PARIS — Tennis is cruel. After her divorce this April from Aussie Samuel Groth, some suggested Jamila Gajdosova had migrated to Australia for the sake of citizenship. Tennis is redemptive. Mirjana Lucic used the game to overcome a debilitating history of paternal abuse. And tennis, for all its frustrations, can also be comforting.
France”s Virgine Razzano — whose fiancé, Stéphane Vidal, 32 succumbed to a brain tumor on May 16 — had the guts, just eight days later, to step out and play the French Open, although she lost to the 24th seeded Gajdosova 6-3, 6-1. Razzano, 28, appeared wearing a small black ribbon. She said of her deceased partner, “As two people, we were just one. That was powerful…The most beautiful thing we did in our life was not a match or anyone else but love…We made a single being.” Unfortunately, her match was put first up on Tuesday morning on the cavernous Courte Centrale. The tennis historian and writer Alain Deflassieux told the New York Times, “Instead of bringing her warmth and support, they are playing her in an empty train station.” After the match, Razzano shared many of her thoughts in a poignant press conference. Here are some excerpts:
“Today it”s a big pain on me. This decision, it”s from my fiancé, Stéphane. He would like to try for me to continue my life…to play here homage for him, and for me, too, it”s maybe to…continue to fight on court…I can”t explain this strength…It took me a lot of courage to get on the Philippe Chatrier court today. I had lots of emotions…It”s painful. It”s hard. If I did it, it”s for Stéphane. But also for me, because he wanted me to continue my life…He knows I have this strength…This is also why we worked so well together. We had courage. We fought together day after day…I grabbed all my courage. I don”t have much. I”m very fragile. I feel lonely…I”m mourning and it”s difficult when you lose someone…who will forever be the man whom I love and will always love. I have beautiful memories in good times and not-so-good times. And that”s a history that”s alive, that we built together for 11 years…That gives me strength…I will recover…I want to give love to people who want to take the love I can give, and I want to share things.”
NOVAK ON NOVAK: Inside Tennis had the following exchange with the hottest player in the world — Novak Djokovic.
IT: “In our sport, there”re often times when there”s one central question, and all of us in this room know the central question in tennis for months has been: Why has Novak broken out and been so successful? If the tennis gods came to you and said, “Do us a favor, give us 200 words briefly on how you were able to do it, what would you say?”
ND: “I would give them not 200 [words]. I would give them a very brief explanation…that, honestly, what I feel is there has been a process of learning for me and getting the experience, necessary experience on the top professional tennis level for last three, four, five years. I have been in situations where I was winning major events, where I was beating the top players, but I wasn”t consistent enough. And I knew that I had the quality, I had the abilities. I just need to be patient and wait for the time when everything will get together. This is what happened now. So in last couple of months everything got together for me from the mental perspective. I improved maybe by small margins, by small percentages some shots, especially the serve. And from the mental side, obviously, confidence that I have winning match after match after match helps me to keep on playing the best tennis.”
IT: “You pass.”
THINGS WE”LL NEVER KNOW: Djokovic, for some reason, made it clear he didn”t want to talk about his gluten free diet. That didn”t stop one veteran European writer from trying:
Q: “I know that you don”t want to speak about your new diet regime.”
ND: “Exactly.”
Q: “Everything?”
ND: “You”re right.”
Q: “But why? Why don”t you want to speak?”
ND: “Because it”s private. There are some things I can speak about; there are some things I can”t.”
Q: “No other reasons?”
ND: “I can tell you who is my girlfriend, but I cannot tell you what I do with my girlfriend.”
