Full Moon on Rafa’s Birthday During the 40th Anniversary of Yannick Noah’s Roland Garros Victory – Saturday Night OT

 

 

The reason French folk believe the 40^th anniversary of Yannick Noah’s victory is a big deal is because they haven’t had a French champion at that French Grand Slam since then

 

All this time I’ve been griping that UNLESS THE USTA DOES MUCH MUCH BETTER IN GIVING FRANCIS TIAFOE THE SUPPORT HE DESERVES SINCE HE HAD TO BEAT 4X CHAMPION RAFA TO REACH THE US OPEN SEMIFINALS LAST YEAR it’ll be 20 years this year  since the U.S. had a U.S. champion (Andy Roddick, 2003) – it honestly hadn’t occurred to me that a different Grand Slam had had to wait any longer than that since Wimbledon broke its 77-year draught in the Men’s Championship when Andy Murray beat Novak and won in 2013

Francis beats Rafa in R4 to reach the 2022 US Open semifinals

Andy Murray wins Wimbledon in 2013 - official

So I was all ready to do my best to try to let it go and then I saw this piece today on how proud this latest player to gain international prominence by beating the #2 seed when he himself was ranked 172 (and I was happy about it at the time bc of Danil Medvedev’s own demonstrated racism and when tennis officials raised the point that he “couldn’t speak openly about the war bc his family might be threatened” – given how Russia has a tendency to treat their sports figures, I still had to wonder how close to the Putin regime his family actually was since one of Putin’s other senior officials also carries the surname “Medvedev”.  Is it a common name there?), Seyboth Wild, was of his family’s ancestral relationship to the Nazi regime in Brazil and Argentina

o.O

So sorry, “it’s just sports” and “shut up and dribble” people – no plans now to shut up about Francis – or Coco Gauff or Taylor Townsend or Sloane Stephens (who complained just last week about how the racism in the sport had gotten worse over the past year despite the supposed official guardrails that had been allegedly established, and then all her interviews and social media were overrun with trolls hence proving her point) or any other player in this sport or any sport on the receiving end of this abuse or any person on the receiving end of this abuse – getting the support which they have earned & deserved as champions and of which they've been systematically deprived, anytime soon kthxxbyeeee

 

From the Fédération Française de Tennis

 

Tous Les Autres S’Appellent Noah – Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Miss Tina Talks About Race, Bowie, and Jagger

I take a special schadenfreude-y joy in imagining how the American agent who in 2006 said he doubted how good an ambassador of the sport Rafa would make because "his English wasn't so great" must feel when he thinks about revenue lost

:-/

Rafa tells us about what he feels are some of his best matches

How Well Does Rafa Know Rafa?

Of course I realize I've gone absolutely overboard here but it's because, like many Rafans, we've become accustomed to celebrating along with him at Roland Garros every year and this year he's not just absent from the tournament but also recovering from arthroscopic surgery on the psoas AND it's the first time during his career that we know of that he's had surgery - so it's a big adjustment for all of us

Are there legends people are missing from their favorite venues / event series right now?  By all means please share!