Road To Roland Garros: Simona Halep
Ahead of her fourth-round meeting with Sam Stosur, Simona Halep took a trip on the Road To Roland Garros to discuss speed shopping, that outfit and the perfect 10.
Ahead of her fourth-round meeting with Sam Stosur, Simona Halep took a trip on the Road To Roland Garros to discuss speed shopping, that outfit and the perfect 10.
Simona Halep takes on Naomi Osaka in the third round of Roland Garros.
Garbiñe Muguruza outplayed 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Philippe Chatrier to return to the quarterfinal of Roland Garros for the third straight year.
Time to switch gears in Paris. Week two beckons, and the draw has been whittled down to sweet sixteen! We preview the bottom-half matchups at WTATennis.com
Sunday, Round of 16
[2] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #2) vs. Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL #102)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 9-2
Key Stat: Radwanska has won all three of the pair’s meetings on clay.
Two players not known as clay gurus will vie for a spot in the quarterfinals as they contest their 12th career meeting in Paris on Day 8. A hundred ranking spots separate Agnieszka Radwanska and Tsvetana Pironkova, but that rankings chasm might be misleading because both are executing some of their best clay-court tennis on the terre battue this week. Pironkova has taken out two Top 20 seeds in week one, and was in scintillating form on Friday as she thumped No.19-seeded Sloane Stephens, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the Round of 16 at Roland Garros for the first time. But it is Radwanska who has held the edge in the pair’s head-to-head, winning all three of their encounters on clay, and nine of eleven overall. “Well, we played so many times, but I think the last one was also quite some time ago,” Radwanska said of the Bulgarian. “Against her it’s always a good challenge. She’s really tricky opponent. You know, I expect a tough one as well.”
Pick: Radwanska in three
[4] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #4) vs. [13] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS #15)
Head-to-head: Kuznetsova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Kuznetsova (49-12) will bid for her 50th Roland Garros win on Sunday.
One of the more heavily anticipated fourth-round clashes in Paris pits 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova against No.4-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza. Both are rounding into form on the red clay, and both are loose ahead of this high-stakes contest. “I just want to go out there and just try to play my game,” Kuznetsova said after defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in round three. “Since I got a bit better ranking and everything I start to be tense again, and I don’t want it to happen.” Muguruza is taking a similar approach as she prepares to meet Kuznetsova for the second time. “I have a new mindset,” she said. “I’m not thinking of what I did last year, because every time I come to a tournament, no one remembers. People remember who plays good last year, but no one cares. Let’s see who is going to win this year, let’s see who is playing well.”
Pick: Muguruza in three
[6] Simona Halep (ROU #6) vs. [21] Sam Stosur (AUS #24)
Head-to-head: Halep leads, 4-3
Key Stat: Stosur owns a 2-0 edge over Halep at Roland Garros
An injured left wrist has done nothing to slow former runner-up Sam Stosur down in Paris. Will Simona Halep, another former Roland Garros runner-up and the player who absolutely thumped Stosur in Madrid a few weeks back, be able to do it? Maybe yes, maybe no. Either way, the Aussie is not going to carry the baggage from that shellacking into her eighth career meeting with the Romanian. “I’m not going to lose too much sleep over that match going into this next one in a couple days’ time,” Stosur said confidently after squeaking past Lucie Safarova on Day 6. That said, the Aussie knows she’s up against a daunting foe in Halep. When asked what makes Halep such a tough competitor, Stosur was quick with her answer. “I think her ability to continually put you in positions that you don’t necessarily want to be in,” she said. “She’s very consistent. She moves very well. She doesn’t have a big serve but she places it well. So she’s a player that you have to beat. She doesn’t really give too much away.”
Pick: Stosur in three
[25] Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU #28) vs. Shelby Rogers (USA #108)
Head-to-head: First Meeting
Key Stat: This is the first time that two Romanians (Halep, Begu) have reached the Round of 16 at Roland Garros since 1997.
The dream became the reality for 23-year-old American Shelby Rogers on Friday as she stunned No.10-seeded Petra Kvitova to reach the Round of 16 at a major for the first time. “There was a lot of noise and a lot of applause, and a lot of emotions taking over,” Rogers said of the experience. “I immediately started crying, and it was a very incredible moment.” Sunday’s challenge? Rebooting emotionally so that she may handle the task of facing rising Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu. The Bucharest-born 25-year-old is knocking on the door of the Top 20 and has been in great form on the clay, reaching the semifinals in Rome and earning wins over Victoria Azarenka (Rome) and Garbiñe Muguruza (Madrid) this spring. Will Rogers’ wild ride continue, or is it time for Begu to make her mark?
