By all Standards The 2017 Men’s French Open was a “10”

Retro tennis is still the rage in 2017, thanks to Rafael Nadal. By all standards his performance at the 2017 Men’s French Open was a “10”.

• The Bible views “10” as a complete and perfect number. Nadal’s 10th championship at Roland Garros was “complete and perfect.” With this victory, he is 10-0 when he reaches the finals. The Spanish newspapers called his victory, “La Decima”.

Men's French Open• The highest score in Olympic competition is a “10”. If the Men’s French Open was an Olympic event, Nadal would have been given a “10”. He did not lose a set and only lost 35 games in 7 matches. He lost 6 games in the final against Stan Wawrinka, a match that lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes.

• In the movie “10”, George Webber (played by Dudley Moore) fantasized about meeting the perfect woman, Jenny Miles (played by Bo Derek). When Webber finally met her, he quickly learned she was a phony. Her looks did not tell the full story; she was not a “10”. Even Webber could quickly recognize that Nadal was a “10” for his record at the French Open. Nadal has 79 wins and only 2 losses.
Prior to his 2017 victory, Nadal captured his first 9 championships between 2005 and 2014.

This level of dominance is unprecedented in sports such as basketball, baseball, and football.
Between 1947 and 2017 the top NBA teams were:
• The Boston Celtics; they were 17-4 in the finals.
• The Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers; they had the most appearances, but they were 16-15 in the finals.
• The Chicago Bulls; they were 6-0 in the finals during the Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen era.

Between 1903 and 2016 the MLB teams with the most World Series titles were:
• The New York Yankees were 27-13.
• The St. Louis Cardinals were 11-8.
• The Oakland Athletics were 9-5.
• The San Francisco Giants were 8-12.
• The Boston Red Sox were 8-4.

Between 1967 and 2017, there were 51 Super Bowls. The records of the top teams follows:
• The New England Patriots were 5-4.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers were 6-2.
• The Dallas Cowboys were 5-3.
• The Denver Broncos were 3-5.
• The San Francisco 49ers were 5-1.

No matter how you look at it, Rafael Nadal is a”10″ for his record at the French Open.

Even better, Nadal kept retro tennis alive! Hopefully the stars of the past will continue to dominate at Wimbledon next month.

2017 Men's French Open

 

Americans Were Not Competitive at the 2017 Men’s French Open

While Rafael Nadal was working on his “10” at the 2017 Men’s French Open, the American men were struggling to win a match.

A review of the UTR ratings for the top American players confirms they are some of the best in the world. For example, John Isner, Steve Johnson, and Sam Querrey are in the range of 15.6 to 15.8. Donald Young and Ryan Harrison are slightly lower, 15.4 to 15.5. The problem is that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal are rated 16.1 to 16.4.

While the difference between a 15.4 and 16.4 may sound small, the difference on the court is significant. As a result, the American men were not competitive in the 2017 Men’s French Open.

A review to the ATP world rankings prior to the French Open indicates there were nine American men ranked in the top 100:
• #15 Jack Sock
• #22 John Isner
• #26 Steve Johnson
• #28 Sam Querrey
• #42 Ryan Harrison
• #51 Donald Young
• #68 Frances Tiafoe
• #72 Jared Donaldson
• #75 Ernesto Escobedo
It is impressive to know there are that many men ranked in the top 100; however, it is unlikely these or any other American players will win a Grand Slam singles events within the next two years.

For the 2017 Men’s French Open, the following Americans were seeded because they had world rankings in the top 30: Sock (14), Isner (21), Johnson (25), and Querrey (27). Unfortunately, Sock and Querrey were defeated by unseeded players in the first round.

John Isner and Steve Johnson held their seeds. Both won two matches before bowing out in the third round. At that time, Isner lost to an unseeded player and Johnson lost in three sets to #6 seed Dominic Thiem.

The following players exited in the first round.
• Jared Donaldson
• Sam Querrey
• Ernesto Escobedo
• Frances Tiafoe
• Donald Young
• Bjorn Fratangelo
• Jack Sock
• Ryan Harrison
• Tennys Sandgren
Only Donald Young lost to a seeded player. David Ferrer, seeded 30th, beat Young in five close sets.

Overall the American men won only 4 matches while losing 11 matches.

Americans Have Lackluster Performance at 2017 Women’s French Open

Twenty-year old  Jelena Ostapenko was the story at the 2017 Women’s French Open. Along her path to the title, the 47th-ranked and unseeded Ostapenko beat Louisa Chirico, Monica Puig, Lesia Tsurenko, Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Timea Bacsinszky, and SImona Halep.

The road to victory was not easy for Ostapenko. She won five of her seven matches in three sets.

Unfortunately, there were no Cinderella stories for the 16 American women. As a group they finished 13-16. With the exception of Venus Williams, they demonstrated their strength was not playing on the red clay at Roland Garros.

First round losers were:
• Louisa Chirico
• Alison Riske
• Coco Vandeweghe
• Christina McHale
• Julia Boserup
• Jennifer Brady
• Amanda Anisinova
• Lauren Davis
Chirico lost to Ostapenko, McHale lost to 8th seed Kuznetsova, Brady lost to 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic. Admittedly, these women had tougher than normal first round matches. On the other hand, Coco Vandeweghe (seeded 19th) and Lauren Davis (seeded 25th) did not hold their seeds.  It is noteworthy that Amanda Anisimova played in both the girls’ junior singles and the championships.

The following American women were 1-1. They bowed out in the second round:
• Madison Brengle
• Varvara Lepchenko
• Taylor Townsend
• Madison Keys
Unfortunately, Keys did not hold her 12th seed.

Four American women had 2-1 records, losing in the third round:
• Shelby Rogers
• Catherine (CiCi) Bellis
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Bellis, an 18-year old, is the youngest of the group. She has shown promise since defeating 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova at the 2014 U.S. Open. Bellis has improved since that match and is on track to be a force in the top ten.

Venus Williams, seeded 10th, was the only American woman to hold her seed with a 3-set loss to Timea Bacsinszky in the round of 16.

The next Grand Slam stop is WImbledon. Will Venus Williams continue to play well and be the American woman with the most wins? Will Madison Keys finally have a break through tournament? WIll one of the younger players such as Jennifer Brady, Shelby Rogers, or Coco Vandeweghe have a break through event? Check back in a couple of weeks.