Day 5 Roland-Garros 6-3-22

 The day started as a pleasant and dry morning but quickly turned into a dark, rainy, and gloomy day here at Roland-Garros. Today, Nadal and Zverev played in the semifinals. It was fun to watch and witness a day at one of the biggest tennis tournaments in sports until it wasn’t when Zverev hit the court screaming in agony and pain, stopping the match and shocking many of the fans around me. I've never really watched a tennis match before, so it felt like I needed tennis for dummies to help me understand, but it was cool to get with journalists covering a chance to talk about the game.

 

One big thing I took away from these chats is that you must be accountable for your reporting. That means, as a reporter, you must be able to tell the story in a way that doesn't favor one side. Also, I learned today that you must know how to describe something from multiple perspectives. We got to chat with Courtney Nguyen, who does all sorts of media. One moment, you can be on the radio; the next, you are writing wire-to-wire score lines. But different audiences mean different things. We also got to speak with Tennis Channel’s Jon Wertheim, who made an excellent point about rundowns that really stood out. He told us that the rundown helps you prepare, but you must buckle down on research to know what you’re talking about so you don’t have a dull moment on air.

Being on-site and listening to the environment around me gave me a perspective on how big this tournament is worldwide. Just walking around the concourse level and seeing all the media sites involved in this blew my mind. It's not something I really think about when I look for recap articles. Something else that stood out to me while watching the early matchup was how the ball bounced on the clay. It spins a little bit. A comparison that comes to my mind is a baseball field. In baseball, the way the infield is treated has an impact on the ball. But back to the Roland-Garros, another thing was that while the ball was being served, the audience was hushed. Only at stoppages were there brief chants. I can't think of a sport in America where fans are completely silent when play is in session. The only thing that slightly comes to mind is golf, but there is still some noise. It does make sense, though, as it feels like the athletes are all alone. The American event I feel compares to the Roland-Garros would have to be the Masters. I think this is because the Masters is also one of the four majors in its sport, golf. The environment gives off a lot of the same vibes as well. Both events draw huge crowds and are in the same place every year. The best of the best hit an ace to try to win it all. Until my next blog, it's time to say au revoir to you.