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Australian Samantha Stosur will be up against it in the third round of the French Open when she takes on former champion and world No.3 Garbine Muguruza. Join The Roar for live scores from 7pm (AEST).
Stosur might be at her most successful grand slam traditionally, but she will need to produce one of the performances of her life to overcome Muguruza, who has found some form at Roland Garros.
That said, while Muguruza has yet to drop a set across the first two rounds, her form in the lead-up to the second grand slam of the year was all over the place.
Her best run came in Madrid, where she lost to Darya Kasatkina after beating Shuai Peng and Donna Vekic, but in three clay tournaments, they are her only victories. She lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Stuttgart, seemingly battling injury, before going down to Daria Gavrilova in Rome, with that one going to a tie breaker in the third set.
In Paris, the third seed has recorded impressive victories over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Fiona Ferro, but is still below her best and will need to be better against Stosur, who always performs well at the French Open.
Stosur, like Muguruza, was inconsistent during the lead-up to the Open. She had decent runs in Prague and Strasbourg, but also had some disappointing losses both in those tournaments and at others.
A straight-sets loss to Sloane Stephens and a first-rounder to Alison Van Uytvanck in Rome saw Stosur off her game, but then, consistency has never been a strong suit of the now world No.90, who lost a stack of points after bombing out of Strasbourg.
She rescued her place in the top 100 of the rankings after a win over Pavlyuchenkova in the second round, and while that means she has automatic entry to Wimbledon, the pressure in terms of getting a result that matches her last two years – semi-final and fourth round – isn’t.
Muguruza also strengthens her favouritism for this one given she beat Stosur in straight sets in the 2016 semi-finals on her way to winning the tournament.
Prediction
Stosur will put up a good fight and it’s less than certain with Muguruza seemingly out of sorts before Paris, but the world No.3 should get the win.
Muguruza in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this third round match from 7pm (AEST) and don’t forget to get involved by dropping a comment in the section below.