Tennis News

Which players have the best chance of playing spoiler to the top tier of Roland Garros contenders? WTA Insider compiled a list of seasoned veterans and dangerous floaters who could do some serious damage on the terre battue.

Victoria Azarenka: The most in-form player through the first quarter of 2016, Azarenka is hard to beat once she gets on a roll, completing the Sunshine Double with titles in Indian Wells and Miami. Her lone hardcourt loss was to eventual Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in Melbourne.

Coming into what has traditionally been her least favorite time of year, Azarenka appeared keen to disprove the doubters – not that she listens to what they have to say – and continue her winning streak through the clay court season. Injuries have played their part in disrupting that rhythm, as a lower back injury forced her to withdraw from Madrid and didn’t seem fully healed in a second round loss to Irina-Camelia Begu in Rome.

Should she be healthy in time for Paris, her consistency can certainly take her places, having reached the semifinals back in 2013.

With comfortable head-to-heads against three of the four top seeds, it will be interesting to see who will be projected to face the Belarusian come the quarterfinals.

Agnieszka Radwanska: Seeded No.2 at this year’s French Open, Radwanska would be an all-out contender were this any other major tournament, but red clay of Roland Garros has proven the Pole’s kryptonite on too many occasions for her to feel truly comfortable coming into the fortnight.

The 2012 Wimbledon finalist eased into the semifinals of Stuttgart before getting dismantled by qualifier Laura Siegemund, and an unlucky draw saw her face one of her fiercest rivals in Dominika Cibulkova early on in Madrid. Opting not to play the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, it’s anyone’s guess how Radwanska will play in Paris, but like Azarenka, her long resumé of consistency should give her confidence to start the week. Since the US Open, the WTA Finals champion has made the semifinals or better at all but three of her last 12 events, including the semifinals of the Australian Open, which she reached dropping just one set along the way. Conserving energy will also be critical for a player who was once all too often drawn into wars of attrition.

Petra Kvitova: With a new coach and new philosophy when it came to clay courts, the two-time Wimbledon winner looked poised to build on last year, when she won her second Mutua Madrid Open title.

A run to the semifinals in Stuttgart saw her battle with eventual champion Kerber, but a pair of early losses to Daria Gavrilova and Madison Keys may have shaken her confidence ahead of the French Open. Kvitova is another former semifinalist, reaching that stage back in 2012, but has only made it to the second week once since then – last year, when she lost to Timea Bacsinszky in the fourth round.

Carla Suárez Navarro: If clay court comfort holds back the first three, the next three will need intangibles on their side. The Spaniard has all the skills and “traditional” clay court guile to succeed at the French; her breakout run came back in 2008, when she reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier.

But for Suárez Navarro, it’ll come down to what’s between the ears. A game from the semifinals in 2014, the Spaniard succumbed to nerves and a determined Eugenie Bouchard. She appeared in good form at home in Madrid, but a cold kept her from closing the door against Samantha Stosur.

If she can replicate the form that took her up to No.6 in the world just two months ago, the Qatar Total Open champion will be in good shape in the latter stages of the fortnight.

Dominika Cibulkova: The 2014 Australian Open finalist was a woman in need of a big win, and she got it in Madrid, taking out top seed Radwanska and battling all the way into the final with three-setters against Caroline Garcia, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Sorana Cirstea.

The Slovak missed last year’s French Open to have surgery on her Achilles, and will be looking to back up her best result at a Premier Mandatory with another deep run at a major tournament. The dynamic veteran burst onto the scene back in 2009, when she blew past Maria Sharapova to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal at the French, following the feat five years later in Melbourne by going one better, again by beating Sharapova and Radwanska en route.

Seeded No.22, Cibulkova will be in position to face down another big name in the first week; unless the nerves that kept her from early round upsets in Indian Wells and Miami reappear, she is all but a shoo-in to reach the second week.

Svetlana Kuznetsova: The tour’s most enigmatic figures had a solid, if unspectacular, clay court swing; though she failed to defend her runner-up points from last year’s Mutua Madrid Open, she rebounded nicely in Rome, defeating Samantha Stosur and Daria Gavrilova before bowing out to World No.1 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.

The 2009 champion still has the game to compete with the best in the world, as her run to the finals of the Miami Open proved, but everything else has so often been up in the air. Seeded in the Top 16, Kuznetsova will be able to work her way through the first few round without facing a top seed, but will have to hit the ground running should she reach the second week.

