Yesterday, we watched Li Na take victory over defending champion Francesca Schiavone, in two hard fought but relatively easy sets. Today, Roger Federer will be hoping to do the same to Rafael Nadal, the 2010 French Open champion. It's the men's final, the culmination of two weeks excellent tennis on the clay courts.
Credit: Frédéric de Villamil / Flickr
Rafael Nadal takes on Roger Federer for the French Open trophy
Federer has looked dominant out on the courts this past week, and heads into the final in good form. Rafael Nadal faced off Andy Murray in the semi-final. It was a straight sets victory but at no time did the defending champion look comfortable as he made his way through to the final. This could be quite the battle.
The action begins at 2pm GMT+1, and the Factbyte Factbox will be live for step by step coverage from 1:30pm.
yaaayy for tennis! Federer to win :)
I am watching a replay of the ladies. Already onto my first ice cream of the night, lets see if the three still in the freezer remain there until the end of the mens :D
*waves at the fbfb*
I may or may not have watched the last set of the 2009 final last night and I may or may not have cried. Again.
awww
hello tennis fans! :)
I have also cried at a movie and a TV ad today though, so it's not saying much #criesateverything
Just prepare for when you have that last spoonful of ice cream :)
hehe aw don't worry i'm the same.
it's all gone! I might at least wait for the men to start before I move onto icecream #2
was it the aami ad? :D :D :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYCOARVJgGs
er, no.
ppssst FBFB Nadal is 25
May have to watch that novak/murray song again to prepare. Best thing ever.
3 years on and i still think its the most annoying tv a i have ever seen!
now it has an official video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epv4Hxr_ReM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
ahh it's just so awesome.
"So you got your autograph, watcha gonna do? Take it to the beach, or take it to the zoo"
Best lyric ever :D
it was very tempting to take signs to the Open this year referencing that exact line.
my favourite tennis moment overnight was this conversation between Andrea Petkovic and Judy Murray:
AP: Quick news on doubles in Wimbi: I am playing doubles with beautiful Ana Ivanovic and mixed doubles with beautiful @feliciano_lopez
JM: u mean Deliciano....?
AP: I was just waiting for you to answer! I tried anything fir get you to watch me playing- hahha. Indeed Deliciano! Coming to watch?
JM: coming to watch??????? Do birds sing???? I have put my tent up outside Wimbledon already....
AP: How will I possibly put one serve in while Deliciano is standig at the net in front of me? Tell me!
JM: you must keep your eyes focussed above the height of the net....that way, u have a small chance to get the serve in.
and then Andy chimes in with @andreapetkovic @judmoo good job this conversation doesn't make me uncomfortable..... and Jamie seconded it.
eheheh poor Andy, hearing your mum lust after your colleague :D
heheheh
Ha! Awkward sunday dinner conversation coming at the Murray household ;)
those boys should be so lucky to have Feli as their new dad :D
Wooo, moto gp is off, time for tennis :)
(although now I have the arctic monkeys song they played at the end in my head now)
SOMEBODY HOLD ME
but you don't like hugs?
Only the 67 career titles, like.
a virtual one soothes the nerves with no physical contact :D
*virtual hug* :)
and so bad on clay he's only made 5 of the last 6 RG finals :D
I find the holding hands with small children thing so weird.
Never watch the walking out of a football match, it would be x22 as wierd for you
:D
i had a debate with my flatmate regarding the football habit of doing that. he lost. :D
I think I need to put on my RF hat just in case the no one else in the room wonders who I'm supporting.
:D
OMG dad just came into the kitchen.. i didn't even hear him come in O.O
Interesting zoomed shot of the bottom of the umpire's foot..
I think I'm actually enjoying this because as much as I want Roger to win I really don't have any expectations and am already really impressed with his performance in this tournament, his road to the final was TOUGH.
Pascal Maria is just that awesome.
I like how they have their names on their trainers, it's like the socks i have that tell me what day of the week it is. Very useful.
I wish they sold the customised ones they wear, I'd so buy some.
You could colour a little bit of red under the 'R' and have personalised AF trainers :)
yes!
"one of the problems for roger throughout the championships is his conversion rate of break points"
more like throughout his career
He's got one more.
Loving how the ball curls through the air on some of their shots so far
2 is not enough! You must have missed when he was 3/22 the other day :)
Another break point for rog.
How is that possible?
1/4 is good enough for Rog.
so you DO know what a break point is!! *thinking back to yesterdays converastion*
Yay!
Not a bad start :)
he's really, really, really bad at it.
Just imagine how scary good he'd be if he wasn't.
I got myself all confused!
#sorrylou
never asking you to keep me updated again! ;)
even his tag on the tennis community I hang out on is "roger "cant convert break points" federer"
:D holds Nadal to 15 for 3-0 up. Good start.
Andrew Castle I ain't :)
Rafas tag is "Rafael Nadal can't park a bus" so there you go :)
You guys have HIGH standards. :P
it's true, he can't :D
Although I remember the wimbledon posts we did last year (they were awesome, we must do that again this year Christine!) and I commented a few times saying 'oooh break point!... what does that do?' and stuff.
