first day at Roland Garros

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“Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.”

Lupita Nyong’o
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“When you lose a couple of times, it makes you realize how difficult it is to win.”

Steffi Graf

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Welcome to the first day of The French Open. I have been to the French Open 3 times. It’s a combination of one of my favorite cities, Paris, and favorite sports to watch (tennis). I am writing about it today for no reason other than I miss Paris and the French Open has given me lots of good memories. I have been there on hot, sunny, dry days and cold, cloudy, wet days. I typically go the first week when all the side courts of full of ranked players going through the opening rounds and you sit on bleachers only feet away from players. It is always the early week you can walk over to practice courts and lean on the fence watching Sergei Bruguera, Jim Courier, Steffi Graf, Justine Henin, Mary Pierce, Gustavo Kuerten, just whacking ball after ball – effortlessly and mistake free. In those days if you walked in early you would sometimes be walking in with players who came in the front gate. And this all happened after a ride on the metro which I continue to believe is the best mass transit system in the world.

Anyway.

The French Open is the last of what is often called the clay court triple crown:

• Rome is personified as Power.
• Paris is Prestige.
• Monte Carlo is Beauty.

I mention the triple crown as a reminder that the grueling road to Paris is long rallies all played on clay. On a side note. Not all clay is created equal. the French Open terre battue of Roland Garros grounds is a bit different from Monte Carlo and Rome and, well, absolutely different than the clay you and I would play on our local courts.

Anyway. While I am fairly sure there is no debate that Rafael Nadal is the greatest clay-court player of all time. I will say I saw Thomas Muster play and before his car accident he was a frickin’ beast on clay.

Anyway.

Because I did the research and someone wrote it all up so I will share some interesting details as to the triple crown as we head into the French Open <I lost the source>. The list of players who have won all three is, well, short (but illustrious).

• Players who won at least one of each of the Clay Triple Crown

    Ilie Nastase

    Guillermo Vilas

    Bjorn Borg

    Mats Wilander

    Ivan Lendl

    Thomas Muster

    Carlos Moya

    Gustavo Kuerten

    Juan Carlos Ferrero

    Rafael Nadal

Other Notes:

 Players to win Monte Carlo, Rome and the French Open in the same year: Nastase (73), Muster (95) and Nadal (so many years its nuts). Not even Borg, Wilander or Lendl could accomplish this.

Only five players won two career championships at both Monte Carlo and Rome: Nastase, Borg, Lendl, Muster and Nadal.

Only Borg, Lendl and Nadal won the Clay Triple Crown at least twice in their career. I would also note Nadal’s record is just plain ridiculous and likely impossible to top anytime the rest of the century, if ever.

It ain’t going to happen this year so the French Open is game on.

I imagine my point here is that not only winning on clay is tough, winning the triple clay tournaments is even tougher.

To end this, I want to remind everyone I opened with a Steffi Graf quote. Steffi Graf remains the best tennis player I have ever seen. And I have seen Federer, both Williams, Nadal, Seles, and a number of absolutely fabulous players. She was an athlete who happened to decide to play tennis. Enjoy a little bit of the French Open. You won’t regret it.