Former Grand Slam champions and Petra Kvitova and Ana Ivanovic have joined the growing list of casualties at the French Open after contrasting disappointing losses early on Saturday.
Kvitova, whose 2011 Wimbledon title now seems like a distant memory, lost a three-set thriller against Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Ivanovic, meanwhile, joined fellow pre-tournament favourites Serena Williams and Li Na on the sidelines by way of a straight-sets loss to Kvitova’s compatriot Lucie Safarova.
After claiming the first set in a tiebreak, Kvitova appeared to be on her way to her first non-Wimbledon fourth round since the 2012 US Open. From there, an apparent throat injury would conspire against her as she dropped the second set 6-1.
What then unfolded would be one of the most dramatic final sets in recent French Open history. Twice Kvitova served for the match, only to be broken both times, the second at 7-6 up in the deciding set.
Unfortunately, Kvitova could not close it out and Kuznetsova, who hadn’t beaten the Czech in three previous attempts, won three straight games to enter the fourth round for the fourth consecutive year.
Kvitova’s defeat continued her ongoing poor run at Grand Slam level, her early exit from Roland Garros marking the sixth time in the last seven Grand Slam tournaments that she has failed to make it out of the early rounds.
The only Grand Slam quarter-final in that period was at Wimbledon last year, but even her performance was disappointing as she fell to Kirsten Flipkens in a quarter-final match many expected her to win.
In the intervening period, she has lost to the likes of Marion Bartoli, Laura Robson, Jamie Hampton, Alison Riske, Luksika Kumkhum and now Kuznetsova, whose path to the quarter-finals was suddenly blown wide open after Ana Ivanovic’s exit to Lucie Safarova minutes earlier.
Ivanovic was just as disappointing in her straight-sets loss to the Czech No. 2, meaning for the fifth time in the six years that have followed her 2008 title win, her campaign came to another abrupt end.
Her third round exit brought her clay-court season to a disappointing end.Having reached the final in Stuttgart and defeated Maria Sharapova in Rome, she was seen by many as a dark horse in Paris, where she has reached the quarter-finals or better more times than at any other Grand Slam.
Apart from winning the title in 2008, she was also the runner-up in 2007 and reached the final eight on her tournament debut in 2005, falling to seventh seed Nadia Petrova.
Elsewhere, she reached the final and quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 2008 and 2014 respectively, the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2007 and the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2012.
Like Kvitova, Ivanovic’s performances at Grand Slam tournaments have suffered over the past six years. She went more than four years without getting past the fourth round until doing so with the advantage of an open draw at the 2012 US Open.
On that occasion, she was drawn to face Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round, but the Dane had suffered a knee injury in New Haven which later contributed to her exiting in the first round.
That, and further first round exits for Ivanovic’s other seeded comrades Monica Niculescu and Francesca Schiavone, opened up the path for her to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final since winning the French Open in 2008.
She took it with both hands, before eventually being rattled by Serena Williams in the last eight.
But she did not have to wait long to reach another Grand Slam quarter-final, reaching the last eight at this year’s Australian Open and stunning tournament favourite Williams in the process.
Back then, Williams appeared hindered by a back injury and it limited her performance in the match, after winning the first set, she could not force a break point against the Ivanovic serve and was sent packing earlier than expected.
The Serb could not carry on the momentum from the win over Williams, an ankle injury conspiring against her in a three-set loss to rising Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard.
She was guaranteed not to face any of the top four seeds until the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, but was dealt a tough draw which included rising stars Caroline Garcia and Elina Svitolina, and the tricky left-handed pair of Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova.
After breezing past the first two without any real hassle, Ivanovic was left stunned by Safarova, an opponent whom the Serb has now not beaten in more than six years.
With Kvitova later going out to Kuznetsova, the fourth-round showdown many had predicted between Ivanovic and Kvitova went out the window.
Ivanovic has had the slightly better record since Wimbledon in 2012, reaching two quarter-finals to Kvitova’s one and reaching the fourth round more frequently than the Czech (five to two).
Both have had their share of unexpected losses to unheralded opposition, none more so than Kvitova, whose loss to Kuznetsova marked the eighth consecutive Grand Slam in which she has lost to a lower-ranked opponent.
Some of Ivanovic’s losses, however, have come to higher-ranked players including Agnieszka Radwanska (twice) and Victoria Azarenka, all in 2013.
And so their focus will now turn to the grass-court season. It can not come soon enough Kvitova given the success she has enjoyed on the surface in the last three years, including her stunning triumph at the All England Club in 2011.
Twelve months before her crowning moment, she entered Wimbledon having never won a professional match on grass, but would come from nowhere to reach the semi-finals, knocking out Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki before losing to Serena Williams in the last four.
Since then, she has enjoyed reasonable success on the surface, reaching a pair of quarter-finals at the All England Club but not being able to push further, especially in 2013, when a second title was there for the taking.
For Ivanovic, though, the upcoming period will be about gaining much needed rankings points as she continues to close in on a return to the world’s top ten.
Losing in the third round in Paris did her absolutely no favours in her quest to return to the world’s elite.
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