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A special digital publication from the creators of Tennis magazine and Tennis.com, the 2011 French Open Preview offers exclusive insight into such storylines as the remarkable win streak of Novak Djokovic, the return to form of former WTA queen Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal’s potential date with destiny as he chases the legendary Bjorn Borg’s six career French Open titles. Television listings for Tennis Channel, ESPN2 and NBC, and rarely seen behind-the-scenes looks at the Roland Garros grounds complete the compelling package.
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M O R E A T tennis.com + C O V E R / C O N T E N T S / B I G P I C T U R E S / C E N T E R C O U R T / T V G U I D E
A French Open special preview
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Maker of column-wheel chronograph movements since 1878.
Dirty WorkFinal preparations were made for what promises to be a compelling 15 clay-filled days.
Signings of the TimesPlayer signatures adorn the walls of the players’ access staircase.
Growing PainsA pricey expansion plan would significantly increase the size of the Roland Garros grounds.
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Caroline WozniackiThe WTA’s top-ranked player has a chance for a big breakthrough in Paris.
Novak DjokovicHis 39-match win streak includes a pair of clay-court victories over Rafa and has some thinking Djokovic may never lose.
Francesca SchiavoneFew are giving her much of a chance to win the French Open women’s singles title. That’s what they said last year.
Maria SharapovaImpressive back-t0-back wins in Rome last weekend against Wozniacki and Stosur has put the one-time WTA queen in position to regain her crown.
Rafael NadalA men’s singles title at Roland Garros will tie Rafa with Björn Borg for the most ever with six. He may be facing his stiffest test yet.
When It’s On . . .Tennis Channel, ESPN2 and NBC deliver this year’s action to the comfort of your living room.
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Dirty WorkAn employee sets the last layer of clay on the Court Philippe Chatrier, Roland Garros’ main venue with a seating capacity of 14,480. Built in 1928, the stadium was known simply as “Court Central” until 1998, when it was renamed for the long-time president of the Fédération Française de Tennis, who helped restore tennis as a Summer Olympic sport in 1988.
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Signings of the TimesAutographs of Roger Federer
and Rafael Nadal are among the hundreds on the walls next to the players’ access staircase at
the Roland Garros stadium.
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Growing PainsAt 21.3 acres, the French Open
grounds are by far the smallest of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
The French Tennis Federation voted earlier this year against
moving to proposed new sites at Versailles and in the suburbs at Gonesse and Marne-La-Vallee, opting instead for a proposed
$370-million expansion plan that would increase the Roland Garros
grounds to nearly 34 acres.
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N E W FO R 2011
Offering a game-changing “Play to Win” approach to tennis, Topnotch Resort and Spa has a long history of devotion to the game. The resort features a top-five tennis academy, world-class spa, and the gentile charm created by an intimate scale.
T O P N O T C H T E N N I SAt Topnotch, tennis has been raised to an art form.
Named one of the “World’s Best” tennis resorts by Tennis
Resorts Online, our dedication to the game reigns supreme.
We prove it daily on six seasonal outdoor courts (four Har
Tru) and four indoor hard courts, with over 30 programs for
all ages and levels of play. Our USPTA-certified instructors
employ the unique Play-to-Win teaching method, and our
facilities include cutting-edge technologies like an intelligent
ball machine and Dartfish Video Analysis. All of this takes
place in the exhilarating setting of the Green Mountains.
Topnotch is pleased to introduce “10 and Under Tennis.” Using the QuickStart Tennis play format, 10 and Under Tennis
is a right-sized learning method for kids that allows them to play real tennis shortly after picking up a racquet for the first
time. Designed around the same concept as other youth sports that use modified gear, courts and fields, the play format of
this USTA-teaching method lets kids gain confidence and enjoy the game and the learning experience more.
T O W I N
If you’re a first-time player, we welcome the opportunity to
introduce you to our sport – and to our passion for teaching
players of all ages and all levels. Group academies, clinics, and
private instruction for beginners to competitive players are offered
year-round and are taught by Topnotch’s professional tennis staff.
