From Seoul, South Korea, June 2018

   Another year has passed and here we are again, a few hours before we know the 2018 finalists of Roland Garros for the women's competition. For those who remember, in 2017 the final match put face to face Romanian Simona Halep and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. Simona was the favorite and everybody was expecting her to win. She was up one set and had three games to one in the second set, but Jelena came back and won the second set. In the third set Simona had 3 to 1 again, but again, Jelena recovered and won the third set and the championship with it. 

   For nostalgics, here is a video with the most important moments of that final:

VIDEO HERE: SIMONA HALEP-JELENA OSTAPENKO 2017 ROLAND GARROS FINAL 6-4 4-6 3-6 

   2018 and another story. Ostapenko was eliminated in the first round of the competition and most probably she will be out of Top 10 by next week. But there is Simona Halep, a model of consistency in women's tennis, who never left Top 10 since she entered there for the first time in 2014. She is now world No 1 and she is again in the semifinals of Roland Garros, hunting for her first Grand Slam trophy. 

THE 2018 SEMIFINALS: 

Garbiñe Muguruza (Spain) - Simona Halep (Romania)

(they met 4 times so far, Garbiñe won 3 times)

   This meeting is especially important because it will decide who will be No 1 in the WTA rankings. Right now Simona leands the renkings with 7270 points and Garbiñe comes in 3rd place with 6010 points. If Garbiñe wins, she will be the new number one. 

Current rankings, top 5:

    Muguruza and Halep met 4 times until now, with Muguruza winning 3 of those encounters, but all three were on a hard court. There was a single clay meeting in 2015 in Sttutgart which Halep had won. This year in Doha Halep should have played the semifinal against Muguruza, but she had to retire due to injury. 

Direct meetings score:  Muguruza - Halep 3-1

Road to the semifinals:

   In this tournament so far, Muguruza has met Kuznetsova, Ferro, Stosur, Tsurenko - who are all ranked lower than Top 32, and in the quarter-finals beat rank no 28 Maria Sharapova. Muguruza beat all these players in only two sets, and almost did not play with Tsurenko who has retired after playing just 2 games. Halep played Riske, Townsend, Petkovic, rank no 16 Mertens, and rank no 12 and former no 1 Kerber. She played 3 sets against Riske and Kerber. So Halep has met stronger players than Muguruza did, however, Muguruza is known for playing extremely good especially in Grand Slam tournaments. 

Quarter-final Halep - Kerber 6(2)-7(7), 6-3, 6-2:

SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS HERE (VIDEO)

   Those who watched the Australian Open last January remember for sure the epic confrontation between Halep and Kerber, where both played extremely well, but Halep was able to win in the end and advance to the final (see link at the end of this post for the Australian Open semifinal between Halep and Kerber). Here at Roland Garros, Kerber started the first set very well. She was leading 4 to 0 when Halep started playing better and better. She managed to comeback and bring the score to 6-4 but it was not enough because Kerber was doing almost a perfect game. Halep lost the first set in tiebreak, but the fact that she was able to come back from 4-0 gave her a psychological advantage. Kerber did a perfect defense, but Halep committed very little errors - that is something rare for her - and brought Kerber to exhaustion. Simona showed she grew a lot mentally and she looks ready to win a Grand Slam. 

Quarter-final Muguruza - Sharapova 6-2, 6-1

SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS HERE (VIDEO)

   Sharapova has played great this year on clay, and looked like she is back in the game. Fans were expecting a lot from her in this quarter-final, even thinking that maybe she can win the competition. But with Muguruza she failed to make her serve and this marked the end of her road at Roland Garros. However, she is raising in the rankings, which is definitely great for her career after the drug use suspension. 

THE 2018 SEMIFINALS: 

Madison Keys (USA) - Sloane Stephens (USA)

(they met 2 times so far, Stephen won both meetings)

Direct meetings score:  Stephens - Keys 2-0

   The two players met only two times until now, the most important meeting being the 2017 US Open final when Stephen won the title (see the link at the end of this post). What is sure is that one American will be in the final!

Road to the semifinals:

   Stephens eliminated Rus, Frech, Giorgi, ranking no 25 Kontaveit (who had previously eliminated Kvitova), and ranking no 14 Daria Kasatkina (who had previously eliminated Caroline Wozniacki, the current world No 2 and the Australian Open champion). Keys defeated Vickery, Dolehide, Indian Wells champion and rank no 21 osaka, rank no 31 Buzarnescu (who had previously eliminated rank no 4 Svitolina), and Putintseva.

