One minor change to my annual telly-watching schedule, since moving to France, is that I have had to exchange Wimbledon for Roland-Garros in the summer months.
Roland Garros (taking it’s name from the famous French pilot – of course) takes place in the last two weeks of May each year and, being one of the big four grand-slam tournaments, offers up some top-class tennis for the duration.
As a result I have started to follow the fortunes of the many French Tennis stars, who obviously get most air-time here. By comparison to British Tennis, French Tennis is in it’s hayday with a ream of players occupying the world’s top 50: Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils, Arnaud Clement, Richard Gasquet …
The presence of so many successful home players in the French Open however does not seem to have improved the nation’s chances of winning it. Yesterday the last Frenchman was knocked out, leaving Marion Bartoli (and her cute little pre-serve bounce) to represent the nation’s hopes in the ladies semis.
Each time they come up against one of the big names .. Djokovic, Federer, Nadal .. it seems the French are as reliably unreliable as the British.
At least, with Wimbledon, I only had to sit through one excrutiating Murray/Henman/Bates match before the pain was over – for the French at Roland Garros – it’s six times worse!
OMG it’s Murray against Nadal. Can I bear to watch? Can I bear NOT to?
I have noticed the French umpires are a lot more animated than their British counterparts. They hop out of their chairs at random intervals and perform stretching exercises around the court. Very charming.
So that’s what they’re doing – I thought it was a bit of nature spotting … “Oh look there’s a cute little beetle!” (points with finger … player then steps on beetle.)
It’s that time of year again…and did we get it wrong on the timing this year! Wimbledon is starting and we are getting on the plane and switiching countries for six months! You may be keeping up with the French matches….what am I to do in the states?? Thanks for your blog….I’m a new follower.
Well there’s this place called Flushing Meadow…. perhaps you’ve heard of it?
Heard of it but that’s about it…..found Wimbledon on my American widescreen tv- whew!
If you like watching sport from the other side of the planet – I can recommend this p2p site: http://www.myp2p.eu