Her win over Williams in Miami showed she could close out a big name when given the opportunity; whether she can still seal the deal at a Grand Slam remains to be seen.

Lucie Safarova: Which Safarova will show up in Paris? The 2015 runner-up looked to have shaken off the rust with a much-needed title run at the J&T Banka Prague Open, but food poisoning derailed her in Madrid and Rome. The Czech star was ruthless through six matches 12 months ago, and it took a return to red clay for the former World No.5 to win her first matches of the season after coming back from injury and illness.

A tough draw may help her feel less pressure, and she proved she could take out the best clay courters around to reach the final last year, including Sharapova, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Ana Ivanovic. A healthy and confident Safarova is not one to underestimate, particular for a top seed looking to reach the last eight.

Click here to keep up with WTA Insider’s pre-French Open coverage!

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

Radwanska and Halep sound off: Losing will never sit well with any player. Losing when feeling like your health has been put at risk? That will result in some angry players.

Both No.2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and No.6 seed Simona Halep were the favorites to win their suspended matches from Sunday, with both women holding an advantage on the scoreboard when play resumed in their fourth round matches on Tuesday. Radwanska led No.102 Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 3-0 and Halep led No.21 seed Sam Stosur 5-3 in the first set.

After a late start due to the never-ending rain that triggered the first washout at Roland Garros in 16 years on Monday, the players took to their respective courts with rain and drizzle still coming down. Fans in the stadium had their umbrellas up and ponchos on, and the damp conditions clearly got into Radwanska and Halep’s heads.

Radwanska lost 10 consecutive games on the restart and lost to Pironkova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Halep struggled to find a way to solve a top-form Stosur, who rallied to win 7-6(0), 6-3. Afterwards, the women on the losing ends let their frustration out.

“I’m just so surprised and angry, that we have to play in the rain,” Radwanska said. “It’s not a $10,000 tournament. It’s a Grand Slam. How can you allow players to play in the rain? I cannot play in that conditions.”

Radwanska called a medical timeout at 0-4 in the third set for her right hand, which required surgery a few years ago. “Playing with those balls in that kind of court is pretty much impossible,” she said. “So, I mean, I tried. Maybe I played worse, did worse things other days than when we start to play that match, but it definitely shouldn’t be like this. We shouldn’t play in that kind of rain. Why? We still have couple of days of tournament. What’s the point?”

Halep said she did not feel safe on the court from the moment they walked out. “I don’t care that I lost the match today, but I was close to get injured with my back, so that’s a big problem.”

“I mean, in my opinion [Stosur] played really well and she deserved to win. Her ball was very heavy to return, and her serve especially. She did a great match.”

Radwanska voiced her concerns to the umpire when it began to drizzle again in the third set, but Halep did not raise any concerns until after the match in her press conference. Both women complained about the wet balls and slippery conditions. When told the men’s matches that followed theirs ended when the players complained to the umpire and supervisor and ultimately walked off the court, Halep gave them the literal ‘thumbs up’. “Well done to them.”

“I have no words,” Halep said. “It was impossible to play, in my opinion. And to play tennis matches during the rain I think it’s a bit too much. But everyone was in the same situation, and who was stronger won today.”

Asked why she believed the players were put on court despite the damp weather, Halep deferred to tournament organizers. “Maybe they are scared because the tournament is going, the days are going on and they don’t play matches.

“But is not our fault. Is not their fault. But the decisions were not, I think, the best.”

Samantha Stosur returns to the quarterfinals: For the first time since 2012, Stosur is back into the quarterfinals of a major. The 32-year-old, who made the final here in 2010, backed up her big third round win over Lucie Safarova with another self-assured performance to beat Halep for her first Top 10 win since 2014.

“I don’t typically like the heavy, wet, damp conditions, but today I was able to use them I think a lot better, I think, than she was,” Stosur said. “I didn’t necessarily think about hitting with heavy spin, but more higher over the net I guess to get the same kind of result.

“Having a slice backhand I can then hit it a bit shorter, keep it low over the net. The court is dead and wet. If you keep it low it doesn’t bounce that much. I think that really kept her off-balance when I was hitting my slice, whether I was going deep or short. Yeah, when it’s harder to move, that makes it just that a little bit harder. Like I said, then with my forehand, just that little bit of extra height to push her back was working well for me.”

