By Bill Simons
FRANCE’S $20 BILLION UNFORCED ERROR: France is known for its spiffy transit system, but the new $20 billion ultra-modern fleet of trains is too wide for many of the old stations in the country, which were built in the ’30s.
HOW CAN THIS BE: After eight-time French Open winner Rafa Nadal was assigned to Suzanne Lenglen stadium, instead of Court Centrale, John Isner said, “How many times does a guy have to win the tournament to have his first match on Chatrier?”
ENQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: In case you were wondering, Roger and Mirka’s sons Leo and Lenny are fraternal twins, while their daughters Charlene Riva and Myla Rose are identical.
MEDICAL UPDATE: Writer Tom Perrotta whimsically noted, “Exciting news: French Open will allow reporters to wear nasal strips. Coverage should improve immensely.” All of this leads us to wonder whether California Chrome can type or not.
WOZILROY UPDATE: No one got cold feet at the altar, but almost. The dissolution of the planned marriage of Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy came as a shock, especially since wedding invitations had already been sent out. About Wozniacki, who remained silent for quite a while. Courtney Nguyen noted, “If one person says the breakup was amicable and mutual [that would be Rory], and the other person [that would be Caroline] goes radio silent, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t amicable or mutual.”
Chris Evert weighed in, telling IT, “It [the breakup] doesn’t surprise me. I don’t even know them. I look back at Jimmy [Connors] and I. To look at two players that are in the prime of their career and are striving to be No. 1 … I mean, I was married in my 20s to my tennis. That was the only way I could put all my emotions and energies into that goal.
I was in awe that it worked as long as it did. I can’t believe it. They must be just different kind of people. I understand 100%, you’re married to your career. You’re using your emotions. You’re using the mental capacity that you have. You’re putting everything into it. That’s what it takes to be the best.”
Eventually, Wozniacki tweeted, “It’s a hard time for me right now. Thanks for all the sweet messages! Happy I support Liverpool right now because I know I’ll never walk alone.” Serena Williams sent her support, telling Woz, “I’ll always walk with you. #friendsforever.”
At Roland Garros, IT asked Serena what was tougher, losing a really tough match, or breaking up. She replied, “Oh, I would rather lose any day than break up. It’s always hard. But, you know, definitely easier to take a loss, because you always have next week. At the end of the day, when you really are young, you always have next year, and you have the rest of your life. Once you know that, everything goes together.”
OMG—A FEDERER FLAW: Federer‘s wife Mirka is from Slovakia, but Roger (a master linguist) doesn’t know a word of Slovakian and has never been there.
HILARY HAS A FAN: Chris Evert is known for her highly-successful fundraisers with George Bush, Sr., but when Inside Tennis asked her who she’d want to take a selfie with, she said Hilary Clinton.
SPEAKING OF SELFIES: Venus Williams said the tennis player she would most like to take a selfie with was France’s Gael Monfils, and “outside of tennis, maybe my favorite band … like 311.”
A GOOD DAY FOR AMERICANS: Get this, the four big American names in play today—Venus and Serena Williams, John Isner and Sam Querrey—all won. BTW: Isner and Querrey have the cool nickname of Quizner, but unless you call them Serenus, Venus and Serena don’t have a joint nickname.
SERENA ON THE REDSKINS: Serena Williams is a minority owner in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and she had an extensive romance with the former Washington linebacker Lavar Arrington. So IT asked her about the push to change the Washington team’s name from Redskins. Williams in turn asked, “Was it a popular name amongst the Indians—is that correct?”
We replied, “It’s seen as a slur, like the n-word.”
Serena then said, “The people standing up for that can be really positive.”
DJOKOVIC—A FLOOD OF EMOTION: Reflecting on the disastrous floods in the Balkans, Novak Djokovic said, “It’s devastating times. The floods are epic proportions. They have forced many people to flee homes. Many people lost everything that they have, that they possessed, and even [suffered] the loss of [loved] ones. It is one of the biggest tragedies that the countries of Serbia and Bosnia and Croatia [have] had in their history, so the positive thing is that these nations who had conflicts 20 years ago, have at least for a certain time forgot about that and shown their solidarity and support to each other.
There is this unity that defines these nations at this moment, which definitely helps all three countries to recover as fast and most efficient as they can. Obviously [with] floods, as they are backing up now, the process of recovery is just starting. It’s going to go [on] for a long time. We are talking about many years, depending on the help that we get from abroad.
That was, in a way, my mission, and the mission of the people who have certain status and opportunity internationally to spread awareness. It wasn’t easy because I was playing a tournament in Rome, so part of me was focused on the tournament. Part of me was with … my people.
The first thing I did obviously is try to raise the awareness internationally as much as I can within the media, get the attention going to what’s going on. Hopefully it worked, because I see that there is, you know, many media now interested in what’s going on down there.
If it’s because of me or somebody else, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that people are starting to talk about it. We need help, of course, all three countries. We need help, and we need as much as we can get.
On these difficult times, there is no real priority except trying to do your best to save the people and the nation, because natural force and natural disaster is something that is just a higher force. It’s something you can’t fight. You have to just pray and hope that it can go fast.”
WHICH WAS HARDER? Serena Williams won her first-round match 6-2, 6-1 over French friend Alize Lim, then struggled her way through her on-court interview in French after the match.
I’M 65 AND I’M PROUD: Sam Querrey, America’s former top player, who is now ranked No. 65, said, “I think I’m a real good 65 in the world.”
OBVIOUSLY: After ESPN noted that Venus Williams was twice as old as her Swiss opponent Belinda Bencic, Venus quipped, “I’ve got more experience … clearly”
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: Players from just north and south of the American border scored impressive wins on the eve of the French Open, as Canadian Genie Bouchard won her first WTA title in Nuremberg, and Puerto Rican Monica (“Wouldn’t that be dandy if she played as an American?”) Puig won her first WTA title in Strasbourg.
THE GAME IS GETTING OLDER: There are twice as many 30-year-olds playing the French Open as teenagers.
A FINAL WORD ON FINALS: Ernests Gulbis, who prevailed in Nice, has won all six of the finals he’s played.
