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2015 French Open: Women's singles preview

Roar Guru
19th May, 2015
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Maria Sharapova has returned after her failed drugs test. (AAP Image/Martin Philbey)
Roar Guru
19th May, 2015
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The year’s second Grand Slam tournament is now less than a week away and there will be so many contenders for the 2015 French Open, with Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep among the big names to watch out for.

Williams and Sharapova will start as the top two seeds for the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament, which means they cannot meet until the final, with both seeking to win their third French Open.

However, many other contenders are out to prevent this final from materialising, including last year’s runner-up Simona Halep and dual Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

Let’s now have a look at some of the major contenders for the 2015 French Open.

Serena Williams
Current world ranking: 1

French Open history
Best result: Champion (2002, 2013)
Last year’s result: Second round

Grand Slam results so far in 2015
Australian Open: Champion

Titles so far this year: Australian Open, Miami

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The older Serena Williams gets, the better she performs.

That has been the theme of her season so far as she continues to dominate on the WTA circuit, picking up her 19th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January as well as going undefeated until losing to eventual champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals of the Premier Mandatory event in Madrid earlier this month.

Her domination of top rivals has continued well into this year, her Australian Open title coming once again at the expense of Maria Sharapova while she disposed of world number three Simona Halep en route to the Miami title.

Williams has the chance to extend her massive lead at the top of the world rankings as she has just a second-round appearance from 2014 to defend. By contrast, second-ranked Maria Sharapova cannot earn any fresh rankings points because she is the defending champion.

Thus, a combination of Williams winning the title and Sharapova crashing out early would see the American go a long way towards clinching the year-end world number one ranking for a third consecutive season.

However, first things first. The American’s shock early loss last year to unheralded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza was part of an unusually poor year at the Slams, which was only salvaged by a sixth win at the US Open.

And despite having to withdraw from Rome mid-tournament due to an elbow injury, Williams will once again start as the hot favourite to not only claim a third French Open title, but also hit the magical 20 milestone (only Margaret Court and Steffi Graf have won more Majors than Williams).

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That would also see her continue her march towards a Calendar Serena Slam, something she has never before achieved (though she did win four Majors in a row between the 2002 French Open and 2003 Australian Open, achieving the Serena Slam and the Career Grand Slam in the process).

If you go by her rampaging hot form this year, then anything is achievable.

Prediction: Champion

Maria Sharapova
Current world ranking: 2

French Open history
Best result: Champion (2012, 2014)
Last year’s result: Champion

Grand Slam results so far in 2015
Australian Open: Runner-up

Titles so far this year: Brisbane, Rome.

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World number two Maria Sharapova continues to prove that she is one of the most dominant forces in women’s tennis, despite suffering an alarming form slump during the Indian Wells-Miami swing and in Stuttgart, where she lost three matches in a row for the first time since 2003.

The Russian kicked off 2015 by winning the Brisbane International, defeating glamour rival Ana Ivanovic in the final before once again falling foul of career nemesis Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open in January.

For the past few years, the clay court swing has brought out the best in Maria Sharapova.

Her early exit in Stuttgart aside, she was able to reach the semi-finals in Madrid, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova for the first time since 2008, while she won the title in Rome for the first time since 2012 last week by way of a three-set win over Carla Suarez Navarro in the final.

Her recent French Open record makes for very good reading, having reached at least the semi-final stage in the last four years. She has reached the final in the last three years, something that hadn’t been achieved since Justine Henin won three titles in a row between 2005 and 2007.

As the defending champion, however, the Russian cannot earn any fresh rankings points and with an early loss, she risks not only falling further behind runaway world number one Serena Williams, but also out of the top four, depending on how the likes of Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki fare.

Thus, one can expect Maria Sharapova to once again feature at the business end of the tournament, and if she can reach a fourth consecutive final, and it’s not against Williams, then she can fancy her chances of a third title at Roland Garros.

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Prediction: Final

Simona Halep
Current world ranking: 3

French Open history
Best result: Runner-up (2014)
Last year’s result: Runner-up

Grand Slam results so far in 2015
Australian Open: Quarter-finals

Titles so far this year: Shenzhen, Dubai, Indian Wells

World number three Simona Halep continues to improve year by year.

