Tennis Talk 2026: Vol 16 (French Open)

We're looking at the realistic possibility of an all Russian final, the first in a slam final since the invasion.

yes mes. kostuk like a rabbit in the headlights. spent too much energy on politics although you cant in any way blame her for that.

shnaider should win of course, but how many times has a player swung freely in a match they werent supposed to win, won, and then played the next match that they were supposed to win, tightened up, and lost. chwalinska has been playing with house money since the first round really having come through qualifying

Jun 4, 2026 -- 3:37PM, Des Pond wrote:

I backed Andreeva with a fairly modest stake because it had a sort of Sod's Law inevitability to it because of the political situation. Should've had a more substantial bet in hindsight, but still.

Nice bet. 1.7x Kostyuk was somewhat suprising

'Two sporting legends here'

As everyone wonders who these two people are

Never seen or heard of the female Cyclist before

Kostyuk did have a 2-0 h2h over Mirra and that was recent and current tbf with one being on clay

Garcia never recovered after Andy Murray bigged her up

Both lefties today

Chwalinska is 31 / 12 against lefties at all levels, (17 / 10 on clay)
Shnaider is 19 / 14 at all levels,  (9 / 6 on clay)

The reality is as much as I rate Shnaider, she didn't so much beat Saba, saba lost it, the same way Sinner didn't lose to fake Cerundolo, Sinner lost it, one because of the heat, the other because of the wind.

the same way Cerundolo didn't beat Sinner*

yep saba beat herself in a remarkable collapse that was almost unremarkable bearing in mind her previous

Shnaiders forehand was on fire for large parts, which I think contributed to the Saba collapse.

When was the last time current doubles partners ended up facing each in a slam final? which is what could happen with
Mirra/Shanider? if it's ever happened before.

There's a sprinkle of Su-Wei Hsieh about Maja.

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:22PM, mesmerised wrote:

When was the last time current doubles partners ended up facing each in a slam final? which is what could happen with Mirra/Shanider? if it's ever happened before.

gotta be Serena vs Venus?

probably,

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:22PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

There's a sprinkle of Su-Wei Hsieh about Maja.

Is that 'not even Su-Wei-Hsieh knows what Su-Wei-Hsieh is going to do next'

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:26PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

Jun  4, 2026 --  4:22PM, mesmerised wrote:When was the last time current doubles partners ended up facing each in a slam final? which is what could happen with Mirra/Shanider? if it's ever happened before.gotta be Serena vs Venus?

yeah Wimbledon 2008.

it's a Russian song so that might be a problem, but if not for that they should do this chant/song for Chwalinska.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinka_(1860_song)

how do go from this:
04-May-2026    W75 Saint-Gaudens    Clay    QF    113    180    Jessika Ponchet [FRA] d. Chwalinska    4-6 6-3 6-2

to being in a winning position at a Slam semi one month later?

Maybe she was just tired of travelling the world staying in Air B&B's, will be dining out in 5 star hotels after this.

It's the sort of completely random run to a semi that you would never even put counterfeit money in, like with Boisson last year, it does literally make no sense to go from that to beating top 20 calibre players match after match

Women's at RG often gives us one of these random semifinalists. I remember 2020 had Zidansek. That SF line-up just as random as the one this year. It had a Iga, but she was unknown before that run.

you mean 2021, Iga won the French in 2020

Andreeva 1.4x busto ! (Erika)

oh yeah of course 2021 was the really random one.
But 2020, where Iga won, was a bit random as well. Had Podoroska in the semis.
I keep confusing 20 and 21 cause both were a pendemic blur and then you had stuff like Euro 2020 and Olympics 2020 taking place in 2021.

great rally at 30-30

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:51PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

Andreeva 1.4x busto ! (Erika)

must suck to have to work when your sister has the biggest win of her life.

Wimbledon should have somehow taken place in 2020 rather than creating a hole in it's history, but because they were randomly insured against a pandemic of that nature, they never bothered trying.

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:57PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

Jun  4, 2026 --  4:51PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:Andreeva 1.4x busto ! (Erika)must suck to have to work when your sister has the biggest win of her life.

Might have been happy to take the loss to watch the final live...

