WTA FRENCH OPEN DAY 4 PREVIEW

by Karen 

Court	Player A	Player B	Spin’s Pick
Chartrier	Schmiedlova	Williams (V)	Williams (V)
	Pironkova	Sharapova	Sharapova
Lenglen	Williams (S)	Muguruza	Williams (S)
	Cornet	Townsend	Cornet
Court 1	Hantuchova	Feuerstein	Feuerstein
	Radwanska	Pliskova	Radwanska (maybe an upset)
Court 2	Lepchenko	Kerber	Kerber
	Meusberger	Stosur	Stosur
Court 3	Cibulkova	Paszek	Cibulkova
	Barthel	Lisicki	Barthel
Court 5	Bacsinszky	Suarez-Navarro	Suarez-Navarro
	Tomljanovic	Vesnina	Tomljanovic
Court 6	Pennetta	Larsson	Pennetta
	Nicolescu	Ormachea	Nicolescu
Court 7	Georges	Bouchard	Bouchard
	Parmentier	Shvedova	Parmentier

Spin’s Match to Watch

Some really great matches await us in the top half of the draw.  There are rumblings that the defending champion, Serena Williams could face a bit of a battle and some are even calling the upset in this round.  I like Muguruza and think that she has the game to trouble the top players, but this is not the top player who will have trouble with her game.  Muguruza played the elder Williams quite tough in Auckland earlier this year but at the end of the day experience won out and the same thing will happen here once again.  The younger Williams will prevail in straight sets.

The match that may just be intriguing though is the match between Julia Georges who seems to be on a bit of an upswing after having some extremely poor results that have seen her rankings hover in the 100 region.   Bouchard is confident after coming off her first WTA title and it will be interesting to see whether her good form will continue into this round.  Bouchard was clinical in her match against Peer in the first round and while Peer’s best days are now behind her, it will be interesting to see how Bouchard does against an opponent with some amount of weapons to withstand her game.

Ace’s Match to Watch

Varvara Lepchenko vs Angelique Kerber

In a match I thought would have been a three set battle, Lepchenko defeated Petra Cetkovska in two routine sets showing us why she likes to play on clay. Kerber won a straight forward match against Katarzyna Piter in the first round but coming to the French Open, she did not win a match on clay until last week in Nurnberg. With the events happening in the first 3 days, Kerber may join the list of upsets if she does not lift her game.

Odds and Ends

Li Na was the first top seed on the women’s side to exit Roland Garros.  Li lost in 3 sets to local Krista Mladenovic.  It was a wonderful display of all court tennis by Mladenovic, who became quite emotional after her win.   As has been pointed out before, Li has not been playing great tennis over the past few months and while there has been no word as to whether she is carrying an injury, it would seem as if there is something not quite right with her at this time. It could also be as she said that she had no idea what to do and did not follow the game plan that was set out for her.  Who knows.  It could also be that Li is just being her typical inconsistent self and if that is the reason, we are perhaps making much ado about nothing.

Madison Keys came back from being 1-5 down against Sara Errani in the first set, only to lose that set, but lost the match after taking the second set 6-3.  I did not see the match but Errani winning 6-1 in the third tells me that Keys maybe ran out of gas.

Simona Halep was clinical in her first match today, destroying Kleybanova in straight sets.  It was a master class performance by the No. 4 seed.  Pavlyenchkova got out of her own way long enough to register a win against Date-Krumm after being bagelled in the second set.   One can only hope that she can improve from here on in as her side of the draw has opened up quite nicely for a good run.