That Ball Was In!

Welcome!

France was, as you would expect, very French. The weather was superb, the food was great and, most importantly, the tennis was outstanding. One of the highlights was seeing David Goffin’s final match at Roland Garros. As it happens, he was beaten in three sets by an Englishman called Toby Samuel, who’s 163 in the world right now but will soon rise much higher.

By the end of the match, Rose and I were huge fans and watched him beat a South American on an outside court the following days. There were only a few of us shouting ‘Come on, Toby’, including his mother and brother, and we all excitedly huddled together and chatted after the match. For Toby, who’s been studying and playing tennis at the University of South Carolina, the win means he’s guaranteed at least $80,000 dollars even if he loses to his first round opponent, Alex de Minaur. For him, that’s a huge pay day.

Although you might mistakenly imagine that the qualifying rounds are a bit pony compared to the tournament proper, you’d be utterly wrong. Because there are fewer spectators, it’s much easier to move about and the standard of tennis is every bit as high. Rose and I spent most of the three days we were there sitting in shaded seats in the Suzanne Lenglen stadium enjoying wonderful tennis.

Sadly, because tennis has become so popular, it’s increasingly difficult to secure tickets for the main event but it’s comparatively easy to buy tickets for the qualifying rounds… and they’re cheaper!