consider using Skype to connect via two computers. Saves a ton of money.

Cat in a Basket

Well, what were you expecting? The Gummi Bears?

More Unfortunate Ramblings

You know, when this blooging [sic — thanks, Kevin!] thing first started I thought I would never run out of random crap to spew out. Little did I know how much work it is to do so on a semi-regular basis. Readers of this web log will know that I quit trying to do that a long time ago. Welcome to Blog, you have my admiration!

Okay, to start the random ramblings, congrats to The Chuckster for her first Tier 1 tournament win since her remarkable comeback! She had a pretty easy draw and was only challenged by Venus. Safina, who she beat today, did the grunt work for her by knocking out Clijsters, Dementieva, and Kuznetsova. I don't expect her to win in France but if she doesn't meet any of the biggies, she could probably sail into the quarters or semis. None of these new kids seem to be presenting much of a challenge to her at all. Nor should they, come to think of it. They all may be major kewpies but, besides Sharapova (and you could probably make a good argument here that her one-dimensional game will never be a challenge for Clijsters or the Allez-Cat), none of them are any good. The loophole for Chucky will be the health of the biggies. Petrova and the Allez-Cat are injured, Davenport is out, Clijsters always seems to be a misstep away form injury, and Sharapova is injured (though she's not much of a threat on clay anyway).

Even if you're not into tennis, find a torrent of the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal match from last week's Rome final. Gripping, gripping stuff. Although I'm convinced that had this been on a grass or hard court Nadal wouldn't have stood a chance, I'm still impressed by the kid. Indeed, the only complaint I have against him is the fact that he tends to dress like somebody's grandmother when off the court. Let's work on that, Raphie. If — wait, none of the other players are going to give these two a challenge at all. Let me rephrase that. When these two meet in the final of Roland Garros in early June: watch. Even if you don't like tennis.

Final tennis note (promise!): Serena, where have you gone?

Writing the appendices to Whisking with Chlamydia is proving more challenging than I thought. I've even once or twice found myself needing to do research. Imagine me, a graduate student, having to do research! (Dammit Fry, I can't teach! I'm a professor!) If this thing draws out much longer, I'll just release the main chapters and the appendix later on. Besides, you guys need a few fake handshakes during the summer to keep you honest!

My mother thought that this incident was some private cover-up or something. Seems like the local news channel gave her the fake handshake. Oh, Mom!

I did a careful watching of the Sawallisch version of Die Zauberflote (now on DVD) again and have now concluded that, yes, it is better than any of the DVD Met versions. (I won't judge it against the one I saw live — the sound can't compare. However, I could have done without the cubism of the set. The Queen of the Night's outfit was awesome, though). I like the staging against the starry backdrops better than the "Egyptian" theme that seems to plague most Zauberflote productions. The singing is top notch with Araiza, Popp, and Moll at their peeks (by the way, I have confirmed that any production of Zauberflote must contain Araiza and Moll) and Gruberova is a much better Queen of the Night than I originally thought. She can't quite reach those high registers that Popp can (I wonder if Popp ever considered bumping Gruberova aside during the Kunigen-Pamina seen while saying, "This is how it's done!") but she's decent. Finally, the staging for "Pa, pa, pa" is hilarious and touching. The only thing I have against all Zauberflote productions is the black face and body paint for Monostatos. Hello, people: it's 2006!

Most Unfortunate

Congrats

Congrats to my good friend Danimal for completing law school. This Tiki Bar episode seems appropriate. All readers should watch and celebrate by making the Out of Court Settlement (although it probably has much less hard alcohol than Danimal would like).