Gentle(wo)men, Start Your Emails
Okay, folks, I’m about to head out for a four-day Memorial Day weekend jaunt with my little family. We’re going to the farm in game-rich Andes for two days, and then to Maryland to visit with my wife Lisa’s clan.
The French draw is being made tomorrow; it should be up at the official site soon after it’s out. My plans are a follows: I’ll be in the office from next Tuesday through Friday, and leaving for Paris on Saturday. I’ll be blogging from Roland Garros by Sunday, and through the following week and the finals.
Since we’ve got such a great and knowledgeable crew at TW these days, I thought it might be fun to turn over the proceedings to you all for the next few days. So this is your chance, whether you’re a TW Elder, a mad-crazy Kool-Aid drinker, or an unacknowledged and often misunderstood genius (like me) to strut your stuff. I’m going to post a five questions, and I’m inviting each of you to post your answers to each and every one you care to tackle.
In fact, let’s make this a contest. The person who comes closest to getting all these right wins ESPN’s "Scene It" DVD trivia game. In the event of multiple winners, we’ll have a playoff (I have only one copy of this game). And free Tennis magazine hats to the first five runners-up, if applicable.
Here we go:
Pick the four semifinalists, the finalists, and the eventual winner in the draw of your choice (one point for each correct name; two bonus points if you pick all four semifinalists, and another bonus point if you run the table and get them all right).
Pick five of the Top 10 seeds in either or both draws who will fail to make the quarters. That is, you can pick three women and two men, or any combination thereof, among the 20 singles players who are seeded no. 10 or higher. ( One point for each correct pick; bonus point if you name the round and another bonus point if you name the winner of the match).
Which French players will penetrate the deepest in either draw? (One point for each, bonus point if you name the round, and bonus point if you name the winner or the player wins the title).
Who will Marat Safin lose to? (Two points; bonus point if you name the round, and bonus point if you name the winner).
Who will go deeper, Venus Williams or Martina Hingis? (Two points; bonus point if you name the round, and bonus point if you name the winner).
A caveats: I’m making this up as I go along, so just trust me to (try to) do the right thing if it turns out that we have some kind of crazy mathematical or interpretive problem, okay?
And, as the tournament gets underway, let’s all hope it’s a great one that that does the game proud. TennisWorld is sometimes very hard on players; that’s supposed to be part of the fun at TW, and also an attempt to keep things in perspective. But at the same time, I’ve always ultimately subscribed to the famous words uttered by former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, in that passage now known as The Man in the Arena:
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Enjoy the weekend, everyone. Enjoy the tennis. Enjoy life.