A lonely Ghost that lost the H

My name is Ghost but without the H, so Gost! ~ I like writing ~ Proud owner of the #jannik mouthtowel sinner photo collection ~ Currently in tennis RPF hell - Check out my Ao3! - https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonlygamergost/works

[justagost]

Welcome to my new Writing dump!

Hello! My name is Gost and I like writing, My last blog was too centered on only one fandom, so this, will be my Multi-Fandom blog, per se. 

I hope you enjoy your stay and like what I write!

Ps: Most of my fics aren't uploaded here on Tumblr, so please check out my Ao3 Theonlygamergost if you wish to read more from me!

[justagost]

You know what? I feel mean today:

Let Zverev win this Roland Garros. Afterwards we’ll be allowed to say that he only won it because Jannik got sick and Carlos wasn’t playing. Let him win so everyone can point and say ‘He only won because he had it easy’

[lord-azathoth]

It's a little bit like the story you told me, when you started coaching Andy Murray. We already had Roger and Rafa at the top of their game, but as Andy was coming through, his eyes were completely focused on Novak. He knew that Novak was the guy that was going to dominate.

It's a little bit the same, three or four years ago, when we started with Jannik - he knew that Carlos was going to be the guy. And if you look to the quotes three or four years ago, Carlos knew Jannik was going to be his main rival. So, these guys were able to see it pretty early on.

So the whole world was clocking their asses, including THE dads.. 🫩

[forza-vamos]

we keep talking about jannik choosing carlos over daniil in guess who but what about carlos asking if the person is 24 or under (jannik is 24)

[purblind-dragon]

Clay Tap, pastel on paper, 39x27in (100x69cm)

That distinctive motion you see only on this particular surface: a player rapping their racquet against their upturned sole to dislodge clay, bending their leg like a flamingo's to do so. (Occasionally, on hard court or grass, they'll forget they aren't on clay and do this anyway.)

I finished this back in August 2025 from a photo taken at RG of the same year, but I thought I would share it today in honor of the old man's birthday. 39 years young 🥳👑

Process photos + more yapping under the cut.

Shirt (creases upon creases)

lobster claws hands

When sharing our work, we artists tend to show just the final product, maybe snapshots of a few steps along the way. We tend not to show how things went wrong in the middle, if they did. (Trust me: they go wrong pretty often, at least for me.)

On this one, a lot of things went wrong, and the final result, while I like it now, was far enough away from what I had envisioned that I couldn't look at this piece for months after finishing it. For one: the skin tones were way too red. As in, my man Novak was a lobster being sous-vided on court. This was caused by a combination of things--light reflecting from the clay surface onto him; and my iPhone employing a setting called True Tone which supposedly "automatically adapt[s the] iPhone display based on ambient lighting conditions to make colors appear consistent in different environments." There was nothing to be done about the first: I have to draw what I see in the photo. But the second wreaked havoc. The phone boosted the saturation of the photo, probably while I was working late in the afternoon in declining light. Without it, I would not have gotten the colors this wrong. As it was, I was too focused drawing to step back and realize that his legs were, well, lobster-red. (Needless to say, after realizing my mistake, I went and deactivated True Tone for good.)

Fortunately, I was able to correct the legs so that they didn't quite look as sous-vided. But the clay surface was another matter. While on the rest of the drawing I used my workhorse Unisons, for the clay I was trying out a few sticks of Henri Roché pastels purchased from Paris during my Roland-Garros trip. The House of Roché was founded in 1720; they've been in business since, and they're currently a two-woman team who make, pack, and ship upwards of 2000 different colors of pastels sticks all by themselves. Degas used their pastels back in the day: 'nuff said. They also happen to be, by some margin, the most expensive ones on the market. €20 a stick, folks. By contrast, other professional grade pastels are around $3-$8 a stick.