THE SANDS OF TIME: Inside Tennis asked the joyfully eccentric Bethanie Mattek-Sands whether she enjoys being a bit of a bad girl, so to speak. She replied, “What”s funny, in the world of entertainment, I”m pretty mellow actually. There are people doing a lot more crazy stuff. I think it”s just that tennis is so conservative that I wear some high socks and people are like, “Wow, that”s so different!” I don”t mind it. For me it”s fun. That”s how I am off the court. I just like to be different.” Still, she hears the critics. “It”s tough,” she said, “because deep down I”m a person [who] wants everybody to like me…[But] I tend not to even look at comments people make…It”s tough, because being yourself, being an individual, you put yourself out there. I can be a little sensitive. I”m pretty confident in myself, so I”ll still do it anyway. But somewhere down there, I”m like, “I wish everybody liked it.”” Mattek-Sands spoke of how she has a Zen garden of tattoos and she”s planning to get more. Plus, she”s a fan of Lady Gaga: “She”s very individual. Obviously, she”s come out with some crazy stuff. I don”t know that I would be able to play in a meat dress or anything. I was thinking of stapling some bacon on my shoulder or something, but I don”t know how that would work out in the sun. But she”s cool. She has cool songs. You never know what she”s going to do next, and I really can appreciate that.” (Ms. Gaga designer is creating a dress for Bethanie for the Wimbledon player party.) So how do different venues respond to her provocative, (pass-the-eye-black) fashion sense. Mattek-Sands replied, “The fans that come to Wimbledon appreciate everything I do. I think it”s more probably the members and the higher-ups that are, you know, “tsk, tsking” me. [But the] U.S. Open is tough…I wore something last year, and I had a guy come up to me and say, “The only reason I came out was to see your outfit and it was boring today.” I was like, “Thanks. I won my match, but okay.”
SPEAKING OF SANDS: ESPN”s Greg Garber called Roland Garros “the world”s largest and most famous sandbox.”
OBVIOUSLY: As Gigi Salmon was analyzing 6-foot-9 John Isner“s service preparation, she noted “Isner looks down at his feet — and it”s a LONG way down.”
NASTYA”S BACK!: Former French Open champ Anastasia Myskina will help coach fellow Rusian Svetlana Kuznetsova in Paris. Kuznetsova, who”s been through a slew of coaches, will also continue to work with Fed Cup coach Larisa Neiland. Myskina, now a mother of two, won the “04 French Open (coming from a match point down to beat Kuznetsova along the way). She retired in “07 due to a foot injury.
STREAKS: Okay, everybody is astonished by Djokovic”s 39 straight wins. But Roger Federer has now appeared 46 straight Slams and Rafael Nadal has now won 39 of the 40 Roland Garros matches he”s played.
MARION THE MARIONETTE: Does anyone in all of sports jog in place, bounce about and shadow box with greater theatricality than Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli?
WHERE ARE THE PANTS?: The venerable Bud Collins, 81, who”s known for his pioneering work and snazzy pants, is missing his first major in eons.
BLAME IT ON JUSTINE: If Justine Henin hadn”t retired, she would”ve played the big post-Wimbledon exo in Belgium against her ace rival, Kim Clijsters, and Serena Williams wouldn”t have been called in as a last-minute (and extremely well paid) sub. So follow us here, if that had been the case Serena would never have been hanging out in Europe and would never have stepped on that glass in a Munich bar which now has sidelined her for nearly a year.
SAY IT ISN”T SO: Is there a possibility that we”ll never see Serena (or Venus for, that matter) back on the circuit again?
ON MOM”S HOME COOKING: “I”m still shaking a little bit,” Francesca Schiavone said of playing on Court Philippe Chatrier for the first time as defending champion. “The court is perfect. Everything is going around you and it”s like when you go home and your mom does everything for you and you feel comfortable?”
JINXED: With Isner holding a two-sets-to-one advantage on Nadal and Ryan Harrison up a set against Robin Soderling, Bob Bryan tweeted, “I don”t want to jinx it but there might be a couple upsets brewing here at RG.” (Isner went on to lose in five sets 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-4, and Harrison eventually fell 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.)
BACKING OUT OF THE 16th: Sports Illustrated”s Jon Wertheim wrote, “We learned that Nadal, like most players, is vulnerable — even on clay — to a guy clobbering serves. (Had Nadal stood any further back when returning he would have been in a different arrondissement.)”
