Dominic Thiem & Diego Schwartzman prepare to try to qualify for Roland Garros for the final time in both of their careers. “Let’s try one more time” 🥹 Can’t believe Roland Garros didn’t give these guys wild cards in their final seasons on tour.
In our Daily Dose of Social Media, we look at some of the moments you may have missed over the last 24 hours from the world of tennis for Friday 17th May as the Rome Open heads towards its conclusion and Roland Garros is in the rear view mirror.
Among those in our Daily Dose of Social Media include Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman, Novak Djokovic, Ons Jabeur and Karolina Pliskova from one final stand at Roland Garros to delightful tennis skill.
Two of the main players to retire this season are Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman who will play their final Roland Garros (potentially). Both were denied wildcards through to the main draw. In particular the Austrian was a bone of contention.
The two-time finalist at Roland Garros was snubbed in favour of more local players which started a new debate in terms of whether players such as Thiem showed be rewarded with one final go in a tournament and whether they should be reserved for big names. As it stands, he will have to play qualifying without a slew of withdrawals. But he seemed to take a jovial take from it all as they posed together on court with the caption 'let's try one more time'.
Dominic Thiem & Diego Schwartzman prepare to try to qualify for Roland Garros for the final time in both of their careers. “Let’s try one more time” 🥹 Can’t believe Roland Garros didn’t give these guys wild cards in their final seasons on tour.
In an attempt to boost his Roland Garros chances, Novak Djokovic will tread a path that he hasn't done in some time by playing in a lower level tournament over the next week at the Gonet Geneva Open. It has been reported on Friday.
A tournament that has lost most of its big names, it will now get the biggest of them all in the form of Novak Djokovic who will join Casper Ruud in the line-up for the clay court pre-cursor. Normally Djokovic only plays tournaments of a lower standard when he has something to do with said tournament e.g in Belgrade.
But he has seemingly moved to give it all he's got in order to be ready for Roland Garros and is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to be one of the top contenders for Roland Garros.
BREAKING: Novak Djokovic accepted a wild card for the Geneva ATP 250 next week. Very rare to see Djokovic play in the week before a Slam, but it really looks like he needs some matches and confidence this time.
Ons Jabeur is stepping up her preparation for a pivotal juncture of the season by swagging it out on clay. She usually performs well on clay, but hasn't been the best for some time due to a knee injury mainly.
But Wimbledon in particular will provide the main route for her season after two heartbreaks in previous years. She will look to finally achieve Grand Slam destiny later this year. But she of course will look to do so first at Roland Garros.
She showed a deft touch with both a tennis ball off her racquet and also feet as she did keepy ups with the band tossing it up like a tennis racquet and serving it into the court. Too much swag indeed.
Ons Jabeur tosses a ball with her foot & serves it into the court 😂 Too much swag.
With the amount of tennis per year, it is a question that perhaps sits on the periphery of someone's mind and that is how many tennis balls are used in a year. Gabriela Knutson has the answer and it is astonishing.
Knutson who also did a video on how much it costs to play on the tour with expenses, hotels etc has also done a similar video in this case with 5 million balls used a year. She breaks down the number used throughout the tours. This is not all the same ball either as is a common point of contention during the season.
Per surface, it changes and this has caused wide spread criticism in the past and continues to do so from players.
Gabriela Knutson breaks down the number of tennis balls used by the WTA, ATP, and ITF tours in a single year The answer: nearly 5 million balls. 🎥: dropshot_series | IG
Former World No.1, Karolina Pliskova will return to action next week in Strasbourg as a wildcard after some time out due to injury but she certainly has been keeping busy with an ad campaign released with Hublot.
A prominent watch company who have Pliskova as an ambassador, she proves that it isn't just Emma Raducanu, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz that can produce the goods in an ad campaign. With a myriad of different colour blazers, it is the watch that is the true star of the show for the Czech ace.
Karolina Pliskova for Hublot
Emma Raducanu will have to play Roland Garros qualifying it seems for the moment with only a few withdrawals thus far meaning she is currently just outside of the reckoning for the draw.
Raducanu withdrew from Strasbourg likely knowing her fate that she was unlikely to get in through alternates at least straight away so couldn't hinge her hopes on this route. She posted pictures of both her in the sun training as well as the food she is enjoying in France.
This of course points towards her already being in Paris ahead of the French Open and qualifying that begins on Monday. The draw is next Thursday so withdrawals are unlikely to factor in until halfway through her qualifying route. Perhaps the better decision from Raducanu.
Julia Grabher withdrawing though means that she is only three spots away now with Sara Errani next in followed by Arina Rodionova. Raducanu follows up as the third alternate of the next bunch. So withdrawals pending she could yet find her way into the draw. Stay tuned.
Emma Raducanu 🇬🇧 looks like she is getting ready for French Open Qualifying