Halys shows Nadal shape of tennis to come at Roland Garros day three
Halys showed the new way for tennis, Nadal showed the future of tennis racquets, Djokovic and Serena Williams completed an all-star line-up but Jankovic was eliminated at Roland Garros day three.
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There’s a new kind of tennis
Quentin Halys, 18, is the manchild who showed us the future on centre court on day three. He displayed how tennis will be against Rafael Nadal, nine times winner of Roland Garros.
Nadal beat him 6-3 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 49 minutes. And then congratulated him on playing a good match. “It’s not easy to play on centre court for the first time in your first grand slam.”
The new way means serving fast and hitting winners from every part of the court at any possible moment.
Technology will have a role in the new tennis
The review is reminded of an American TV show from the 1970s starring Lee Majors. It was called The Six Million Dollar Man. It started with a thudding drum beat redolent of a military industrial complex. And the back story of how astronaut Steve Austin was rebuilt following his spaceship crash using bionic limbs … to make him “stronger than he was, faster than he was” . Rafael Nadal uses a Babolat racquet and this, he revealed, is rigged up with electronic chips to make him stronger, faster than he was.
New tennis, reminds the review of old TV programmes
OK, so Quentin Halys has been anointed as the future by Rafael Nadal. The review is gamely dredging up the past. We’re going back to the 1960s and Star Trek. There’s an episode in which Captain Kirk tells sceptical members of the USS Enterprise that they have to pursue a dangerous mission because “risk is our business”. What will be interesting in the next couple of years before new tennis is well and truly installed will be the clash of the cultures. “Halys played well,” reflected Nadal after their first round match. “Obviously, he played with some mistakes. But when you want to take a risk on every single ball, the mistakes are there. But tennis is moving that way. Young players on the tour are moving to hit the ball stronger and quicker, going for winners all the time. When Halys wants to play like this and the balls land in, there’s nothing I can do.”
They know how to put on a show
On court Philippe Chatrier we had the men’s defending champion (Rafael Nadal), the men’s top seed (Novak Djokovic) and the women’s top seed (Serena Williams) all on the same day.
Those organisers are so munificent.
Beware the qualifier
Jelena Jankovic is a former world number one and has been to the last four at Roland Garros on three occasions. She won’t be voyaging there this year. The 30-year-old Serb was eliminated by Sesil Karatantcheva. The Bulgarian had battled out of the qualifiers and picked off the 25th seed 6-3 6-4 in 87 minutes to reach the second round for only the third time. Tough when you were at the top.
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