I don't think 2020 was that random, Podoroska was random but the other semi did have two slam finalists, one winner

actually Collins final came after, Kenin won Aussie before, what a random winner Kenin was

Jun 4, 2026 -- 4:57PM, mesmerised wrote:

Wimbledon should have somehow taken place in 2020 rather than creating a hole in it's history, but because they were randomly insured against a pandemic of that nature, they never bothered trying.

yeah Serena robbed of her last realistic chance. Hard to see who would have stopped Novak that year.

Kenin's won just 3 out 13 matches this year, 9 round 1 losses, and a qualification loss, only 27 years old

We would probably already have Novak on 25 if that Wimbledon took place

He won the 2 before, and the 2 after, robbed of 5 in a row, didn't want him to match Federer (nap)

She's an odd one, goes on bad runs like this, and then will go and have some good results again. Rinse and repeat. Has been like that since her big win in 2020.

and 26 mes if he hadnt been a massive tool and belted a line judge at the us

or 27 if the Aussie mugs didn't stop him coming down under, which also could have made it 5 in a row

This semi's better than the last one already

Not sure what the solution should have been because the tour only resumed late July/early August. So no time to have it there as US Open took place in August and then RG booking the September/October slot made that slot also not possible. How late in the year can you even play on grass?

I wonder if he regrets missing out on some great chances due to not getting vaccinated. Probably not as I can see him as the type of person proud of sticking to his guns.

28 if he hadnt mugged against istomin in aus
29 if he hadnt got injured at wimbledon against berdshyte
30 if he hadnt played one of the muggiest clay matches of his life at the french against cecchinato

and theres probably more. hes had more than enough chances to run down the all time record even without the wimbledon that was cancelled and the aussie open he was banned from

You'd could have got rid of qualification for a start but maybe even that wasn't needed, and just start with the main draw, it was possible to have kept the original slot and re-start the tour earlier than they did, lockdown ended in mid may, - other sports were being played after that, the Premier League restarted mid June, Wimbledon was due to start end of June.

Been a fairly high quality match so far, especially in contrast to the last one.

With a domestic league it's a completely different set-up than a tour with international tennis players. It's not like AELTC can just override decisions on the tour resuming late July just so they could get their flagship tournament in. Plus it wouldn't be ideal to just have players start cold at Wimbledon after being off since March. Some warmups like they did at USO would be needed.
But like you say their insurance made it easy. Would be interesting to know how they would have handled it differently if not for that. Maybe consulted with other Slams and done USO in late August, Wimbledon in late September and RG in late October.

woah set Maja.

Awesome TB from 4-2 down

least surprising thing ever caramba. like i said see it all the time. big win followed by a flop and as mes said, shnaider didnt really win saba just completely imploded. its always easy to play well when theres no pressure and shnaider was under absolutely no pressure against saba it was a free hit. this on the other hand is absolutely not. chance to make a slam final and the favourite to do it which she would have known going in

by the same token though, pressure now goes on to chwalinska. a set away from a slam final when she was losing to ponchet recently which is nuts

Whilst all that may be true, if they did not have any insurance for that slam, there's no way they would have allowed a big black hole in their finances, that would have cost them hundreds of millions, no business if they can help it would allow for that, they would have somehow got it on when it was scheduled even if it meant losing some big players who didn't want to come or whatever, but they just made no effort as they didn't need to.

When that Morillo didn't go Shnaiders' way in the tie break when she was 3-1 up, that was the PONR, adjusted my position there. And that drop shot from the baseline from Maja showed how confident she is, even though it was returned, the winner from that was unreal.

High quality relentless, clean hitting from both.

so smart from Maja.

Doc for Maja?

just medication

another bagel in the decider from Diana coming?

1.43 at 40-30
1.53 game
1.63 docs come out

1.73 30-15

Market always short-sighted when it comes to this. Thinks it's Berrettini all over again.

that's brutal if whatever it is is going to affect her in the match of her lifetime.

the likes of Sabalenka will get more chances but Maja might only get this one.