Pick: Begu in two
By the Numbers:
8 – Number of players to have reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals while ranked outside the Top 100 since 1983. Shelby Rogers and Tsvetana Pironkova will bid to become the ninth and tenth today.
4 – Number of former Grand Slam champions to reach the Round of 16 at Roland Garros this year (Kuznetsova, Stosur, Serena Williams and Venus Williams).
4-4 – Stosur’s record against the Top 10 at Roland Garros, which includes a victory over No.1 Serena Williams in 2010.
1 – Agnieszka Radwanska could attain the No.1 ranking at week’s end if she wins the title and Serena Williams does not reach the final.
– Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor
Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Barbora Strycova in the third round of Roland Garros.
PARIS, France – Defending champion Serena Williams outlasted an inspired Kristina Mladenovic and weathered a two and a half hour rain delay to advance to the second week of Roland Garros, 6-4, 7-6(10).
After breezing through her first two matches here in less than one hour each, Williams faced her first big test of the tournament against French No.1 Mladenovic, who relishes playing on big stages in her country. In fact, of Mladenovic’s five career Top 10 wins, four have come here in Paris with two of those taking place right here in Roland Garros.
Mladenovic seemed comfortable as ever on Philippe Chatrier, the biggest stage of all, though ahead of the match she admitted to feeling the mixed emotions many players experience when playing against the World No.1.
“I have to take it very positively,” she said in her press conference. “This is an experience, something to do, it’s a dream. I grew up watching Serena play. Then I’m going to play against her.
“I’m extremely happy because this is a challenge. Well, this being said, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Mladenovic and Williams kept pace during a tense first set, which saw Williams brush away all four of Mladenovic’s break point chances while letting slip away two of her own. Mladenovic’s sneaky drop shots caught Williams wrong-footed on more than one occasion, and made for some spectacular rallies during the course of the contest.
(Very Very) Hot Shot de Kristina Mladenovic contre Serena Williams ! ??? #RG16 https://t.co/r8ZLJJ1IFd
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2016
But Williams turned up the heat when it counted. A drawn out battle at 4-4 saw Mladenovic bring up three break points, but the American blasted back to back aces to deny her. A lone break in the final game gave Williams the first set after almost an hour.
In the second set, Williams continued to keep the pressure on the Frenchwoman’s serve: Williams made her have to come back from 0-40 down to hold serve at 2-2, and then again in her next service game.
A Mladenovic ace sent the match into a tiebreak right as the rain, which had been threatening all match long, finally broke into a downpour.
Two and a half hours of rain delay later, the players were back on the court for the decisive battle. Mladenovic quickly built up a 3-0 lead, but it was short-lived as Williams broke back and rattled off four straight points to bring up her first of five match points.
Mladenovic rallied valiantly, saving match point after match point – including one with a gutsy drop shot, her go-to weapon in this match – but the World No.1 wouldn’t be denied a fifth time, and Williams took the match after a two-hour and thirteen minute thriller.
“I just made it a point to play my game,” Williams said of the tiebreak. “Up until that point I had not been playing my game. I was playing really defensive. It’s not me.
“So I just wanted to be Serena out there.”
Huge celebration from @serenawilliams. How much do you think that win meant to her? #RG16 #InsideRG pic.twitter.com/cIl9hKxiLm
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2016
The stats reveal just how evenly matched Mladenovic and Williams were throughout the match: both players hit three aces and struck 27 winners, though Williams hit 31 unforced errors to Mladenovic’s 35. The difference makers proved to be Mladenovic’s vulnerable serve – she hit seven double faults in total – and Williams’ dominance at the net, winning 15 of 25 net points.
“I think she played well,” Williams said afterwards. “I feel like I made a tremendous amount of errors. But, you know, I feel like she kind of forced me to. She forced me to go for it.”
With the win, Williams brings up a fourth round match against Elina Svitolina, who earlier in the day defeated former champion Ana Ivanovic.
Simona Halep takes on Naomi Osaka in the third round of Roland Garros.
PARIS, France – It was another rainy day in Paris on Day 6 at Roland Garros, but the Round of 16 is set. On Saturday, the favorites continued to deliver.
