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Belgium’s Yania Wickmayer faces the toughest match of her French Open campaign to date against fourth seed Garbine Muguruza. Join The Roar for live scores from 7pm (AEST).
It has been a fast rise through the ranks for Muguruza, who has started the second grand slam of the year in strong fashion.
During the first round she took on Anna Schmiedlova, certainly no pushover, and it was taken to three sets. Muguruza was all class though as she took the third set 6-3 in dominant fashion.
In the second round she defeated Myrtille Georges in straight sets, dropping a grand total of two games.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the 22-year-old since Spain’s massive Fed Cup defeat of Italy, as she bombed out of tournaments early in both Stuttgart and Madrid, before losing to Madison Keys in the semi-final at Rome.
But clay is her favourite surface, winning 67 per cent of her matches on the red dust.
Wickmayer also prefers clay, but has been in poor form coming into the Open, having only won two of her six lead-up matches, which were both at the Fed Cup. Since then she has lost four in a row, and twice in straight sets.
She has fired back in emphatic fashion though, defeating Alexandra Dulgheru 6-1, 6-3 in the first round, before moving on to beat the talented Ekaterina Makarova 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Coming back from a set down against the world No.29 is no easy feat and she looks to have finally rediscovered the form that saw her win so many matches in years gone by.
Interestingly, this is Wickmayer’s sixth French Open and she has never been out of the first round, while Muguruza has made the quarter-finals for the last two years.
The pair have only matched up on one previous occasion, in Hobart during 2014. That time, Wickmayer had to retire due to injury down 4-1 in the first set.
Prediction
Wickmayer will push hard and grab the second set, but won’t win the match.
Muguruza in three sets.
Join The Roar for live scores of this match from 7pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your comments below.
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