What I’m thinking
Not gonna lie, I’ve got a lot of vices. One of them is tennis.
Bruh. I’ve ridden the highs. The Miracle in Melbourne had me flying about my living room. I’ve felt the crushing lows. I once witnessed a defeat so crushing, I carried physical pain within me as I moved, as if my heart had actually imploded. It was necessary, after all, because it taught me to just watch a lot more casually, enjoy the game, not attach myself to any one player. It doesn’t stop me from talking to myself about it a lot though.
And this year’s French Open has left me with so. Much. To talk about.
(You’re welcome to scroll away from this section if tennis/ sports talk isn’t your cup of tea, but I will make it quick and keep it nice, so thou mayest humour me and stick around.)
In one breath: Most of the favourites have fallen. In a few, much longer exhalations: I did not expect Rounds 1, 2 and 3 to annihilate so many top seeds. With Carlos Alcaraz–one of the top two tennis players of this generation–out injured, it was a question of who would make it to the final against Jannik Sinner–the other best player. Djokovic, strong contender. Three time French Open winner. Holds the most singles slams out of anyone in the Open Era. Zverev, previous finalist. Number 3 in the world. And then Sinner falls. (In hindsight, not a massive surprise; he’s had a fabulous run, and the streak was bound to end anyway.) Then Djokovic. Not to mention that the men’s draw is going absolutely bonkers with a ton of five-setters.
Honestly it’s a lot of fun to see that a 2-set-to-love lead isn’t that big a deal anymore.
Then the women’s draw, oh, my. I thought my girl Peggy–uh, Jessica Pegula–would bring it. Fell. 2-time slam winner and World Number 2 Rybakina? Fell. Defending champion Coco Gauff? Fell. (Me naa I said I’m not attached to anyone anymore but that one pained me a little oh, hmm.) I thought the most natural thing to happen would be for Swiatek, four-time French Open winner, easily the most successful clay-court player in the women’s circuit right now, to make the final, seeing as most of her competition was being cleared. But in the spirit of this wild clay swing, Swiatek went out in straight sets.
Bruh.
In one vein, it’s a little scary. A sense of normalcy has been disturbed, and dynasties have been shaken. On the other hand, hehe, it’s thrown the field wiiiide open. Of course, something normal could still happen. World Number 1 Sabalenka could win for the women. But anyone else could still win. The ATP–the men’s side–has been pretty static for years now, with Djokovic, Sinner and Alcaraz being the only slam winners since, what, 2021? (Runs to check online.) Since the second half of 2022. The gap between these 3 and the rest of the field has been wide, yeah, but with their early exits (and Carlos’s unfortunate no-show), we get to see the rest, and how good they really are. For the first time since forever Berrettini is in a slam quarterfinal! (If you don’t know why that’s a big deal, I’m truly jealous of you and the peace you’ve enjoyed all these years.) Zverev could win a slam, like Neymar could’ve won a Ballon d’Or in the Messi-Ronaldo era.
But it could also be somebody else! And that’s what’s so much fun.
Okay, I lied. That was not short.
On a related note…
I love Naomi Osaka’s fashion choices. Imagine. The audacity to show up on red clay looking red carpet ready. The effort. The intentionality. I get it. Tennis is why they’re all out there. If baby girl loses, let her look good doing it. And if baby girl clinches match point, by all means, allow her to look good while winning.
Naomi Osaka. Photo credit: CNN
What I’m reading
Mostly Dead, by Susan J Bruce
Genre: Cozy mystery, Romance
Synopsis: Someone’s dead. Ruth wants to stay out of it, but they think her crush Dan did it. So now she must find out who really did it.
Hehe. This book was a lot of fun. There’s the main mystery, as mentioned above, but there are others. Each gets a chance to breathe so they don’t cloud each other. The pacing was also really good, because this book a thicc boy–just over 400 pages long–but it held my attention for the whole time. Except for the end, when the mystery had already been solved, and it kept going on, but I realize the author was setting up the next mystery in the series, so.
Oh, also there’s some romance, in case you love your murders with a side of love. Nothing explicit here, and what spice there is stays off-page.
Dating can be deadly, by Ryan Rivers
Genre: Cozy mystery, Comedy
Synopsis: A romance author turns up dead. And then her agent turns up dead. Sho reeeeally doesn’t want to get involved–his girlfriend, the police chief, has warned him to stay out of it–but his best friend, the mayor, says they should solve it. And maybe they will, if they can stay alive long enough to do it.
This one made me laugh pleeenty. Ryan Rivers knows how to write comedy. He also knows how to show heart and depth, because we get into Sho’s feels a lot, experience his insecurities, see the state of his mental health as he recovers from addiction. And all of the characters that get explored have such fun quirks. The annoying ones are properly annoying. The iffy ones stay iffy till the end (spoiler). And the mystery really delivers.
Noteworthy: Mentions drug abuse and addiction.
What I’m writing
There’s something exciting about writing a draft. You pour out the words, and you feel really good. I overcame laziness! And procrastination! And I’m making headway! Yaay!
Then when you’re done it occurs to you pretty much immediately how you should’ve written it. Really doesn’t make you want to throw your computer across the room at all.
‘I see.’ His wispy brow arched cynically. ‘So you, a stranger, somehow are at the auction on the same day this woman is murdered.’
‘Like I said, I didn’t know her.’ Was that a crack in her voice? Ooh, it wouldn’t do for her to have a crack in her voice. Might make her look guilty. She didn’t want to judge, but the policeman looked like he wanted to wrap this up and call it a day. And by wrapping it up she meant lock her up and throw away the key.
What I’m hoping for
To be in the room where it happens.
May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious onto you. À bientôt!
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