********

GRAND SLAM FLASHBACK

US OPEN 2017 Final: Madison Keys - Sloane Stephens 3-6, 0-6 (WATCH HERE)

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2017 Semifinal: S. Halep-A. Kerber 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 (WATCH HERE)

wtatennis.com

From Seoul, South Korea, June 2018

Roland Garros (French Open), Paris

ABOUT:

  The French Open, also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France. The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments, the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The French Open is currently the only Grand Slam event held on clay, and it is the zenith of the spring clay court season. Because of the seven rounds needed for a championship, the slow-playing surface and the best-of-five-set men's singles matches (without a tiebreak in the final set), the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.

  Ten-time French Open winner, Rafael Nadal, is the defending champion in the Men's Singles. Jeļena Ostapenko was the defending champion in the Women's Singles but lost in the first round to Kateryna Kozlova.

Male (left) and female (right)'s trophies

THE SEEDS:

  The players who already left the competion at he date this post was published are the ones highlighted with pink. Last year's champion, Jelena Ostapenko, lost in the first round and lost her points, which will put hr out of the WTA Top 10. 2017 runner-up Simona Halep is sill in the competition and being the current No 1 is also considered the favorite in the race to win the trophy. 

Point system:

Winner - 2000

Runner up - 1300

Semifinalists - 780

Quarterfinalists - 430

Round of 16 - 240

Round of 32 - 130

Round of 64 - 70

Round of 128 - 10

GALLERY OF THE CHAMPIONS:

2017 winner: Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia

2016 winner: Garbine Muguruza, Spain

2015 winner: Serena Williams, USA

2014 winner: Maria Sharapova, Russia 

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.org

From Seoul, South Korea, May 2018

안녕 folks! 한국어 실수 무시하시고 보시기 바랍니다^^ 외국인입니다^^

SNS도 합니다! 팔로우해주세요~

페북 ID: @외국인 한국에서: Living Next Level

인스타 ID: @mewanderer99

   한국에서 살면서 힘든 점 중에 하나는 음식입니다. 저는 어렸을 때부터 고기를 좋아하지 않았어요. 고기 먹을 때마다 징그러워서 입술 근처에 포진이 나와서 점점 안 먹게 됐어요. 한국에 와서 고기가 들어있지 않는 음식들을 찾아서 만드는 방법을 배우고 직접 좋아하는 것을 요리하게 됐는데 외식할 때나 친구들과 같이 먹을 때 복잡하긴 해요. 

   제가 고기를 못 먹어서 직원에게 빼 달라는 말을 거의 항상 해요. 그 전에 고기 들어있냐고 물어보죠.  하지만 고기가 없다고 음식이 나와서 고기를 발견했을 때가 많았어요 ㅠㅠ. 그래서 제가 생각하기에 닭, 돼지, 소고기 등 안 들어있는 음식만 주문하는데 요즘 안 좋은 서프라이즈가 자꾸 생겨요... 고기 중에 생선과 어떤 해물들이 징그럽지 않아서 한국에 있는 동안 그냥 먹어야겠다 했어요. 생선과 해물을 빼면 정말 먹을 게 없기 때문이죠^^

    어제 제 생길이라서 친구들이 집에 와서 음식을 시켜 먹기로 해서 스마프폰 앺으로 불고기와 순두부 파는 집을 찾았어요. 원래 순두부에 고기 잘 안 들어있는 줄 알지만 혹시 모르니까 친구가 전화를 했어요. 순두부에 고기가 있다고 해서 거의 3분동안 고기를 못 먹는 사람이 있으니까  빼 달라는 것을 설명을 했어요. 왜 그렇게 오래 결렸나요? 직원이 고기를 못 먹는 것을 이해 못해서 여러 다른 말로 설명을 하고 마지막에 채시을 해서 못 먹는다고 직원이 알겠다고 빼 주신다고 했어요. 친구가 앺을 통해서 주문을 한다고 직원이 또 알겠다고 하고 우리가 주문할 때 또 혹시 모르니까 거기에 '순두부에 고기를 넣지 마세요'를 써 놓았어요. 배달이 와서 보니까 순두부에 고기가 들어 있어서 우리 다 놀랐어요. 왜 그렇게 열심히 설명하고 글로도 써 줬는데 이렇게 나왔나요? 우리를 무시했나? 우리가 한국말을 잘 못 썼나? 우리 다 한국어 전공을 했는데 그 정도 설명을 분명히 잘 할 수 있어요... 

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