In the French Open preview post, I set out who I thought would be the most likely candidates for both the men's and women's championships, hoping for a surprise or two along the way. As the end of another Grand Slam draws ever nearer, it is clear from the four finalists that this has not happened. No Goran Ivanisevic-style surprise for us this time around, with the biggest shock being that it is clay-court specialist David Ferrer, and not Roger Federer, in the men's final with Rafa Nadal. The top four domination of the men's game seems set to continue, with only Federer's position being weakened by the events of the last two weeks. In the women's game, it is arguably even more predictable, as the family that have monopolised the game for the past decade and a half remain in control, albeit halved in power.
With a little examination of the finalists and their run to the tournament's summit, we can see how monotonous today's game is. It could certainly be argued that has always been the case, especially in the men's game, with dominance from the likes of Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Becker, Agassi, Sampras, and more recently, Federer regularly characterising tennis. Therefore repeatedly seeing the same names perhaps should not be surprising. However, with the increased publicity and awareness of tennis in recent years, should we have expected to see more competition than experienced previously?
I will begin with today's women's final, contested between pre-tournament favourite Serena Williams, and reigning champion Maria Sharapova. Beginning with Serena, her route to the final has been relatively simple. Crushing her first three opponents for the loss of just 6 games, she cruised into the second week, doing little to challenge the assertion that the tournament winner is practically pre-determined. Another straight-sets victory in the fourth round against the 15th seed, Roberta Vinci, suggests that even the top 20 is not particularly competitive, seeing the American into the quarter final without dropping a set. There she met Svetlana Kuznetsova, who, despite being unseeded, is considered a very dangerous player. So it proved, with Serena being pushed all the way to the full three sets, claiming a 6-3 victory in the 3rd. The loss of a set evidently angered Williams, as she destroyed 5th seed Sara Errani in the subsequent semi-final to progress to yet another final, eradicating the memories of last year's shocking 1st round exit at Roland Garros.
Her opponent, Maria Sharapova, has had an altogether more strenuous passage to her second successive Parisian final. Despite winning all of her opening four matches without dropping a set, matching the achievement of Serena, she found it considerably more difficult than the American to whitewash opponents, conceding more and more games in each match she was involved in. The quarter final saw the Russian concede her first set of the tournament against Serb, Jelena Jankovic. A horrendous start saw the reigning champion lose the first set 6-0 to the world number 18, and though she recovered to win in three sets, she can ill-afford to reproduce this start against Serena. Her semi final also saw her lose a set, with Victoria Azarenka levelling the match after a strong start from Maria. Her battling third set victory shows that she certainly has the fight to challenge Serena. Whether a poor start would prove fatal is difficult to tell. Serena is definitely the favourite for today's final, but I would not count out Maria.
Moving on to the men's final, it appears almost unnecessary to reveal that Rafa Nadal is in another French Open final, as his dominance of the Grand Slam is well documented. The 7-times winner has had a more difficult route to this year's centrepiece than many would have expected. In both his first, and second round matches, he could only manage to win in 4 sets, suggesting signs of a Lukas Rosol-esque repeat, and the shock tennis seemingly requires. Nevertheless, he stabilised in later rounds, progressing from there to the semi finals without dropping a set, including a particularly impressive performance against Stanislav Wawrinka in the quarter-finals. There he met world number 1 Novak Djokovic, and yesterday saw one of the best matches in French Open history. A rollercoaster semi-final, with both men having ample opportunity to claim victory, Nadal triumphed in a mammoth 4 and a half hour, 5 set encounter, winning the final set 9-7 to progress to his eighth Roland Garros final. His trials and tribulations along the way, however, suggests that it is becoming ever more difficult to remain successful in the men's game.
In contrast, tomorrow will mark the inaugural Grand Slam final of David Ferrer's career. The clay court specialist has had a remarkably successful journey to the final, being the only one of the four finalists in either the men's or women's games not to drop a set. Bearing in mind the dominance of Rafa Nadal in recent years here, there are few who would have predicted that! Most impressive were his victories in the quarter and semi finals against firstly Tommy Robredo, whom he dispatched comfortably 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, and then home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. With an expectant home crowd, desperate for a French Grand Slam winner, to comprehensively beat the Frenchman 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 is highly impressive. To beat Nadal he will have to be at the top of his game, and get a touch of luck along the way, but with the form he is in, there is no reason why we can't see a significant shock tomorrow. It would certainly be nice to show that there is a bit of variety in the game.
The game of tennis has always had dominating factors, but certainly with the increasing coverage and publicity, I would have expected to see a more competitive tournament. If we compare tennis to another sport that has seen a recent increase in publicity, like Formula 1, we see the dominance of certain players maintained in tennis, and a much more competitive and open field in the latter. This makes me wonder if we will ever see a truly competitive tennis tournament, without there being some element of pre-determined nature to them. Until we do, moments like Ivanisevic's at Wimbledon will continue to be tennis gold.
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