Naturally, being curious to know what the fuss was all about, I went and bought some sticks in RG colors. I thought to do this drawing specifically to see how Rochés differed from what I had: I would use the Rochés just for the court surface. Well, I learned the difference--to the detriment of the drawing. I thought my Unisons (a top quality pastel, used by many professional pastellists, handmade in England) were vibrant, but next to the Rochés they looked dull and chalky. The Rochés glowed with their own light.

Problem is, the clay surface was supposed to be a dull, pale pink/orange. That is how clay looks under overcast daylight, and, to own the truth, that is how it looked on my phone even with True Tone turned on. Rendered with Rochés, my court was now on fire. And this being pastel not oil painting, there was no way I could cover it up in another layer, scrape down and start over. Not over an area this large.

I won't bore you any further with my travails getting the court texture right. (It looked like a Martian beach volleyball court after my first pass, and I spent a day editing it to look like it was flat even though churned up by footfalls.) Also, look closely at the racquet, and you'll see that the string bed is all wonky: this is what happened when I was trying to get just one more thing done after having already worked on the drawing something like seven hours that day, and decided to eyeball the string pattern instead of using a straight edge and measuring.

I got a lot wrong on this one.

A more disciplined artist would perhaps have thrown the work out and started the whole thing over--or gone for version 2.0 after having finished the first attempt. Certainly, Degas was known to do umpteen iterations of a given image until he found exactly the colors, contours, poses etc he was happy with. I do not have the discipline or the patience for this. I justify my laziness by thinking of the finished, flawed work as a record of my shortcomings as an artist--and as a record of growth, when looked back upon. Once I decide I'm done with something, I never go back to change it, even if there are some pretty bad-looking mistakes in there--because I don't want to think that I was better back then than I actually was.

So, yeah. May I present Novak tapping the clay off his shoe while looking a little sous-vided on a sea of lava, folks. Happy birthday, old man.

📸 purblind-dragon | Roland-Garros 2025, first Tuesday practice | Sony RX10-IV

[letscoffeebreak]

Just Jannik melting into a smile thinking about Carlos 🫶🏻❤️

[whereismyjello]

Jannik and Casper did nothing

in the Winner's Room, of course.

Casper was in love, and was a new father, and his daughter was with him in Rome.

They sat, and talked. Not about tennis, and then about tennis, and then:

"He's not playing grass either. Carlos."

Jannik looked at Casper. "How do you know?" he asked, flat.

"He texted me I did well today. After my loss. Then when I said we are all missing him, can't wait for grass season, he --"

Casper sighed. There was a sadness in the tour, without Carlos.

"He said he will not be there either. He'll announce soon."

Jannik's first thought was: No.

His second thought was: Why didn't he tell me?

And his third thought was: How could he?

How could he leave Jannik like this. Cold and alone in every winner's room, without the ache of loss, the fear of being unseated.

How could he not be there for Jannik to beat?

[deliriouslyshipping]

Jannik Sinner sleeping on Carlos Alcaraz's thighs while Carlos pets his hair

[justagost]

Hear me out:

Carlos Alcaraz sleeping draped on Jannik Sinner’s front while Jannik holds him and runs his hands in Carlos’s hair and on his back

[leclercx]

JANNIK SINNER | CAREER GOLDEN MASTERS 🏆 ↳ the youngest ever to do it (insp)

[valchhi]

black and white

c. giampiero sposito & domenico cippitelli (rome 2026) // julian finney & tim clayton (wimbledon 2025)

[justagost]

So we all agree that we just care that Jannik doesn’t hurt himself, good if he wins, we don’t care how he wins, ugly, by the skin of his teeth or whatever, and then we don’t expect Jannik to go far in RG because THIS MAN JUST MADE HISTORY IN LIKE FIVE DIFFERENT WAYS AND HES STILL PLAYING

[sinnerism]

my parents

[your-ace-cousin-clover]

How can the Draper-Murray coaching lead to Novandy?

[mondkaelbchen]

'MOUTHTOWEL SPOTTED

[mezzinow]

Yes or not ?

[sincaraz21]

The duality 🔥 & ❄️

[janchalant]

lmfao youre telling me MY hardcourt merchants are playing each other in the semis of rome