French Open Roland Garros 2012 Men

                                Rafael Nadal.Champion.

And by men,I mean Rafa.The man.
7.Wow.7
You know how much sports fans love to debate things? Well Nadal just comprehensively destroyed the debate about who is the greatest clay court player ever. It's over.Hardly an ember left to poke.
He muscled his way through the man who was trying to win a consecutive Grand Slam.I know Djokovic is disappointed by not being able to get that done.But absolutely no shame in having it end like this.
Does he win the eighth next year? Probably.

French Open Roland Garros 2012 Women

                                       Maria Sharapova, Champion




I don't think that I did believe Sharapova could ever win the French title.I could admit it was possible if all the pieces fell into place.Well there she is.And she earned it.She came back from surgery, and disappointing results and completed the career Grand Slam.She has placed herself in elite company.
Good for her,and for tennis.
She gets tons of attention for her glamour.Many non tennis fans know who she is.I'm sure there are a number of people who would tune in just to watch her.I'm not really filled with warmth for that crowd, but I understand.
But this is not a model.This is a tennis champion who is going into the Hall of Fame.    
( notice how I didn't mention the horrible screaming )

Sara Errani.That was an amazing run to the final.It's always fun to see those stories.She and Roberta Vinci did win the doubles.Italian women's tennis is doing mighty fine in Paris.

A few ouches.
Li Na; didn't really expect her to repeat.
Kuznetsova; just spaced out in the match she lost.
Stosur; I bet she'd like to kick herself sometimes.She could have had the whole thing.

Dominika Cibulkova.If you want to sound like a pissy sore loser,go ahead and say your opponent played like a man.Not cool actually.
   

Roland Garros Morane-Saulnier N Fighter Monoplane (1915-1916)

If you are a tennis fan; of course you know that Roland Garros was not a tennis player.He was a World War 1 pilot from France.
Here is one of the planes he flew.
This is from the book; Conquerors of the Air - the evolution of aircraft 1903-1945
Text by Heiner Emde, Illustrated by Carlo Demand.
Published by Viking Press 1968, Edita S. A. Lausanne.

A beautiful book with many color illustrations.Heartily recommended for those interested in the history of aircraft.

After his death in action his friends had the area of the sporting complex named after him.

A user on TheAerodrome.com forum had this comment;

Vigilant -
"Right, I'm starting a petition to the All England Club to get Wimbledon renamed James McCudden"!
 I'm sure he must have played the odd game of bumble-puppy at 56 Squadron.

Clever joke.Like that.

As Roland Garros flies away into the sunset to be shot down by Wilhelm Habich
( Either that or according to his wingman his Spad collapsed during the dogfight ),
We bid adieu to Paris.