Four Americans into the Round of 16: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Madison Keys joined Shelby Rogers into the the fourth round on Saturday. Serena fought off Kristina Mladenovic, winning 6-4, 7-6(10) in two hours and 11 minutes in a rain-interrupted match. Venus moved her record against Alizé Cornet to 6-0 with a 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-0 win to move into the second week for the first time since 2010. Keys held off Monica Puig to win 7-6(3), 6-3 to make her first Round of 16 in Paris.
“It was always a goal mine to make second week, and then once I made second week the first time it became achievable, and then it became something that I wanted to do all of the time just to have the consistency,” said Keys. “Where I may not have had the consistency outside of Slams, I had it in the Slams.
“I just think it’s something that I’m getting more and more comfortable with. Obviously I’ve been playing well in the Slams for the past six, seven Slams that I’ve played in. I don’t think it’ll always be, Oh, I’m so happy, but right now I’m just really happy with how I’ve been doing and hope to keep it up.”
Carla Suárez Navarro scores a big win: No.22 seed Dominika Cibulkova looked to be building a full head of steam as the tournament turned towards the second week but No.12 seed Suárez Navarro found a way to end her resurgent run on clay, winning, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to make the fourth round for the third time in the last four years. The Spaniard appeared to injure her leg in the first set but was able to shake it off to battle for the win.
“During the first set I ran from the right side to the left side of the court, and I had the impression that I had some problems with my muscle,” she said. “But it was not a pulled muscle. And the pain vanished.”
Yulia Putintseva steamrolls through to her Round of 16 debut: Through three matches, Putintseva has lost just 10 games, posting scores of 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 with wins over Aleksandra Wozniacki, Andrea Petkovic, and Karin Knapp. The draw didn’t offer much early resistance, especially given Petkovic’s recent slump, but Putintseva has looked ruthless. She’ll play Suárez Navarro for a spot in her first Slam quarterfinal.
Kiki Bertens wins 10 straight matches: Bertens has put in some hard yards over the last few weeks and it paid off in her marathon 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 win over No.29 seed Daria Kasatkina. The young Russian picked up a left leg injury late in the third set and could only arm in her serves, and Bertens steeled her nerves to score her 10th straight win, after winning the title last week in Nürnberg. She is into the fourth round for the second time in Paris and will play Keys.
Kristina Mladenovic credits the Serena serve: The Frenchwoman fought hard to stay in it against Serena, fighting off nine break points in the second set to get it to a tie-break. Then the rain came, and after a lengthy rain-delay at 6-6 she was faced with the prospect of coming out of the locker room to win a tiebreaker to stay in the match. She led 5-2 upon resumption but couldn’t hold off her nerves or Serena. A key forehand miss that would have given her 6-2 went wide, and Serena stormed back, finally converting her fifth match point.
“I think it was a good match, a beautiful match, as well,” Mladenovic said afterwards in French. “On both sides, I think. Sometimes there are days that she’s not really into the match or she has difficulties due to what she does, but today I think it was really difficult for both of us. I think I put out good tennis, solid, from the first to the last ball. And during the rallies I thought that ‘she was beatable.’
“But then, as I said, I told you, she’s exceptional, and her biggest strength is her serves. She hit me so much with those serves. But then I’m a bit frustrated. She’s such a great champion, and she manages to escape and find a way out with this weapon.
“Sometimes her statistical results with her serve are not as good as today, and this is what I felt today. There’s not much difference in the match. There’s just one break point. First set when we were 5-4, and then I seized this opportunity on the break point when it was 4-All, and then I took a risk and to be aggressive on my forehand where she serves really long balls in the second balls.
“But today she was so impressive with her serve. There were many games when it was 30-All, and each time it was a big first serve. And yet I think I returned quite well. This is incredible. There’s no moment when she went down. No, so on both sides it was a good fight, a beautiful fight.”
Round of 16 Set: Week 1 is in the books. Here’s how Week 2 tees up: Serena vs. Svitolina, Suárez Navarro vs. Putintseva, Bertens vs. Keys, Venus vs. Bacsinszky, Begu vs. Rogers, Kuznetsova vs. Muguruza, Halep vs. Stosur, Pironkova vs. Radwanska.
Kuznetsova tries to stop Muguruza on Sunday: The forecast doesn’t look great for Sunday, but the match of the day is undoubtedly Kuznetsova vs. Muguruza. The two have played only once, last year in Madrid, which Kuznetsova won 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 en route to the final.