The Romanian enjoyed a solid first quarter of 2015, winning titles at Shenzhen, Dubai and Indian Wells in addition to reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the second consecutive year.

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However, her recent clay court campaign hasn’t been all that impressive, with semi-final failures in Stuttgart and Rome coming on either side of a first round exit in Madrid, where she was a finalist last year.

This week marks one year since Halep first entered the world’s top four, and this year’s French Open will also mark 12 months since she reached her first Grand Slam final, which she lost to Maria Sharapova in three close sets.

The experience she gained in playing the first women’s final to last the distance since 2001 will hold her in good stead as she bids to go one better in 2015.

However, her world number three ranking means that she could face either hot tournament favourite Serena Williams, or her conqueror in last year’s final, Sharapova, in the semi-finals.

That would of course impede her chances of winning her maiden Grand Slam title. She does, however, hold a recent win over Williams in the round robin stage at last year’s WTA Finals, whereby she handed the American her worst defeat for 16 years before losing to the same opponent in the championship match.

If she can replicate that form against either Williams or Sharapova in the semi-finals, then it will give her some confidence against the other player in the final, provided all three reach the final four as the rankings would expect.

Prediction: Semi-finals

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Petra Kvitova
Current world ranking: 4

French Open history
Best result: Semi-finals (2012)
Last year’s result: Third round

Grand Slam results so far in 2015
Australian Open: Third round

Titles so far this year: Sydney, Madrid

A notorious under-performer at the Grand Slams outside of the All England Club, this year’s French Open provides the best chance for world number four Petra Kvitova to hone her game to the physical demands of the Parisian clay.

After skipping Indian Wells and Miami in March citing fatigue, the reigning Wimbledon champion returned to action in Stuttgart, but dropped her first match to American Madison Brengle, continuing yet another poor season for the Czech.

However, she was able to turn things around in Madrid, inflicting upon the first defeat of the season for world number one Serena Williams in the semi-finals before going on to thrash Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final for her 16th career title.

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That was then followed by a surprise loss to Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarter-finals in Rome, which will leave plenty of questions to be asked about her chances of doing well in Paris.

While her recent record at Roland Garros doesn’t make for good reading (she’s lost in the third round in the last two years), she did reach the semi-finals in 2012 and led eventual champion Li Na 3-0 in the final set in the fourth round a year earlier before going down in three sets.

Having failed to get beyond the third round at any of the Grand Slams other than Wimbledon since 2012, you get the feeling that perhaps Petra Kvitova is due for a deep run this year.

But the big question is whether she can fix her consistency on the big stage and prove that she just doesn’t save her best form of the year for the peace and quiet surroundings of the All England Club.

Prediction: Quarter-finals

Other contenders
Some of the other names to watch out for in Paris include former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, fast-rising Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova, and struggling trio Eugenie Bouchard, Ana Ivanovic and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Wozniacki has enjoyed a resurgence in form since splitting from Rory McIlroy last year, seeing her ranking climb from the mid-teens up to its present world number five. That was helped by her reaching the US Open final for a second time last September, in which she lost to Serena Williams in straight sets.

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However, she will enter the French Open on the back of defeats to Sharapova and Azarenka in Madrid and Rome respectively; her loss to the latter was the third time this year that she’d lost to her close friend and successor as world number one in 2012 after early losses at the Australian Open and in Doha.

Eugenie Bouchard’s top-10 ranking will go on the line over the next seven weeks, during which the Canadian will have to defend semi-final and finalist points at Roland Garros and Wimbledon respectively.

Her decision not to defend her title at the ongoing Nurnberg tournament, where she won her maiden career title last year, will already see her drop some rankings points ahead of the French Open.

Thus, if she is to protect her place among the world’s elite, she needs to start performing now, but I feel that the pressure will start getting to her and a swift drop down the rankings appears inevitable.

Former champion Ana Ivanovic has also struggled for form this year but, like Bouchard, still remains in the top 10. However, the Serb doesn’t have to defend a lot of points in Paris, so this could provide her a good chance to resurrect her ailing form which has seen her drop her opening match in three tournaments this year.

Will Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova win a third title at Roland Garros? Can Simona Halep go one better after losing in the final last year? And who, among those I haven’t mentioned, will cause a surprise and make a deep run?

The French Open gets underway this Sunday night (AEST).

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