Courts are available to guests for rental by the hour, or join one of
our Round Robins, a great way to meet other guests.
Topnotch Resort has been dedicated to the sport of
tennis for decades and was instrumental in bringing
both the Head Classic and Fed Cup matches
to Vermont.
Learn to love tennis (or love your game more) with this great package that combines an overnight stay at our resort with a multi-level “taste” Topnotch’s favorite sport.
Ranked #3 Tennis Resort on Worldwide Survey – Tennis Resorts Online, 2010#4 Tennis Resort in the U.S. – Tennis Magazine 2010
Top 10 Best U.S. Tennis Resorts – Tennis Magazine, 2008
500 World’s Best Hotels – Travel + Leisure 2010
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The last time we saw Caroline Wozni-acki on the court of a major tourna-ment was during the semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open. She held a match point in the second set against Li Na when serving at 5-4, 40-30. She was broken, and it wouldn’t be the last time: Li earned breaks in Wozniacki’s final three service games of the sec-ond and third sets.
So the question remains: Can Woz-niacki win a major? She has been to a final and a few semis, but she’s never been that far at the French Open, her latest chance at a breakthrough.
While she’s a grinder’s grinder, Wozniacki’s worst surface may be clay. Paradoxically, its slowness requires a higher level of power and, more important, heaviness from a player’s strokes, neither of which her shots have. That’s the downside—matches on the dirt will often be out of her control. But there’s an upside to her chances at Roland Garros, and it’s her simple consistency. Wozniacki remains, despite her recent slight struggles, the top player who is the least likely to beat herself.
Caroline Wozniacki
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“We will see what’s going on in the clay season,” Rafael Nadal said in Indian Wells two months ago after having lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the BNP Paribas Open. It was a not-so-subtle suggestion that the surging Serb wouldn’t be nearly as formidable once off the hard courts.
What’s going on in the clay season is hardly what Nadal—or the rest of the world—expected: Djokovic in Rome won his seventh title of 2011, extending his win streak to 39 straight matches dating back to the 2010 Davis Cup final. For a second consecutive weekend, Djokovic topped Nadal on his favorite surface.
The highlight of Rome, however, was Djokovic’s semifinal against Andy Murray. Down 4-5 in the third and looking utterly punch-drunk, Djokovic could have gone down swinging with honor and headed for Roland Garros with a little less weight on his back. He didn’t do that. He did the even more honorable thing by ignoring his body, his opponent and the inevitable end to his streak, and winning instead. He doesn’t know how to do anything else.
Novak Djokovic
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Too often in women’s tennis we’ve seen players crumble in the unfamiliar setting of a Grand Slam final. They play tentatively (see Safina, Dinara), com-plain too much (see Jankovic, Jelena) or just plain choke (not enough room to list here). Not Francesca Schia-vone. Given the chance of her career at the 2010 French Open, she played aggressively and without hesitation. She smacked forehands (unusual for her), sliced backhands and dropped down delicate volleys to become, at age 29, the oldest first-time women’s Slam winner in the Open era. It was a wonderfully inspiring performance.
Few expect Schiavone to repeat, given her struggles since achieving a career-best No. 4 ranking in January. Her performance this spring has been marked by early defeats to lesser-ranked players, including a pair of con-secutive lopsided losses in Miami and Stuttgart to Agnieszka Radwanska. And yet the current scattershot state of women’s tennis, combined with a sentimental crowd, gives the Milan native at least some hope of becoming the most improbable back-to-back winner of a Grand Slam tournament.
Schiavone’s supporters wore T-shirts to last year’s final emblazoned with the same words that justifiably apply to this year’s challenge: “Sciavo, Nothing is Impossible.”
