[Éowyn]

So i think every now and then there needs to be a thread for a tourny and as Arnaud just won his qualifier coming back from a first set bagle 0-6 7-5 7-6 we hsoudl have a USO thread

Hopefully Arnaud can have a good run and push his ranking back up so he doesn't need to qualify next time.

Go Arnaud Go

 

[marineseb37]

congratulatiooooooooon Arnaud!!!!

 

[Marine]

How to say...that was a surnatural match. I didn't understand what happened.
Lost first set 6/0, pathetic I suppose. Mean and horrible with empire ball kids etc ..
Then..won second set
Leads 4/1 in the last one, then the other comes back, breaks him, gets 2 ball points at 6/5 40/15...arnaud comes back the score board indicates 6/6 yes ok that's cool..then just after...6/5 adv arnaud ..ughhh what ?????? Yes there was probably an error, a few minutes passed... still the same score..I imagine Arnaud had a *nice* discussion with the empire (omg it must have been terrible !!) then 40/40 adv etc...then 6/6, tie break, that seems to be true this time.
3/0 for the other guy (sorry I dunno his name) and... 3/1 3/2 3/3 4/3 5/3 6/3 6/4 7/4 !
YES HE WON !!!
Unbelievable match, trust me.
Now I wonder how many victims there are (empire, judge, ball kids...) at the end.

Well, I'm sure my report is ununderstanding, sorry.

 

[Hangdog]

No, you're genius if you even can write something... I'd prefer to add my opinion late - when I find my mind.

Crazy.

 

[Via]

i like him to win, but i don't want to know that he's won ugly...

he's more experienced than the other guy and if that's the only advantage he's using to win the match then it's a bit sad!

sorry i add in my opinion anyway, without even seeing the match! but from the way it sounds, and the way that i know he usually behaves on court lol he's got a lot of people to apologise to

good luck in the main draw, you little nasty

 

[Éowyn]

i think sometimes when it gets to such a desperate stage of coming close to not qualifying you have to play every card you got and maybe thats what arnaud did I don't know i only saw it on the scoreboard but i hope thats all it is!

allez arnaud

 

[SaFed2005]

That match was simply awesome I was there after it was 2-2 in the second set. They both had some AMAZING rallies. Once the third set started everyone was there watching that match there was hardly any space for people to even stan there anymore... This match was great! He was down 0-3 in the third set tiebreak but then won 6 points in a row which ofcourse had to do a lot with a string of terrible UE's from his opponent but overall it was a great match.

 

[Via]

thanks for the report!!!!! makes me feel a lot better about arnaud i want to know that he deserves to win, and wins fair but yeah it still comes down to more experience in an important stage of the match, but i don't want to know if he's threatened his way to get there!

once it gets to the main draw, if the draw is reasonable it may be a bit easier for him... he likes the 5 set format better

 

[delsa]

I just followed the beginning of the match on the scoreboard and then went to bed ( ) but not before i saw that Arnaud had won ONE game ( :retard: :lol: )! But i don't see anything wrong with winning because of experience and taking advantage of your opponent's unexperience and naïvety. That's part of the game and that's what happens when you get older as a player, you have these advantages that replace innocence, spontaneity, no fear, whatever that the young players have...
And why do you immediately assume he didn't behave well without having seen the match? Give him a chance! I'm sure he doesn't like to loose his temper like that himself. And i've never seen him being that much "nasty" on a court so...Where does it come from?
But he won! That's Qualificator! He's in the MD despite having been bagelled and facing two MP against him...Sweat vengeance! :devil:
He'll play Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (20) in the first round...
IF he goes through, it will be Andrei Pavel ROM or Andy Murray GBR next...

 

[Hangdog]

He'll play Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (20) in the first round...

Ferrero doesn't look very strong last time... Or I've missed something? Anyway I think Arnaud's part of the draw is not so bad:

Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (20)
Arnaud Clement FRA

Andrei Pavel ROM
Andy Murray GBR


Nicolas Kiefer GER
Jiri Vanek CZE

Nicolas Lapentti ECU
Radek Stepanek CZE (16)

At least after such Qually matches he has to go far - if he becomes little bit calmer.

Some else comments of witnesses:

I then watched Clement play Sergiy Stakovsky on court 4. Sergiy is a talented kid, although it seems like he is a more natural mover on clay, since he was sliding around a lot and stumbling a bit, but he has good shots, and took the first set easily. <...> I went back to court 4 before the end of the practice. After the practice let out, the commotion of fans going for pics/signings was distracting Arnaud :lol: By the end of the match, Gasquet and Mathieu were sitting in the crowd, as well as Bruno Clement and other French coaches. After the match, most of the crowd seemed to go home.

I went to see some of Bogomolov Jr-Mamiit before coming back to court 4 to see Benneteau-Mankad. I was able to meet Michelle from here who is a great fan of Benneteau. By this time, it was night and the other courts were done, so there were only about 15 people there. Bruno Clement, the ever-present mystery Washington guy, was of course there, since no French player can play without him to be there yelling out his "Allez"'s.