1.43 at 40-30 1*-1
1.83 at 3-2*

1.43 at 40-30 1*-1
2.0 at 3-2*

If this goes to a third set, then you really would have to worry about Maja, those strappings, which I know a lot of players have, are optics that will also start to spook people as well into thinking she may physically start to crumble

1.53 2-1
1.93 3-2
1.73 4-3

Crazy market

shnaider with an issue now

Her movement was fine, just a tactical medical time out to get some rest and the market never seems to understand T.M.T.O's.

medical staff earning their paychecks today.

must be a great job working 3-6 minutes a day rubbing someone's legs

they need to zoom in on Conchita.

tmto or not, market seems to be spooked about shnaider

Shnaider doesn't look confident

shed have done better if shed been the underdog again. some players weirdly cant cope if expected to win and play lights out when expected to lose

here we go then. will chwalinska choke. been very few signs of that so far this match but now this is serving for it

getting the med time out may have been a mistake, it just told her opponent she was struggling.

some of the atp players should be watching this. this is how you close out a routine win. so many in the atp this tournament completely screwed up when leading and ended up losing

tremendous stuff and a repeat should give andreeva plenty to think about

Jun 4, 2026 -- 5:59PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

1.53 2-11.93 3-21.73 4-3Crazy market

Market did an oppsie

another ijbabp bites the dust

Chwalińska's not even listed on the outrights on Betfair yet for Wimbledon.

b365 currently have her at 80/1 however, not much grass history, did beat Siniakova though whose won a lot of grass matches in the last few years. I imagine she'll be a lot shorter closer to time, especially if she plays Eastbourne or Berlin and does well

JBABP is a general rule of thumb not the holy grail

She is completely fearless, no emotional outbursts or down moments, just gets on with it.

never said it was mes. happens an awful lot though. so much so theres an abbreviation for it

guaranteed to be way too short for wimbledon now no matter what happens next

Mirra saying "She's been a rollercoaster on clay this season, being undefeated" (about Kostyuk)

I think she meant "on a roll"

now the tennis is done for the day

Caramba are you aware of Sweden's KO times at the World Cup, 12am v Japan, 3am KO v Tunisia

at least the Holland game is at 6pm

English fans lucky, two 9pm games, one 10pm game, in the groups

Thought both Shnaiders and Maya's English was quite good, Shnaiders's especially

When Bajin's players do well, he's always a great coach, when they lose, he's always Serena's old hitting partner

Jun 4, 2026 -- 6:37PM, mesmerised wrote:

English fans lucky, two 9pm games, one 10pm game, in the groups

Were those times set at random or picked based on viewing audiences across Europe

no idea tbh, but..

Spain have two 5pm KO's, one 1am KO's
France have two 8 pm KO's, one 10pm KO's
Germany have one 6pm KO, two 9pm KO's

So basically all the big European counties have good KO times for a European audience.

I remember at the 2014 World Cup, it was scheduled for England to play Italy at 2am, and I said on the forum that the match would be re-scheduled to suit both countries given they were big European football countries with sizable populations, and people said it wouldn't be because times were printed on tickets, broadcasters wouldn't want it to be changed etc - but it was changed to 11pm. So don't think they'd have wanted to make a similar mistake here.

actually, I was reading Sky's schedule when quoting those, so they must have been using UK times obviously, still, push all those times back for Germany, Spain and France who are all 1 hour ahead, and they're still good KO's times, bar that one 1am - 2am KO.

Guarantee they'll be a headline soon about how Maja has 'Pole-Vaulted into the final'. UK tabloids are original like that.

meanwhile back on the tinpot tour, sherif showing once again what an absolutely dreadful player she is. ten to one on favourite, top seed, set and a break ahead twice, one set all and a break up, about to lose to pedone. utterly useless

https://x.com/jonahtennis/status/2062575080161550766

Coco was always one of the least likeable players on tour, seems a nice person off it though if today was anything to go by.

she was nice enough to sherif. should have double bagelled her at the fo based on sherifs level today

Jun 4, 2026 -- 7:00PM, tobiasr wrote:

meanwhile back on the tinpot tour, sherif showing once again what an absolutely dreadful player she is. ten to one on favourite, top seed, set and a break ahead twice, one set all and a break up, about to lose to pedone. utterly useless

not to be outdone, another top seed and ten to one on favourite bites the dust behind another dreadful performance in croatia. marcinko serving dfs all over the place beaten up by palicova. another useless performance