Francesca Schiavone
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Want proof of Rafael Nadal’s unrivaled excellence on clay? When he takes center stage at Roland Garros this week, check out the court itself. Like skid marks at the scene of an accident, the long trenches Nadal leaves in the backcourt are legacies of his speed, quickness and coverage area. The ball marks he leaves are like ballistic reports, confirming power, accuracy and spin.
The forensic evidence is bolstered by the empirical evidence: Nadal has won the French Open five of the six times he’s entered. With a sixth title in Paris, he will tie Bjorn Borg for most ever. But even the stoic Swede didn’t win with Nadal’s level of authority, capable as he is of cruising through the draw without dropping a solitary set.
This year could be the stiffest French Open test yet for the world’s No. 1 player—he has lost twice this month to Novak Djokovic, in Madrid and then Rome. Should Nadal win his sixth French, he’ll solidify himself as the best ever on clay. We’ll be inclined to then go a step further and submit that no player has ever been as com-prehensively dominant on any surface.
Rafael Nadal
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It was during the 2007 French Open that Maria Sharapova referred to herself as a “cow on ice” when playing on clay. That was hardly the case in Rome last weekend—Sharapova had the breakout tournament her fans have been, at various times, hoping for, expecting and writing off, for the better part of two years. She did it because the baseline bombs that she had been missing during that time were detonating just inside the lines again. And because stronger legs and an improved ability to recover allowed her to defend surprisingly well against Sam Stosur in the final.
The WTA has been looking for a queen this year. Kim Clijsters doesn’t want the title or the role, so we’ve watched and wondered whether, in turn, Wozniacki, Azarenka, Goerges or Kvitova might be the woman to slide all the way to Paris with it. The latest to join that parade might be the most promising. Sharapova, unlike the oth-ers, already is a queen. All she needs is for bombs to find the lines. We already know she has the regal strut—and the guts—to back it up.
Maria Sharapova
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TVSchedule
DATE ROUND TIME (EST) NETWORK
Sunday, May 22 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 1 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 1 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Monday, May 23 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 3 p.m. Tennis Channel
Tuesday, May 24 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Wednesday, May 25 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Thursday, May 26 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Friday, May 27 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Saturday, May 28 Early-round play 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Early-round play 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. NBC
Sunday, May 29 Round of 16 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Round of 16 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. NBC
Monday, May 30 Round of 16 5 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Round of 16 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Tuesday, May 31 Quarterfinals 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Quarterfinals 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Wednesday, June 1 Quarterfinals 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Tennis Channel
Quarterfinals 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. ESPN2
Thursday, June 2 Women’s Semifinals 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. ESPN2
Friday, June 3 Men’s Semifinals 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. NBC
Saturday, June 4 Women’s Final 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. NBC
Sunday, June 5 Men’s Final 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. NBC
Editorial
Editor-in-Chief Scott Gramling Creative Director Ian Knowles Art Director Dennis Huynh Online Editor Ed McGrogan Senior Writers Peter Bodo, Stephen Tignor Editor-at-Large Tom Perrotta Research Assistant Joe McGovern Editorial Direction 10Ten Media Advertising
Group Publisher Jeff Williams (212) 636-2758 [email protected] Publisher Mason Wells (212) 636-2807 [email protected] Director, Digitial Media & Ad Sales Adam Milner (212) 636-2727 [email protected] Business Development Buz Keenan (212) 636-2724 [email protected] Sales Development Director Rory Racey Ellis (212) 636-2751 [email protected] Marketing Director Allison Zinczenko (212) 636-2732 [email protected] Client Services Manager Oren Carton (212) 636-2733 [email protected] Sales & Marketing Coordinator Kate Gillam (212) 636-2741 [email protected] Endemic Sales Director John Hanna (770) 650-1102 x125 [email protected] Midwest Sales Director James McNulty (248) 649-3835 [email protected] West Coast Sales Director Jeff Griffith (626) 229-9955 [email protected] Canada Sales Director Josef Beranek (450) 538-2468 [email protected]
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