29/05 - Roland-Garros : "The first rounds"

SPORTS / TENNIS : ROLAND-GARROS / "Un Autre Regard" by Philippe Delerm / 29/05 - Roland-Garros : "The first rounds"

This might be the French Open at its best, this first scintillating week, when everything seems possible and nothing has been decided in advance — because centre court in Roland Garros stadium rarely hosts the match that's full of surprises and gripping suspense. The tournament area must be considered in its entirety. So you have to head directly for the Lenglen court, or often even more directly to the narrow rows of courts half shaded by the fading afternoon. There have been delays in the program, many spectators are already heading for the exits, prisoners of their predetermined departures. So it's a delicious privilege to be among those remaining behind. The fifth-set tiebreaks crumble one after another. The loss of service is symbolic of this new theatricality upsetting everything. The protagonists let their exhaustion show. They wage psychological warfare backwards. Who's showing the most advanced state of fatigue? Who's suffering the worst cramps? Who can turn a slight limp into an urgent need for a physical therapist? Who can hide a tenaciously held desire for victory behind a promise to call it quits?A blinding beam of sunlight limns the beauty of this backdrop. The squinting server becomes, in the next game, the sender of shadows. The roles aren't defined, no villains, no heros. The outcome of the play matters only to the actors. But the public is here in the hopes that the struggle will continue a little while longer. Let the balminess of what's almost a summer evening suspend indefinitely the cruelty of its verdict, just before night falls. — Philippe Delerm