The Frenchies Chronicle

[Madame]

Hello all,

I've decided to comment The frenchies adventures in Australian Open 2009. :bleus::bleus::bleus:

To start out, some numbers:

We have 27 !! frenchies in the main draws at AO2009. Among them a past winner, Amelie Mauresmo and last year's finalist, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Both of them have been injured coming in, but are going well and are ready to start this new campaign. (news and audio here: http://www.fft.fr/open-australie/2009/?ID=4558)

The field:

15 Boys
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (6) vs Monaco
Gilles Simon (7) vs Andijar
Gaël Monfils (13) vs Vassallo Arguello
Richard Gasquet (25) vs Junqueira
Paul-Henri Mathieu (29) vs Nieminen
Julien Benneteau (48) vs Baghdatis
Marc Giquel(52) vs Nalbandian
Michaël Llodra (56) vs Malisse
Florent Serra (58) vs Karanusic
Fabrice Santoro (60) vs Ferrero Our Veteran
Nicolas Devilder (70) vs Guccione
Jeremy Chardy (73) vs Daniel
Arnaud Clément (88) vs Stakhovsky
Adrian Mannarino (129) WC vs Verdasco
Sébastien de Chaunac (252) Q vs Darcis

12 Girls
Alizé Cornet (16) vs Koryttseva
Marion Bartoli (17) vs South
Amélie Mauresmo (22) vs Govortsova
Virginie Razzano (62) vs Gajdosova
Nathalie Dechy (69) vs Kutuzova
Aravane Rezaï (81) vs Makarova
Mathilde Johansson (85) vs Craybas
Julie Coin (92) vs Vesnina
Séverine Bremond (94) vs Vaidisova
Camille Pin (97) vs Zheng
Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro (105) vs Zahlavova Strycova
Kristina Mladenovic (WC) vs Schnyder she's 15 and the youngest of the band

Who will go farthest this year ? I say Gaël Monfils or Ritchie look the more ready for it. But beware of French surprises. A Jo can hide in every frenchie !!!

and Allez les Français ! :bleus::bleus::bleus:

[maedal]

salut, madame --
found a link to this forum on TW. while my prime interest/reason for watching tennis is rafa and the rest of the spanish men, my positive feelings also extend to the frenchies, esp. simon, gasquet, et amelie. (i spend about about 5 weeks in paris every year, usually in june; last year went to RG for the first time...)

i'm happy to see richard playing well and with conviction so far this year. amelie is a lovely person (enjoyed seeing her during the AO draw) and i hope she goes far. simon--well, i remember him in the early rounds of the AO last year and thinking he had some good stuff...! what's the news in france re tsonga's back problem?

allez--tout le monde!

[GVGirl]

Madame,

This is great that you are doing this chronicle!

Maedal,

Welcome to TAT!

[Madame]

salut, madame --
found a link to this forum on TW. while my prime interest/reason for watching tennis is rafa and the rest of the spanish men, my positive feelings also extend to the frenchies, esp. simon, gasquet, et amelie. (i spend about about 5 weeks in paris every year, usually in june; last year went to RG for the first time...)

i'm happy to see richard playing well and with conviction so far this year. amelie is a lovely person (enjoyed seeing her during the AO draw) and i hope she goes far. simon--well, i remember him in the early rounds of the AO last year and thinking he had some good stuff...! what's the news in france re tsonga's back problem?

allez--tout le monde!

Bonjour maedal !
nice to have some european pals ...
I love Rafa too. He's a great kid with a ravishing smile
My french favs are Amelie and Ritchie, so we have quite similar tastes !

Jo will be playing and we hope he won't be stopped by his back in this Open ...

Welcome to TAT, a real nice place for tennis and much more

[Madame]

Madame,

This is great that you are doing this chronicle!

Maedal,

Welcome to TAT!

Thankyou GVGirl, will do my best.

[Scotty]

Merci Madame, et bienvenue maedal!

[maedal]

thank you for the warm welcomes, GVGirl, madame, et scotty...looking forward to animated discussions as our frenchies progress thru the AO...!

[beths]

madame
this is a great idea . will follow this thread and the chronicles of the frenchies throughout
I am a big Rafa fan - but I love Richard and his game . I hope he has a good tournament.
Looks like he is off to a good start this year so far.
any news on Jo wili's back - hope he can play to try and defend his AO final result.

[Jessie181]

LOVE it, Madame!

I, too, will be looking forward to reading this thread throughout the tournament.

Good luck to the Frenchies!

[Danielle]

Co-sign what Jessie said - can't wait to read more Madame!

And welcome maedal!

[Madame]

Love it when a promising frenchie wins her match

Mathilde Johansson d. Jill Craybas 6-2 1-6 7-5 :bleus: after saving a match point !!!

that's the 5 out of 5 for the french girls today !!!!

[missinandre]

Ah...Madame, how far do you see Alize going?

[Madame]

Day 1 Summary

Day 1 is over and it went really well for the girls with 5 out of 6 through to the second round.
The boys have a hero: Fabrice ! :bleus:

Girls results:

Alize Cornet started out the day with a win 6-3 6-4 over up and coming Mariya Koryttseva. She will be meeting german A. Petkovic in second round. Alize was not in a very good form and has a shoulder bothering her. This does not look very good for later rounds …

Marion Bartoli followed Alize's example and defeated in two sets M. South 6-2 6-4.

Nathalie Dechy started strong with a 6-3 6-0 defeat of qualifier V. Kutuzova:



Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro put out some good tennis to beat B. Zahlavova Strycova 6-3 6-4.

And finally 23 years old Mathilde Johansson had a surprise win on veteran Jill Craybas 6-2 1-6 7-5. Bravo Mathilde ! :bleus:



The only defeat came from Aravane Rezaï who after a good first set lost her stamina and the last two sets 1-6 7-5 6-4 against promising young Russian Ekaterina Makarova. (sorry the 5 Aravane pickers !)


Boys Results:

Hard day for some of our boys. Mikaël Llodra lost against back in-form qualifier Xavier Malisse that played beautiful tennis to defeat him 7-6 6-1 6-1. Bravo Xavier !
Marc Gicquel managed to save a set in his loss to David Nalbandian 6-1 4-6 6-2 6-3.
And Julien Benneteau couldn't match Marcos Baghdatis' love of Australian Open. Marcos won 6-3 7-6 6-2. Allez Marcos !

But the three others came through.
Paul-Henri Mathieu went lucky after 2 years of first round forfeits for injury, he benefitted from Nieminen's fatigue over Sydney who abandoned at 6-2 4-1 for the frenchie.
Jeremy Chardy won his first Australian Open match at the third attempt, beating Marcos Daniel 6-4 6-4 6-1. He now will meat Mister Djoko ! Can he do it ?

And finally, our beloved magical artist of the small yellow ball threw a spell at Juanqui and won 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-2 !!!

Hero of the day: Fabrice Santoro



Madame

[beaujarkko]

Jeremy Chardy won his first Australian Open match at the third attempt, beating Marcos Daniel 6-4 6-4 6-1. He now will meat Mister Djoko ! Can he do it ?

I sure as shootin' hope so!


Great summaries Madame!

[maedal]

madame, thank you for the summary and photos. i enjoy watching santoro. (he reminds me of the singer gilbert becaud--he has the same sort of coloring and tete, no?) amelie is up today--allez, amelie!