Tennis
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Due to the Lions tour etc, I haven't really been following the French Open this year, but this is a good achievement from Michael Venus, reaching the doubles final!
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That's a superb effort by Venus. The seeded pairings have all fallen by the wayside - Venus and Harrison beat the 4th, 7th and 16th seeds - but their opponents Young and Gonzalez only had to beat the 5th seeds. They beat a lot of pairs that beat seeds, though. Two unseeded combinations in the final - definitely winnable!
Meanwhile Rafa has got to the final against Stan and according to my count has lost just 29 games in 6 matches (16.5 sets of tennis) in getting there.
That's averaging better than 6-2 per set.
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That's yuuuge!
Was wondering who would hVe been our last Grand Slam winner ... good idea to actually read the article huh?
Onny Parun is New Zealand's only modern-era grand slam winner, teaming with Australian Dick Crealy to win the 1974 French Open men's doubles in five sets. Parun also reached the Australian Open singles final in 1973, beaten by Australian John Newcombe in four sets, while Chris Lewis reached the men's singles final at Wimbledon in 1983, beaten by John McEnroe in straight sets. Christchurch-born Anthony Wilding won six singles and five doubles grand slam titles between 1906 and 1914.Onny Parun's effort was just a little before my ability to recall. Although I do recall him and Brian Fairleigh in some epic Davis Cup ties, and the string button hole thingy in his mouth when he served.
I recall Lewis of course.
And of course we've all heard of Anthony Wilding but ut got me googling.
Bit of an underachiever by the looks. Still holds records for most career outdoor titles, most career clay court titles and most titles in a single season. Was also a first class cricketer
But I digress.
Good luck Michael Venus.
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@Mokey said in French open (tennis):
Venus and Harrison won!
Great effort. And that will look very nice on the CV, grand slam winner. Decent payday and ranking points, too.What a great result. I was just reading this story about them.
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That's pretty awesome by Venus!
Not to pour cold water on Onny's achievement, either, but the fields at the French Open in 1974 were somewhat weakened because Philippe Chatrier banned people who had signed for the World Team Tennis league in the US.
Google doesn't readily tell me who else was banned, but the most notable "banee" was Jimmy Connors - who ended up winning the other three Grand Slam tournaments that year - so potentially missed a Grand Slam year!!!
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And Rafa wins his 10th French Open - and drops just 35 games along the way.
Stan does slightly better than the average 6 - 1.75 set scoreline against Rafa and averages 6-2 in the final.
Totally dominant. Roger will be very pleased he won that Australian Open final - otherwise Rafa would be breathing right down his neck!
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It's clay. Isn't it a foregone conclusion if Rafa's fit?
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@canefan said in French open; USA open (tennis):
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11921583
Interesting insight into the "rivalry". I think it would be very hard to friends in an individual sport where you are both fighting for the same thing.
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Michael Venus has reached the doubles semi-finals at Wimbledon with partner Raven Klaasen (SA) after a lengthy battle in the QFs (6-7 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-4). Three sets went to tie break! I wish I'd seen that match!
In the semis, they'll play Frederik Nielsen (Denmark) and Joe Salisbury (GB) on Thursday.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/tennis/news/article.cfm?c_id=94&objectid=12086879
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@stargazer Pretty impressive. Venus at least 50-50 to make two Wimbledon finals! He and Srebotnik are the highest seeded combo remaining in the Mixed - not that that means a great deal.
Artem Sitak also made the Men's QFs and was knocked out by Venus' Men's Final opponents, in four sets.
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@canefan my girlfriend was going to stay up last night to watch the rafa vs joker game. I looked at the Anderson score (was only in the second set) I said na just record it watch it tomorrow.
I kind of wish she stayed up now.
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