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We have approached the halfway mark of the 2017 French Open, and while it’s a no-contest as to who the favourite for the men’s title is, predictions for the women’s title remains as wide as it has been for a long time.
Spanish clay court king Rafael Nadal remains the rampaging hot favourite to take out his tenth title at Roland Garros, and fifteenth Grand Slam title overall, having stormed through his opening three matches without being taken past ten games in any of the three sets he has contested.
His most recent outing, ahead of his clash against compatriot Roberto Bautista-Agut overnight, saw him deliver a devastating 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 savaging of Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili to all but have his name etched on the Coupe des Musketeers for the first time since 2014.
It was the most lopsided victory of the 31-year-old’s career in the 100 best-of-five matches he has contested, and just about sums up his dominance at the French Open over the years in a nutshell.
Months after Roger Federer wound back the clock by winning the Australian Open, the Spaniard has revisited the form that made him virtually unbeatable on clay a decade ago.
He achieved ‘La Decima’ at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, and won his fifth title in Madrid before stumbling in the quarter-finals against Dominic Thiem in Rome.
Nevertheless, he remains the man to beat in Paris and it will take a monumental effort from the rest of the field just to bring him down.
The only man who appears a genuine chance of stopping Nadal from marching to another title at Roland Garros is defending champion Novak Djokovic.
The Serb survived a serious test from Argentine Diego Schwartzman, in which he came from two sets to one down, to progress to the fourth round for the eleventh time in the past twelve years.
Djokovic and Nadal are drawn to face each other in the semi-finals, and if this eventuates, it shapes as, potentially, the biggest non-final clash between the pair at a major tournament.
After a poor start to the season, world number one Andy Murray might also be finding his feet at Roland Garros, surviving yet another serious test to also progress to the round of 16 for the eighth consecutive time.
(Photo: AAP)
The Scot was stretched to his limits in the first two sets against Juan Martin del Potro, but romped through the third 6-0 where he now awaits the winner of the suspended tie between John Isner and Karen Khachanov.
The Russian took the opening set in a tiebreak before poor weather forced play to be called off for the day.
2015 champion Stan Wawrinka is also through to the fourth round, but the identity of his opponent remains unknown with the all-French tie between Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet suspended at 6-5 in the opening set.
If seedings hold, Murray and Wawrinka could face off in the semi-finals.
On the women’s side of things, the absences of Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova meant that, for the first time in nearly a decade, the draw was wide open for anyone to win the title.
2014 finalist Simona Halep entered the tournament as the bookies’ favourite, on the back of her impressive build-up form which saw her successfully defend her title in Madrid as well as reach the final in Rome.
If the Romanian can finally break through for her first Grand Slam title after years of trying, she will also ascend to the world number one ranking, overtaking Angelique Kerber who for the second year in a row was beaten in the first round.
The top seed’s straight-sets defeat to Ekaterina Makarova last Sunday only continued to add to the pain of a poor season for the German, who also had her Australian Open title defence ended abruptly in January.
The other player with a chance of overtaking the 29-year-old at the top of the rankings is second seed Karolina Pliskova.
The Czech was due to play another German, Carina Witthoft, in the third round on Sunday morning (AEST) but poor weather forced that match, among others, to be postponed.
The 25-year-old must reach the final to claim the top ranking for the first time.
Another genuine contender for the title is Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, whose victory in Rome took her to the top of the Race to Singapore standings.
The fifth seed is due to play Poland’s Magda Linnette this morning.
To make things all the more interesting, Pliskova, Halep and Svitolina are all in the same half of the draw, with the latter two set to face off in the quarter-finals if they can get through their respective sections of the draw.
Last year’s champion, Garbine Muguruza, is warming well to the pressure of being the defending champion, though she had to come from behind to defeat Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in her second round match.
The Spaniard was due to face her first serious test in her title defence this morning, taking on local favourite Kristina Mladenovic, who is appearing in the fourth round of her home Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
The other contenders in this half of the draw are former finalists Venus Williams and Samantha Stosur.
The elder of the Williams sisters, who turns 37 later this month, is the oldest woman ever to reach the round of 16 at Roland Garros, and at the rate at which she is playing, it’s possible she may win the title here.
It was earlier this decade when she suffered the career-threatening illness, Sjogren’s syndrome, which could so easily have forced her into retirement.
But seemingly inspired by younger sister Serena’s return to top form after her own major scare (she suffered a foot injury shortly after winning Wimbledon in 2010, which sidelined her for nearly 12 months), Venus couldn’t be playing better than ever before.
Following the early exits of Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova, 2010 finalist Stosur is poised for another deep run at Roland Garros, having not had to face a seeded opponent so far up to this point in the tournament.
The Australian, who usually reserves her best form for the red dirt in Paris, has not dropped a set so far but will be up for the challenge of her next opponent, rising star Jelena Ostapenko.
If she progresses to the quarter-finals, she will face a seed: either former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, or 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is also playing well even with her 3second birthday looming.
Kerber aside, the women’s draw was rocked by two other major upsets, with seventh seed Johanna Konta and ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who were drawn to face each other in the fourth round, bombing out in the first and third rounds respectively.
Konta blew a 40-0 lead against Hsieh Su-wei’s serve in the eleventh game of the second set (she had earlier taken the opening set 6-1) to go down in three sets, the loss ensuring she remains winless at Roland Garros.
Radwanska, on the other hand, was easily beaten 6-2, 6-1 by local favourite Alize Cornet in the early match on Saturday night (AEST), and will now face compatriot Caroline Garcia for a place in the quarter-finals.
All is now set for what should be an exciting second week of the 2017 French Open, with all the focus to be on Rafael Nadal as he shoots for the ‘Triple Decima’ (having already won Monte Carlo and Barcelona each for a tenth time during the clay court season).
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