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The more things change, the more they stay the same – at least in the women’s game.
For all the perceived ‘openness’ of the French Open women’s draw over the past few years, perennial contenders Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina haven’t been able to make their mark at Grand Slams, and the run continues here, with both losing in the third round.
Clay is Pliskova’s least-favourite surface, and the one that makes it most difficult for her to utilise her big serve, so, while she was given a chance of winning, as good players are at any tournament, she was probably never really considered a serious chance of taking the title.
Svitolina, on the other hand, came into this tournament on the back of winning the Italian Open in Rome just last week, and thrives on clay. She has talked a lot recently about how the mental side of her game has been holding her back, and that she has done a lot of work on this leading into Roland Garros.
In her press conferences and interviews she certainly seemed more confident, but after her loss to Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu she cut a dejected figure, seemingly yet to process another Grand Slam loss.
More continuity comes in the form of two veterans, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, meeting in the fourth round. Sharapova ousted Pliskova 6-1 6-2 and has been in fine form on what had, until recently, been her least-preferred surface, and her victory sets up a fourth-round clash against Williams.
Usually, Serena versus Maria matches fail to live up to the hype, with Serena boasting an imperious 18-match head-to-head winning streak (out of a total of 22 matches). However, on clay, a surface that neutralises Serena’s weapons, Sharapova should be much more competitive.
(Yann Caradec / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Elsewhere, in the women’s draw, while 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko was bundled out in the first round, fellow 2017 finalist and world number one, Simona Halep, is still alive, and faces talented Belgian Elise Mertens in the fourth round.
The biggest beneficiary of Svitolina’s loss is 2017 US Open runner-up, Madison Keys. She now faces Buzarnescu in the fourth round, and if she wins that, sets up a quarter-final with either unseeded Yulia Putintseva or 26th seed Barbora Strycova. 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza has been in good form to date, and faces unseeded Lesia Tsurenko in the round of 16.
Should she win that, she’ll set up a quarter-finalmatch up with the winner of Williams versus Sharapova. The 2017 US Open champion and runner-up, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys, also remain in the draw, as does 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki and rapidly rising Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
Caroline Wozniacki.(Tatiana / Flickr)
On the men’s side, Rafa Nadal’s quest for ‘La Unidecima’ (title number 11) is looking more and more successful each day. He still has not lost a set and faces unseeded German Max Marterer in the fourth round. He’d be favourite to defeat either Kevin Anderson or Diego Schwartzmann in a quarter-final, and won’t face a stern test until the semis, where he could face John Isner, Juan Martin del Potro, Marin Cilic, or Fabio Fognini.
The question that hung over the tournament at the beginning of last week remains: who can beat Rafa at Roland Garros? The answer may be getting clearer, with 2016 champion Novak Djokovic seemingly having rediscovered some of his best form after an injury-plagued two years.
Djokovic faces veteran Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round, who pulled a surprise by defeating third seed Grigor Dimitrov.
Nadal’s other would-be challengers, young guns Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev, are both still alive, but Zverev has struggled to get this far. He survived two five-set marathons (and match points) in the first two rounds, and next faces fellow ‘Next Gen’ star Karin Khachanov in what will be a difficult encounter.
However, positively, Zverev has now defeated a top-50 player at a Grand Slam for the first time, and will be looking to build on that momentum. If he defeats Khachanov, he will face the winner of Thiem and Kei Nishikori, which both loom as intriguing match ups. Often in Grand Slam tournaments, hard-fought wins in the early rounds can be the making of a player, and perhaps we will see the same occur with Zverev.
(Image: Steven Pisano/CC BY 2.0)
On another note, it’s been another lean tournament for the Australian contingent, with Sam Stosur and Daria Gavrilova, the last two local hopes, losing in the third round.
Incredibly, the loss will see Stosur fall outside the top 100 (to ranking 101) for the first time in ten years, after she failed to defend the points amassed in her fourth-round showing here last year.
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