The French Open is underway; the only Major event which has a Sunday start! Fanatics and journalists have been glued to their screens, laptops, phones, and other such devices that will keep them updated. In the same breath, not too many players are chuffed about the interruptions during play however. Play has been interrupted due to bad light and rain.
The Women’s Draw: Second seeded Agnieszka Radwańska began her campaign versus an out-of form Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia yesterday. 24 year old Jovanovski, who has been into the third round of this event 3 seasons ago, only managed a couple of games in her match against the experienced top-tenner.
Glimpses of the impressive tennis she can play was evident in much of the opening set…she just could not come up with the shots on the big and important points, while Radwańska’s experience paid her in full. Next up, the Polish player faces local girl Caroline Garcia (who beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3 7-5). The event’s no. 19 seed Sloane Stephens avoids the presupposed clash versus Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in R2 after Lisicki was knocked out by Qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg.
It was less of a surprise that Lisicki walked off court with a score line of 2-6 2-6 since this season has really been one she would want to quickly forget; at least the better first half of it. Following her shocking and disappointing defeat, Lisicki announced the hiring of new coach Mark-Kevin Goeller.
Another player who is experiencing a downhill spiral and a sore lack of form is Sara Errani. The Italian (who has a Quarter-Final appearance and better at every Slam except Wimbledon) was seeded 16th this season and she met the tricky and talented Bulgarian Tsvetlana Pironkova in R1. Pironkova won 6-3 6-2 to book a R2 match-up versus Johanna Larsson.
Other players to keep a keen eye on in the bottom section of the draw include last season’s Finalist and this season’s 11th seed Lucie Šafářová, Samantha Stosur(21), Simona Halep(6) (who also struggled for form early this season but recently got a confidence-booster in Madrid where she walked away with the title) and Garbiñe Muguruza. The young Spanish starlet is not match-fit; not like she would have wanted to be entering the French Open this year, but she would do well to draw from her campaign in 2014.
The Top section of the draw features Serena Williams as the Top seed, the feisty Kristina Mladenovic(26) (who tends to look forward to pulling off an upset or two during Majors), 28 year old Ana Ivanovic(14) (reached the last four last season, only to fall in a match-up she has had apparent difficulty with in the past: versus Šafářová) and Carla Suárez Navarro.
Navarro enjoys the clay surface; when playing her best and with conditions which suit her, she can knock out any top player (has 6 wins out of 9 matches played since Stuttgart). 8th seed Timea Bacsinszky had a good run in Rome this season before she lost in the Quarter-Finals to Muguruza. It will be interesting to watch how she progresses at this year’s French Open.
Angelique Kerber has had strange losses recently at the hands of Barbora Strýcová Eugenie Bouchard and Kiki Bertens since successfully defending her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title or the Stuttgart Open title. With a Grand Slam title now next to her name and under her belt, and the World no.1 ranking possibly in sight in the near future, the German has plenty of motivation to do well in this event.
The Men: The attractive Dustin Brown won a tough opening round match against DudiSela, which went all 5 sets long; he won 6(5)-7 6-4 7-6(5) 4-6 6-4. Brown will have to put that match to bed mentally and focus on his second round match versus American and 23rd seed JackSock (who also went all the way in a tight battle in R1) against RobinHaase. GrigorDimitrov is still not having much of a season; he is out of the tournament in the first round after losing in 5 sets against Serbian Viktor Troicki(22).
In his post-match interview Dimitrov said that he is really low in confidence and does not know what more else he can do. The defending champion and the event’s third seed Stanislas Wawrinka endured a long match versus LukášRosol of the Czech Republic. Rosol set out to attack the Wawrinka second serve early on at the start of the match; that, coupled with his on-again, off-again good first serve kept him in the swing of things until the bitter end. KeiNishikori(5) was as solid as expected against Simone Bolelli in his straight sets win and AndyMurray(2) (over 2 days) was happy with a 5-set victory over RadekStepanek.
Nick Kyrgios was tested in the first two sets by Marco Cecchinato, but got over the line with a straight sets victory while RichardGasquet(9) handled an unseeded ThomazBellucci well on the day for a 6-1 6-3 6-4 score line ultimately.