I think they will forever cause me to get confused for some reason. :)
Oh yes. Should be less confusing with no World Cup posts too :)
hehehe i loved those posts. i volunteer to write one or two :) I loved that i could go somewhere to comment on a sport i loved while most people commented on football.
do you know the difference between a break and a mini break?
A mini break is...smaller...?
please don't confuse him anymore :)
a mini break is when you win a point of the others serve in a tie break :)
we have much to teach him
i'll leave you to teach him, you being the tennis guru :)
Ohh, see, like that it makes sense. It's the terminalogy that I get confused with sometimes. But the mini bit is quite the helpful pronoun here.
I am sooo excited for Wimbledon this year, I think because I know I'll be there, actually watching tennis next year.
hehehe! I'm just excited cause i'll be home with no summer work or anything so i can have those two weeks to completely absorb into the tennis :)
Aahhh so jealous you're going to the Olympics and i'm not! stupid country.
woooot!
Go rog :) weird start for Nadal though, he doesnt look comfortable at all
I can take you to something if I get something in the second chance sale :)
i would love you forever.. :) and bring yummy home made treats (and money to pay you back obv) if you did.. lol
anything you were interested in other than tennis? I'm taking requests ;)
Payment through the form of brownies, this form of currency needs to catch on.
this is my beverage of the evening. It's good!
http://twitpic.com/57dacd
not really tbh.. i'd rather watch the rest from home.. just the chance to go to wimbledon! :o
I really don't know why you don't just go to Wimbledon like a normal person, much easier :)
Wow, you still have Woolworths in australia!
nooo to watch the tennis.. lol well see, i wanna go to wimbledon, and i wanna go to the olympics, this seems perfect :P
also.. i'm not a normal person :P
that was my thought too, but its a lot further away for me to get to :D
its different to the woolworths you had I believe.
hehe true, but i'm not a massive fan of anything other than racquet games at the olympics, and watching badminton live makes me feel a bit sick (too fast i tell you!) so tennis it is! :P
We have it here too and its different to both the aus & uk ones
I vote you go and spend 20 pound on a ground pass in a couple of weeks, you won't regret it :)
Badminton is mental to watch. I went to see my brother play it last year just with some friends and I had no idea what was going on, it was hilarious
Lots of tape on Nadal's ankle...
The American Woolworth's was the original one... and it opened divisions all over the place and then the American one sold off all of the Geographical diverse ones and they just ran themselves. So our Woolworths used to be part of the American one... But wasn't by the time it went bust... but... as far as I can remember the Australian one was named after the American one but was never part of the American one or something :)
but.. you cant just buy ground passes for wimbledon? you have to queue from like 3am?..
you have to queue but the intense overnight queuers are going for centre/court 1/court 2. You have to get there early but not to the point where you'd need a tent.
Theres also returned tickets on ticketmaster for the following days play if you can get there on one days notice.
heh I justed looked it up and I'm right about the unconnectedness... Apparently the American Woolworths has changed its name to... Foot locker
i'm not sure how early i could get there regarding trains etc :(
ohh i can do that tho!
i'll keep my eyes peeled for you :)
thank you, i was going to say, someone is going to have to remind me, but a spontaneous trip to wimbledon would be ace!
Set point rog! Woo!
woot woot!
Here's an exciting joke I just made up...
Why are 40 all points ties more refreshing on clay courts?
.
.
.
.
.
Because it's orange duce
oh giggles!
I am sorry
advantage giggles :)
I only ever knew one other tennis joke before...
Did you know that all tennis players are into the occult? It's true, you know that Goran, EvenHe'sAWhich.
But it's better if you say it and it is currently the 90s :)
!!
Silly roger.
its 0-15, stop your damn fistpumping
He's really finding momentum, though.
There's that Nadal bloke I was expecting to see
Roger appears to have fallen asleep right when Nadal woke up :)
What a shot.
This is bubbling veeeeeery nicely.
Has Roger's best chance already passed?
I don't see Nadal's level dropping now,
but at least Roger already has more games than he got the whole match last time he played a final against Rafa here. Worst. Match. Ever.
Daaaaaaaaaamn. First set to nadal.
and this is why we don't drop shot when we're serving for the match, Roger.
nah, that wasn't the issue for me. but that set point chance Roger had...
the set point he drop shotted on? thats what I meant :)
:D
wasn't that on Nadal's serve, though?
yeah
I think it'll be over quick from here, mentally he's gone
Have to head out now, noooo. At least it's for exciting reasons, woo!
Hope you guys enjoy the match though and mr federer doesn't give up!
have fun!
I am so impressed by the FBFB, Christine must be paying 100x more attention than I am :)
I'm trying to be more descriptiony in all FBFB's and this is great practice. I keep running out of words though :)
There's only so many ways to say - long, wide, into the net. Particularly when they're all Federer :)
:D
O.O
my commie has said Roddick when he's trying to say Roger about 12 times.
Ooh, Mrs Federer.
Mama Fed?
Mm, no, the lady that had the twins.
ahh. Mirka is my favourite WAG ever.
Hehe. I only recognise her and the Home and Away one.