The key for Kuznetsova: relax. The 2009 champion said she’s struggled to keep things in perspective this week. “I was better today because first matches I was extremely tense,” Kuznetsova said after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. “Today I said to myself, Look, you got to get out of this tense. I got to just play my game, and whatever happens, my goal for this year was trying to enjoy the tennis.
“Since I got a bit better ranking and everything I start to be tense again, and I don’t want it to happen. I had a great nap in the locker room while the guys were playing five sets. I was great. I was feeling much better.
“So I said, Okay, I just go out there and I want to be happy. That’s the only thing I was concerned about.”
Since being taken to three sets in the first round by Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Muguruza has been on a tear. Her last four sets: 6-2, 6-0, 6-3, 6-0. A win over Kuznetsova you would expect her to make her first semifinal in Paris.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
PARIS, France – No.9 seed Venus Williams survived a second set surge from Alizé Cornet to win a sixth straight match against the Frenchwoman, 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-0, to reach the second week of Roland Garros for the first time in six years.
The 2002 finalist came into Paris having won just two matches in her last four French Open appearances, but heads into the second week having dropped just one set in her first three matches, though this marked her toughest test yet against Cornet, who played her best match against the American in her career.
Williams and Cornet emerged on Court Suzanne Lenglen from a brief rain delay to resume the first set, and though Cornet led by a late break, the former No.1 reclaimed the initiative and served out a tense tie-break with some fiercesome serving.
“After the break I felt a lot more clear about what I wanted to accomplish,” she said in her post-match press conference. “It’s never easy to play in France against a French player. Probably not easy for them either. So that’s the extra pressure against you.
“Honestly, she played really well. In the third I was able to capitalize on a couple of her errors, play some good points, and go on to the next match, literally,” referring to her doubles match with sister Serena, which was suspended due to darkness after they took the first set from Vitalia Diatchenko and Galina Voskoboeva.
Undaunted, Cornet rode her building momentum and the support of the French crowd to her first set over the elder Williams sister, roaring through the second set to force a decider.
“She’s a great competitor and it’s always a tough match,” Williams said in her on-court interview.
The turning point for the World No.11 came a game into the final set; with Cornet serving up 30-0, Venus clawed back to break serve and it was one-way traffic from then on, clinching the match in just over two hours.
“I had some luck in the end on the important points, and I’m so excited to be in the next round.
“I’ve had some issues in the past, but what can you do? Every year is different, and I’m trying to make this year my best yet.
“I love tennis, and today I was just telling myself to enjoy the battle and to compete. With Alizé, it’s always a battle and you always have to compete.
“What can I say? I’m doing what I love every day and I couldn’t ask for more.”
Standing between Williams and a spot in her first French Open quarterfinal in 10 years is No.8 seed Tima Bacsinszky. The 2015 French Open semifinalist has never beaten the American in their two previous encounters, but the two haven’t played since the 2014 US Open, and neither encounter came on clay.
No9 seed Venus Williams remains undefeated against Cornet, d. the Frenchwoman 7-6(5) 1-6 6-0. Next up: Bacsinszky. pic.twitter.com/46PmrZGBoL
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2016
PARIS, France – No.15 seed Madison Keys unlocked a spot in the round of 16 for the first time at the French Open, surviving a tense opening set to dispatch Monica Puig, 7-6(3), 6-3.
Keys reached the third round one year ago, but has hit new heights on what she previously deemed her least favorite surface, having made the final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia two weeks ago.
Taking on Puig, the WTA’s top-ranked Puerto Rican, Keys was made to battle through much of the opening set, including a titanic tenth game that featured eight deuces and forced Puig to save three set points on her own serve. Following up that momentum by breaking serve in the next game, Puig couldn’t sustain and Keys raced through the ensuing tie-break from a 1-3 deficit.
The youngsters exhanged breaks to start the second, but Keys ultimately proved too strong, breaking one last time to seal the win in one hour and 37 minutes. Keys finished with an impressively positive differential despite her attacking game, hitting 30 winners to 29 unforced errors, while Puig managed 17 winners of her own, but was undone by 28 errors.
Up next for Keys is Kiki Bertens, who satisfied her country’s Olympic eligibility requirement by reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament by dismissing No.29 seed Daria Kasatkina, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8. Kasatkina saved five match points on her own serve and served for the match twice herself before the Dutch powerhouse advanced in a grueling two hours and 48 minutes.
More to come…