Alizé Lim breaking down the Bertens vs. Errani debacle – French Insider excerpt
In this interview on The French Insider, host Jenny Drummond talks with Alize Lim about Wednesday’s dramatic three-set battle between Kiki Bertens and Sara Errani. In that second-round match at Roland-Garros, Bertens was cramping late in the final set but managed to prevail 7-6(5), 3-6, 9-7 after three hours and 11 minutes.
Despite winning, the Dutchwoman had to be carted off the court in a wheelchair after going into full body cramps.
Wheelchair tennis legend Dylan Alcott had a little bit of fun with the situation on Twitter.
“I think it’s actually a funny way to look at it,” Lim said of Alcott’s tweet. “It’s really funny that he said that. Let’s see if she’s gonna respond; maybe not tonight — I don’t think she can laugh about it tonight.”
It was certainly no laughing matter at the time. Errani was clearly furious that in between points it looked like her opponent would keel over but during points could run all over the place with no real trouble. The Italian even went so far as to mock Bertens’ physical problems.
“She also walked off; she didn’t do the racket touch,” Drummond noted, referring to the customary post-match gesture that has replaced handshakes during these times of COVID-19.
“It’s part of the game,” Lim said of Errani’s antics. “The player can try any way to make you play worse in some key moments. So you have to stay in your bubble and not pay attention to it, otherwise you can lose your focus.”
Why you say vamos?
This is not the first time that the former French Open runner-up has mixed it up with an opponent. Another example came at the 2013 Toronto event, where she and Alize Cornet squared off in the third round. During the match, Errani was upset that the Frenchwoman kept saying “vamos” instead of “allez.”
“Why you say ‘vamos,'” Errani famously asked Cornet.
Errani and Cornet would later joke about the incident on social media, but it’s hard to see Errani and Bertens ever joking about what happened on Wednesday.