As for the court conditions, Stosur did as an Aussie does: She sucked it up and just played. “I guess in this situation they need – every minute counts, and I’m just playing,” the 2011 US Open champion said. “If the umpire says we’re stopping, we’re stopping. I don’t know what the forecast is. I know what it feels like out there and I know it was raining for the first time we went out today, but the court was okay for the most part.

Samantha Stosur est en quarts de finale après sa victoire contre Simona Halep 7-6 6-3 #RG16 https://t.co/SV1bmkbnbo

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2016

“I don’t think Simona was complaining about it. Again, we’re told to play, we play. If it gets too wet you’ve got to say something. Yeah, I mean, like it’s not good out there, but it was fine for us.”

Despite a good run to the final of the J&T Banka Prague Open, where she lost to Safarova, and the semifinals of the Madrid Open, where she lost to Halep, Stosur came into Paris under the radar. She withdrew from the Internationaux de Strasbourg quarterfinals with a left wrist injury, which clouded her chances here at her, arguably, best Slam. Clearly it hasn’t been an issue. She’s hitting her backhand and slice better than ever.

“Yeah, look, I didn’t know what kind of result or performance I was going to have regardless of the wrist injury,” Stosur said with a laugh, “but I did exactly what I needed to do for that and sort it out and came here early.

“It was unfortunate I had to pull out of Strasbourg, but I needed those days to recover. Thankfully, touch wood, it’s been okay so far. I’m not struggling with it at all. I’m not even thinking about it now. I still have it taped, but it’s not bothering me and I’m able to play some of my best tennis.”

Tsvetana Pironkova sheds her grass court label: The conventional book on the Bulgarian was she was a danger on fast, low-bouncing surfaces like grass. She was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2010, quarterfinalist in 2011, and made the Round of 16 in 2013. Two years ago she came out of nowhere to win the Sydney International, another fast hardcourt event, as a qualifier.

But muddy, wet, heavy clay? As even Pironkova admitted, “It’s not my thing.”

“I’m not a player who likes slow courts, heavy balls, obviously, but I kind of tried to leave the fact that it’s raining out of my mind and just focus on each and every point. Obviously that worked.”

Ranked No.102, Pironkova hasn’t shown the results to telegraph her first quarterfinal run at Roland Garros, but results can be deceiving.

“I could say I’m surprised, but I think coming to the tournament I was in a very good shape,” Pironkova said. “My results in the previous tournaments didn’t show it, but I was feeling good. Every time someone from the media or my friends asked me, How are you feeling? I was like, It’s strange, but I feel very good.

“So obviously the time came, and right now I showed that actually I’m feeling in a good form.”

Her win over Radwanska was her first Top 10 win since that run to the Sydney title in 2014, and it backed up a dominant win over No.19 seed Sloane Stephens, 6-2, 6-1, in the third round. But it was her opening win over 2012 finalist Sara Errani in the first round that made her believe something big could happen in Paris.

“I played really well, and that match showed me that I have the chance and I should fight for it,” she said.

Update: The R16 match between Svitolina and Serena has been postponed until Wednesday. #RG16 pic.twitter.com/3qz02MxpC4

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2016

Rain postpones completion of the Round of 16: The tournament was able to get just over two-hours of play in the books before play was eventually called for rain before 7pm. While the bottom half quarterfinals are now set (Shelby Rogers vs. Garbiñe Muguruza, Samantha Stosur vs. Tsvetana Pironkova), the remaining four fourth round matches – Serena Williams vs. Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams vs. Timea Bacsinszky, Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Yulia Putintseva, and Madison Keys vs. Kiki Bertens – were pushed to Wednesday.

Any Given Week: Fortunes can change in a heartbeat in tennis, and we’ve seen that play out week after week in 2016. Stosur lost to Safarova and Halep in the two biggest results of her clay court run up. She avenged both loses in back-to-back matches in Paris. A couple of forehands here, an ace on break point there, a backhand that floats in instead of long, the margins in the sport are tiny.

“Tennis is something – it can change quickly,” Stosur said. “I was reading the other day, Shelby Rogers, she lost in qualifying in Strasbourg and now she’s in the quarters. One tournament to the next, smallest tournament on tour and the biggest one. She’s had polar opposite results. Shows how quickly things can turn around. Also, the margins are so small. You can make big changes very quickly if you’re prepared to, you know, take them.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.