I went to court 8 watch the end of Clement-Udomchoke. Udomchoke is a small guy but is quick and has flashy groundstrokes. Actually, I guess I just described both guys there. Anyway, late in the third set, Udomchoke was up a break and was serving but had a break point against him when he called for the trainer for a cramp in his leg- very suspicious timing. Clement wound up winning the match in the tiebreak, the end of the match was quite entertaining.

Well, I have never seen that "nasty" Arnaud too but according people he sometimes behaves himself that way... So seems he became quite angry after bad luck in Cincinatti and that's... good I think or at least right. Bad thing is that he's angry with people also, not with himself only. I remember his interview after lose in quaterfinal of Washington - according those Arnaud's words his lose was because of very well, just excellent game of the rival. That's nice to give compliments to people or get angry with them from time to time but IMHO he'd better look for all the reasons in himself.

So he had two strange(who knows why..) matches... or just showes. And did the main thing - enter to the main draw. Much of good luck to Arnaud, keep your mind in calm, crazy French guy... I think he has to visit at least third round if he does everything right. Alleeeez Arnauuuud! Allez. Tiens bon on garçon!

 

[Via]

i've seen arnaud being rather unpleasant with ball kids, especially when the match is tight and he's getting unsettled. and on tv i've seen him arguing with umpires and linesmen looking really mean! i think some other fans have seen that too, various forms of the raging, crazy arnaud. he does lose his head sometimes and he lets it loose on other people, and i call that nasty. it's embarrassing to sit through such episodes because i know very well that he's such a darling in normal times and so very friendly and charming and sincere too. it's awful for me to watch him change into something else under pressure.

anyway now that he's drawn juan carlos, and juan carlos' a different 'catagory' from the other guys that he's just played... strangely enough i don't think he'll get as mad however the match goes. bonne chance!!!! i'd be happy if he gets over the first hurdle

 

[Marine]

he does lose his head sometimes and he lets it loose on other people, and i call that nasty. it's embarrassing to sit through such episodes because i know very well that he's such a darling in normal times and so very friendly and charming and sincere too. it's awful for me to watch him change into something else under pressure.

So true. A friend of me worked in RG this year, on a court where arnaud played, and he said me the ballkids told him arnaud used to insult them during his match, and my friend (who really doesn't know anything on tennis, was shocked, he said me it was a shame etc... it's the only image he has of arnaud, it was embarassing... )

Well, Ferrero at first round...I dislike this player of course, I'll be probably at the end...aarrfffff, if arnaud does plays like in quallies, it will be easy for the spaniard.

 

[Hangdog]

i'd be happy if he gets over the first hurdle

Well, on practice it'll be already good if the Qualificator can show an excellent game against 20th seed, win at least a set or two etc. - even if he don't win the match. But in theory... isn't this Grand Slam tournament the last in this year chance for Arnaud to make some corrections of his ranking? When else he'll be able to choose something if not now, when he wants to play, has his good form and a not so bad draw? I don't know what he's going to do in case he misses this chance also. At least I'll be very dissapointed in him, in that nice guy I knew...

It's time to play, Arnaud! Allez.

 

[Marine]

He plays on tuesday.

 

[Via]

there's always a chance of upset arnaud gets geared up more for 'big' matches. i hope he'll take ferrero to 5th set!

btw just to clarify... arnaud has *always* been nothing but nice to me personally! (i hadn't been a ball kid... lol ...and he couldn't do anything about a statistics person on a computer)

 

[delsa]

Ok i understand now, Via. But there's far worse than him in this among all the players. And i can relate to him on that: i tend to be very agressive and confrontational when i'm angry at myself too or unhappy about something...So since tennis is very important to him, his life and his work (and if i find an equivalent to this in my life and remember how wild and violent i can get in those conditions, i think that i'm actually worse than him! hehe :lol: ). So that's not too bad actually. And as you said he's very nice otherwise, in different conditions...And i think he doesn't go over the top as much as you think he does (it's not in every one of his matches!...). I had never actually seen him that "nasty" but i don't follow his matches enough so...
We can hope for a tight 4/5 setter match and an Arnaud that will play at his best. An upset is maybe too much but hey you never know... (nobody "owns" anybody in their H2H : http://www.lequipe.fr/Tennis/AFFICHE_2113_378.html)

 

[Via]

arnaud and juan carlos will have court 4 all to themselves on tuesday, 4pm... hope there will be fans who'll see them and do a report!

 

[Via]

arnaud and seb are playing together in doubles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

only in january this year did seb tell me that he never played doubles in grand slams!!! well it's ok, he can lie about that any time

they'll get the bryans first up... talk about prominent draws.....

doubles will never be the same again after us open, so if anyone gets a chance, go see more of it

 

[Marine]

That's weird but it's fantastic

 

[chewy]

good luck clement!

clements up a break 5-4 in first set