The 2016 French Open ‘Best of…’ awards

After two weeks of rain punctuated with a little bit of tennis, the curtain finally fell on Roland Garros yesterday. And so, in homage to all things French Open, we thought a little ‘Best…’ awards is in order…

Best missing piece of the puzzle:
Hey Roland Garros, you ever heard of a roof?

Hey @AustralianOpen can you send us one roof here to paris?! You have 3down there #fedexmakeithappen #now ??????

— Tomáš Berdych (@tomasberdych) May 31, 2016

Best downpour:
There are plenty to choose from, but Monday (Day 09) was particularly memorable. After the deluge became a monsoon, organisers gave up at lunchtime and wandered off to drink wine and stuff.


Best excuse that’s not an excuse:
Serena Williams: I’m not one to ever make excuses and say, like, Oh, my adductor was hurting or whatever… Adductor or not, she played to win.

Best ‘blimey that was lucky’ moment:
If Novak Djokovic’s racquet had landed a little more to the right (and hit the line judge that was jumping out the way) in his semifinal against Tomas Berdych, we may have bid an unceremonious adieu to the World No.1.

Best example of first world problems:
Simona Halep: No one cares about the players in my opinion. I don’t care that I lost the match today, but I was close to getting injured with my back, so that’s… that’s a big problem.

Best hip wiggling:


Best ‘this rain is rubbish’ face:
Aga Radwanska’s face summed it up perfectly as the rain fell (again):

Best shot:
Take a bow Rafa Nadal…

Best gif:

Tennis after a few drinks https://t.co/7yD8kELrCE

— WTA Reactions (@WTAreactions) May 27, 2016

Best bank balance:
Step forward Mr. Novak ‘can you lend us a couple of bucks’ Djokovic. The Serb created history all over the place this last couple of weeks, including smashing through the $100m career earnings.

Oh, and if you want some serious ones…
Best surprise:
Kiki Bertens. Where did that come from? Kiki ‘I-can’t-win-a—WTA-match-to-save-my-life-but-put-me-in-the-Fed-Cup-and-I’ll-beat-anybody’ Bertens finally got her groove on. The Dutch phenom smashed her way into the semifinals, and came within a whisker of making her first Grand Slam final.

Am I really in the quarterfinals????? can't wait to play again tomorrow!! #RG16

— Kiki Bertens (@kikibertens) June 1, 2016

Best disappointment (yes, we know that’s grammatically weird):
Rafa Nadal withdraws. It was bad enough that Roger Federer pulled out. But when Rafa pulled the pin on his tournament the tennis world uttered an utterly dejected harrumph.

Best breakthrough:
Dominic Thiem. He was a dark horse going into Roland Garros, and Dominic Thiem showed why. The Austrian star stormed into the semifinals (before being walloped by Novak).

Best of the best:
Novak Djokovic. He’s so far ahead of the competition right now that he could probably take the rest of the year off and still be World No.1. Awesome.

Best celebration:
Djokovic and Muguruza both did well, but this was one had passion…

That Winning Feeling ? @KikiMladenovic and @CaroGarcia take home the #RG16 doubles crown. https://t.co/1d2ardqsHQ

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016