Roland Garros 2017 - Vremd Open [organised by FTF]

Today's first match was the men's bronze match. Joachim played one last time in front of his home crowd, and even despite it being a in the eyes of many worthless match he took it serious. The same can be said for his opponent Falconeri. The game ended up very close, but after two sets it was Joachim who could celebrate and gave the crowd something to cheer for. And the crowd went wild, it was as loud as if he'd have won. Despite not winning overall Joachim was happy with his result, his best here to date.

Now it was the women's bronze match ahead of us. Jilova fought against Pasche for bronze. And early on it looked bad for the Glaraian. Reports indicated that she went injured into the match, and indeed she didn't look fit on the field, while Jilova showed her great form. After just 20 minutes she won the first set. Afterwards, Pasche managed to hold better against the Lidonian, but overall was undoubtedly without a chance. In the post-match interviews both said that they were happy with their result, as they both overreached their goals.

The men's final saw Vake against Bjärkinsson. The Pacifican went into the duel as favorite, after a strong performance in the rounds before, while Bjärkinsson has the crowd behind him, which was against Vale because he eliminated the best Vremd player from the tournament. The first set was an extremely exciting and high-class one already. Bjärkinsson was 3:0 ahead after winning already the first break. But Vale stroke back with a 5:0 run, leading suddenly 5:3. But the Ruyjinese played a really strong match, and forced the set into a tie-break. There it was Vale who had a bit more luck and managed to win set 1.
Set 2 started again with a strong Ruyjinese, who used a smaller weak period of Vale to run off with a 4:1 lead. He managed to hold on to that advantage, not losing a single serving game.
The last set saw then both players in best form. Some high quality tennis was served in this part of the final, including a 32 time ball exchange. Yet we saw no break for a long time. At 5:5, Vale used the 5th break ball alone in this game to win the game and go in lead. But it was not done yet, a not giving up Bjärkinsson and Vale's own nerves (double fault at 15 both) made it a really close game. But finally Vale used his first match ball, after fending off two break balls before, to win game and championship with a triumph in a battle that lasted merely over two hours. Even occasional booings couldn't stop Vale from celebrating his triumph afterwards.

The last duel in the singles tournament of the Vremd Open is traditionally the women's final. Yakovlev was in the favorites position against Johnson, who shouldn't be underrated though, even if experts say that she had the easier way to the final than her opponent. Also here we saw a close first set, although not as changeable as the men's one. Both women showed a great serve game, and so the first set went into a tie-break. There Yakovlev was already with 4:0 in lead but Johnson managed to get back with a 5:0 run, just to let Yakovlev turn it around once again, so that the Equawomen was able to win the first set.
It looked like she could continue as successful in set 2, as Yakovlev got already the first break. But Johnson improved extremely, and with the luck on her side she managed to equalize the set again. And her run continued, as she got the crucial, set-winning break at 4:5, so that she now equalized by sets too.
But the last set was once again a bad start for Johnson, who was rapidly 3:0 behind. And the longer the match was, the unluckier she got in her actions. In the end Johnson took too many risks while Yakovlev played her game, constantly and with routine. Even some great balls by Johnson didn't prevent her from clearly losing the deciding set. Yakovlev crowned her great display during the whole tournament with the title, under the big celebrations of many Equalandish supporters who travelled extra for this match over the border to support Yakovlev.