Katherine will upset now..
thats all you need to know really :D Although Rafa's girlfriend is there today, she doesn't show up much.
she'd understand, Mirka is a million times more fierce than she could ever hope to be.
:D
wooooo!
no Roger, now you hold
hehe you need to be Fed's coach :)
that lady was ms rafa.
grr
arrghh
FBFB is much better than the silly bbc tennis text i had to rely on last week while i was out.
rain, noooo
and the umbrellas go up..
i'm so sad i didn't get to go on a rg tour when i was in paris
It's a good thing. Fed can still salvage the 2nd set.
Good time for Giggles to get going too.
its not a good thing when its 1am and I have to go to work!
Given things as they are, you're better off sleeping. Nadal's more likely to win, anyway. ;)
go when you come back next year?
never sleep when finals are on. NEVER!
I am considering it :)
I have. More often than not, I haven't regretted it. :)
do ittt!!! Europe tour Prt II ! :)
I think I'm a little bigger tennis fan ;)
it's not OTT to do a day trip to Paris, thats what I like about London :)
hehe true. Mum, Dad and I used to go for a day trip to France all the time when i was younger.
yaay! Go Fed,
ohhh dear.
yaaay Fed!
Well... the rain break has worked out pretty darn well for Fed so far.
erm Fed.. wakey wakey..
Tiebreak!
booo tiebreaks
at least he's competitive, much nicer than 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 :)
NO DROPSHOTS. NO.
oh sometimes they work.
Not often enough!
not often enough to do them so often on important points!
Petkovic is trying to make me like her
In case anybody wonders, I'm a Rafa-Fangirl all the way. And, more importantly: Who doesn't love uncle Toni? There's not a lot I can do really. Rafa is just the equivalent to Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter when I was 13.
Boo for Rafa fan but A+ Nick Carter reference
Oh yes!
by the way, all the songs on his new album sound the same but after a few listens it grew on me :)
now HOLD ROGER, HOOOOOOLD.
I am here.
I am not posting anything because I don't like tennis at all, but I am glad to see such a polyvalence in this webpage :)
Hope your favourite player wins.
never getting to sleeeeeeeeeeeep
yaaaaaayyyy!!!
oooh i am off to brush my teeth, dont start playing til i get back thanks.
What time is it in Australia?
Yesterday I thought, best of three is pretty short. Today I think best of five is rather long. Why isn't there an inbetween?
2.36am
best of five is amaaaazing when its actually daytime though
Rogerrrrr, you could have had that one!
You'll be quite tired tomorrow...
I can't remember the last time I wasn't tired so thats ok :)
they both wear Nike but Roger seems to get magical clay-don't-stick-to-me socks :D
GRR
my friend is trying to explain how the BBC Wimbledon music gets her really excited, and I didn't know what song she meant so she linked me to it.
My thats one jaunty tune.
I <3 the slo mo camera
come on Federer, if your not gonna do this for yourself do it for Nole.. he wants that no.1 slot... :)
Hello again. Yay for having tennis to return to :)
although looks like we're nearing the end... come on roger
i thought that last set....
I like that Rog come ons in English.
Mirkas rings are outrageous
She looks quite scary when she's disappointed.
ohh i missed it :(
the stone in her engagement ring is so massive gravity always turns her ring upside down
Hi guys, sad no Giggles to catch up on but glad FBFB is covering the tennis. On an admin point, live thread (Dashboard & Realtime) goes to Giggles Radio. Should it default to this thread?
http://gototennis.com/wp-content/uploads/mirka_vavrinec_ring.png
It defaults to the latest live thread. Giggles gazumped me.
Aww. Well done Rafa, just too good.
well done Rafa :)
WOW
aw well done Rafa, Nole will have to wait for No 1 then.
shes wearing a massive green one on the other hand today
cooollll!!
now he has a nice round figure of grand slams, thats nice. Feel free to stop any time though, that 16 ain't far away :D
commentators saying Roger is a favourite for Wimbly if he plays like this. Thanks mr commentator.
:)
"what would have happened if he'd converted that first set drop shot"
OH DON'T REMIND ME.
:D
commentator speculates that roger throws away the runners up plates because he doesnt have room in his trophy room :D
what a shame this won't be followed by the lovely italian one.
you stole my comment, was just gonna say that! lol
I like that one of my commies can translate French!Roger
He could use them for dinner.
Andrew Castle is just guessing i think.. 'obviously congratulating Nadal for a great game..' :)
"Mirka, I'm eating in front of the telly tonight, be a dear and bring me my steak on my Roland Garros tray?"
Rafa is such a shameless Roger fan, he always apologises for beating him.
aw thats nice :)
the photo ops always make me cringe because they NEVER know who needs to stand where
i love that there is more tennis tomorrow. ahhhh :) §
christine deserves a trophy for her hard fbfbing work
I think I am only going to watch the Halle final, and only if Roger gets there. I need a break to get more than 4 hours sleep a night for a week before Wimbledon starts :) Enjoy Queens for me :)
I agree :)
i certainly will. Yes i agree you do need sleep :) i will!
me too biiig virtual hugs for Christine :)
righteo, night all :)
night Amy!
Night!
Thanks all, great tennising this weekend.