Wiping off the last granules of dust and cleaning out the notebook for 50 parting thoughts after a swell 2014 French Open ...
• What more can be said about Rafael Nadal? Putting the IX in Prix, he wins his ninth French Open singles title and inches ever close to the summit of Mount Roger Federer and his 17 Grand Slam titles.
• All hail Maria Sharapova, clay-court specialist. When Serena Williams and Li Na bowed out in the first week, Sharapova emerged as the favorite. She fulfilled the title, winning ugly. Her final four matches went three sets. It's a cliché. It's maddeningly observational, as opposed to empirical. But her fighting instincts and mental strength and competitive are really quite something.
Game-by-game analysis of Sharapova's French Open victory
• It's hard not to feel for Novak Djokovic after this loss. He could quit tennis tomorrow and go down as one of the all-time greats, but the trophy in Paris continues to elude him. He is an unimpeachable player with no discernible weakness, and his naked ambition and desire to improve is admirable. Still, he remains No. 2 and has lost in his last three major finals. He came to Paris fresh off a win over Nadal on clay at the Italian Open. But in one of the biggest matches of his career, everything from his backhand to his digestive system let him down. And once again, he leaves Paris parched.
• Did any player do more to announce themselves -- and validate their seeding -- than Simona Halep? The 22-year-old Romanian dazzled for six rounds, dropping no sets and combining smooth defense with some fierce ballstriking that belies her stature. In the finals, she sloughed off nerves and went ball-for-ball with Sharapova, and she emerges with a shiny No. 3 ranking. And few who wouldn't contend it's not well-deserved.
WERTHEIM: Halep elevating her game at Grand Slams
• If there were a male breakthrough player, it was Ernests Gulbis. For years, we've known about his talent and top-drawer game, and lately it's crystallized. Every bit as impressive as his five-set win over Federer was his ability to back it up and defeat Tomas Berdych with ease. Lots of game. Lots of power. Lots of personality. We're buying.
• On the women's side, Eugenie Bouchard was one of the revelations. The 20-year-old Canadian will be up to No. 12 in Monday's rankings, and she's the only woman to have reached the semifinals at both 2014 Grand Slams. Complete a player as she is, there's also plenty of room for growth. And, recalling Sharapova, at odds with her patrician upbringing -- surely she is the only player to note in her WTA bio that she is neighbors with a former political leader -- she has a real penchant for scrapping. Again, put in a buy order.
• For all the times tennis karma commits an unforced error -- note that Brian Baker is still recovering -- every now and then, it gets it right. Her career pocked by injuries, Andrea Petkovic took advantage of an easy draw to reach the second week. She then took out Sara Errani to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. Any player who speaks in conferences about her ambitions in media, her social views and her love of David Foster Wallace, will be an instant favorite.
NGUYEN: Petkovic finally returns to relevance at French Open
• The No. 11-seeded French tandem of Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin secured their maiden Grand Slam title with a straight-set victory over Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez in Saturday's men's doubles final.
• Here's the Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng news: Chinese teams wins the women's doubles title, beating Errani and Roberta Vinci.
• The good news for Andy Murray: He won a pair of five-setters and reached the semifinals of his least favorite Grand Slam. The bad news: He then managed just six games against Nadal. However, not even an hour before the men's final started Sunday, he announced thathe hired Amelie Mauresmo as his coach. This should help build on his momentum with Wimbledon approaching.
• Anna Lena Groenefeld and Jean Julien Rojer won the mixed doubles, beating Julia Goerges and Nenad Zimonjic in the final. The tennis ogre says for an event that draws smaller crowds than some Parisian street performers, the $150,000 payday seems exceedingly generous.
• What an event for Taylor Townsend, who won a pair of matches, including a win over Alize Cornet in one of the more entertaining matches of the tournament. Whether or not she receives a Wimbledon wild card, her game is tailor-made (sorry) for grass.
WERTHEIM: Townsend shattering stereotypes amid French Open success
• The definition of insanity, of course, is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Which is to say, you write off Williams at your peril. She is the queen of bouncing back (especially when going from clay to grass.)
• We all hate clichés and talking points. But before the tournament, here was the received wisdom about Federer:
"He might have another Grand Slam in him, but it's unlikely to come on clay... the combination of age and recent fatherhood could be a distraction... He needs to make sure his backhand doesn't break down... He is susceptible to big, flat hitters." All of which pretty much came to pass.
• The questions and comments about Caroline Wozniacki continue. We've said our bit here.
• Actually, one more thing: We hope she keeps the damn ring.
• Quite apart from the unfortunate aesthetics, seems to me there's something unsporting about playing in attire the exact same color as the ball. Andy Murray, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic and Jack Sock were among the culprits. Easy to see how this could play tricks on the other player trying to hit the ball.
French Open fashion hits | Fashion misses
• The annual ITF dinner, held the second Tuesday of the event, was tennis' Tower of Babel writ small. Though he finished second in the rankings and won half as many Grand Slams as the guy ahead of him, Djokovic was somehow honored as the 2013 Player of the Year. (Presumably he edged out Nadal, through some byzantine metric, but who can be sure.)
Except that Djokovic didn't show up, citing the fact that he had just finished his quarterfinal match. Williams, the 2013 female player of the year, was long gone, having sent in her regrets. The honored men's doubles team, Bob and Mike Bryan, had lost and skipped town. The honored women's doubles team was Errani and Vinci. Except that Errani, still in the singles draw with a match to play the next day, elected not to attend. And Vinci decided not to go alone. The toast of the evening? The junior champs, Belinda Bencic and Alexander Zverev.
• Here's how to reconcile Sharapova's exceptional fighting with her ghastly head-to-head record against Serena (and, I would add, Justine Henin, against whom she was 3-10): When Sharapova knows that she's mentally superior to the player across the net, she's imbued with great confidence. When she doesn't believe she's better than the player on the other side of the net, her confidence is rocked. Speaking of fight...
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